Top 5 tricks for effective volunteer task descriptions

RVA publishes an in-depth guide to help volunteer involving organisations develop volunteering tasks and get the best from our service. We particularly recommend that it is used by organisations new to us and new to recruiting volunteers.

This short article rounds up the top recommendations collated by our team of volunteer advisers to help improve their task adverts and recruitment process.

1. Use keywords

Keywords in your task description are the best way to make sure interested volunteers find your listing. Although some may want to browse using our list of task types, many will know what they want to do and will search for that.

With the right keywords people will be able to find your ad no matter how it’s categorised, but you do have to think about the words people outside your group might use to describe the kind of work you need doing.

For example, say you need people to teach gardening to children. Under the task types you could either list this as teaching, learning support, training or gardening. Just choose what you feel is closest to the aspect you want to emphasise but include all these words in your description and you will have all the bases covered when people search.

2. A photo is worth a thousand words

Set your volunteer recruitment ad apart with a photo. It could be:

• your group’s work in action
• your volunteers
• the people you help

Photos can be powerful tools in explaining the kind of work you do, what’s involved and the whole feeling of the volunteering opportunity. We don’t allow copies of your logo, and reserve the right not to use an image if we think it’s not suitable, but other than that we’d love to see what you have.

3. Get focussed

On the RVA volunteering portal, your volunteer recruitment ad will automatically include the description we have of your group’s work on RVA Directory, so it’s a good idea to make sure you are happy that the description is up-to-date, informative and appealing.

With a good organisation description in place, your volunteer ad can focus entirely on the work which you want the new volunteer/s to do. Our experience tells us volunteers come forward most readily when it is clear what is expected and they can judge whether there is a fit with their skills and with the experiences they want to use or gain.

• Don’t start trying to recruit volunteers unless you know what you want them to do (it will be hard to get and keep them if you don’t put some effort into this at the outset).
• Say what experience is essential.
• Say what new learning your volunteering opportunity might provide.
• RVA has staff and volunteers who can help you, but once you start getting a response to your ad from potential volunteers, you’ll find yourself much better placed to deal with them if you’ve done as much preparation as possible for yourselves.

For comprehensive information covering everything you might need to think about, see our guide

4. Plan your response

Our volunteering portal is very popular with nearly 700 people signed up for our weekly digest of the latest opportunities and over 1000 people per month taking the contact details from the different roles we are advertising online. If your advert is well developed, it’s possible you will get quite a rapid response. So before you submit your task form to us, make sure you’ve planned how you are going to deal with enquiries and who is going to take responsibility for this.

• Decide how you will best deal with enquiries.
• Include helpful comments about this in your task form.
• Make sure you have any application forms or other information for potential volunteers in place before you advertise, so that you are ready to go.
• Check email and/or answerphones regularly and respond in a timely fashion.

5. Respond, Respond, Respond!

Sadly one of the most frequent negative feedback issues raised with us by potential volunteers is that they’ve ‘emailed and phoned and no-one has responded’. This creates a poor impression of your organisation and of volunteering generally (as well as meaning you aren’t getting the help you’ve said you need).

Our website displays this text as part of all the ads we publish and our conditions for volunteer recruitment service users cover your commitment to this principle:

You should note that often smaller groups may be run by volunteers who may not be able to respond immediately. If you have not heard back within 2 weeks, please contact us and we will investigate on your behalf.

At RVA we understand that occasionally things can go awry, but we do reserve the right to withdraw ads from our site if it is clear that potential volunteers would be better focussing their selection on alternative roles.

What have successful volunteer recruiting groups said?

“Excellent support and advice and a great starting point.”   Paul Gordon, Berkshire Renegades American Football Club, who rated RVA 10 out of 10 for both the quality of the service and the quality of volunteers coming forward.

“RVA is an excellent resource with helpful, friendly and efficient staff. I have advertised a number of volunteer positions now and all bar one, I have had an excellent and fast response. I would recommend to anyone their services and suggest you speak to them about your requirements and let them help you fill your position.”   Kenneth Guest, Salvation Army Reading West Corps.

“RVA is a valuable resource that finds many of my volunteers for me, I would be lost without their services.”  David Hare, Alzheimer’s Society. 31 of David’s recent Befriending Volunteers have come via RVA.

Follow their lead to successful volunteer recruitment using our top tricks.

October 2012

Reading Voluntary Action promotes strength within Reading's voluntary sector by providing information, access to resources, volunteer recruitment and training to people who work in or with charities, community groups and voluntary organisations.

info@rva.org.uk
0118 9372273

Reading Voluntary Action, 3rd Floor Central Library, Abbey Square, Reading RG1 3BQ