by K BoxRight

Created on: October 06, 2008   Last Updated: October 07, 2008

The key to getting the most from a volunteer without wasting their time is through specific "engagement". This involves highly motivational methods in the course of recruitment, training, and working with volunteers. Today, the act of volunteering can lead to professional careers more than it has in the past. Let's talk about motivation. Motivating any employee can prove to be challenging. However, it can be more challenging with volunteers because they do not have the incentive of compensation as do paid employees. Of course, motivation can come in other ways, such as awards and recognition of services.

But most importantly, the individual performing the service of volunteering is in the best position to self-motivate. Agencies and organizations should find out immediately why the individual has chosen to volunteer and why they have chosen to volunteer at a specific location. It is at this stage in the recruitment process that organization leaders can determine how best to motivate the volunteer and how best to keep them motivated. All voluteers should have the one element in common and that is the desire to serve. Volunteers come into organizations with special abilities and they use those abilities to advance the organization's mission or cause. This act, in itself, is one way to be a motivated volunteer.

Organization leaders can act upon this by encouraging the volunteer to sharpen their skills and use their level of expertise in many more areas of need for the organization. As stated earlier, it is a well-known fact that today, many volunteers are in the perfect position to become paid employees by using their specific skills to add to the growth of an organization. Decision making is another motivational method. In any organization or company, the ability to provide input into the structure of the company is one way to motivate the employee. For volunteers, decision making is not just a way to motivate, it is an opportunity for the volunteer to motivate the organization leaders. They motivate by providing their passion, their advice, and their selflessness to the organization's cause. In return, the organization furthers the process of motivation by rewarding the volunteer with the duty to delegate, to inform, and to solve critical issues that affect the organization.

Finally, I want to say that the most important level of motivation is leadership. Leadership and management do share some elements. However, not all managers are leaders and not all leaders are managers. In the volunteer, we see the spirit of leadership when we recruit them. They have the ability to inspire and to lead change because they are interested in working towards the common good for a community, a church, an organization, etc. It is this type of inspiration that allow volunteers to be in the best position to be effective leaders. It doesn't stop here. It is the responsibility of organization leaders and members to encourage this type of inspiration, this type of leadership. Organizations should strive to maintain great volunteers. They should work hard to help volunteers achieve their goals, while the voluteer use their skills to enhance the goals and the mission of the organization. It is working with the volunteer and acknowledging the volunteer that allow organizations the best possible way to get the highest quality of work and productivity from the volunteer without wasting their time.

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