At the moment I am consulting with several national organizations intent on re-envisioning their volunteer engagement strategies. Part of this process includes setting goals for volunteer participation and determining the best infrastructure to support volunteers. Our discussions usually surface a common mistake: picturing the corps of volunteers mainly as “unpaid help” assisting in the work of employees. From this grows the image of two parallel, connected work forces, all best organized using the personnel or human resources model. Yes, both groups are “human” and “resources” to the organization, but they are far from equivalent.
The differences between employees and volunteers are major and strategic. What follows is a grid that compares and contrasts both groups of workers in an attempt to show how treating them as the same except for level of pay is deceptive and limiting. They both are critical to meeting your mission, but need and deserve their own models of management.
See if this comparison table below helps you to change your own thinking about the distinct importance of both groups to your organization. Feel free to share the grid with others to start some important conversations up and down the chain of command.
Employees | Volunteers |
In any organization, the paid work force is a known quantity, predictable and measurable in a number of key ways:
In contrast, no organization can confidently predict what its volunteer corps will look like at any point in time – it is not predictable but it is also potentially unlimited:
Many models can produce successful results, but it makes no sense to set a goal of X number of volunteers per year. Head count does not equate to degree or quality of service. |
Part of our planning for employees is to provide them with consistent support and tools: a supervisor; a place to work; an official e-mail address; supplies. |
But head count does affect the amount of interviewing, screening, training, supplies, and supervision and coordinating time needed. Because we assume the very part-time nature of volunteers, we rarely plan or budget for their consistent support, even if their numbers grow and grow. |
We cannot add employees to our payroll unless we first obtain funding for their salaries and benefits. |
Though there are some financial considerations of staff time and other resources, we can add new volunteers at any time based on our recruitment efforts and the willingness of people to contribute their time. |
Employees in the same job slot are hired to be similar in qualifications and skills. Such expertise permits your organization to provide the highest quality of service in your core programs. |
Volunteers can certainly be found who are equally as qualified in the same skills as paid staff, which may be necessary for some roles. But as discussed below, perhaps the greatest value of volunteers is not to “assist staff,” but to expand and diversify the expertise available to clientele. So there is great value in recruiting volunteers for skills and qualities that are intentionally different from those of the paid staff. In fact, the organization can accept unexpected offers of talent from new volunteers, adding services beyond what the staff might have identified on their own, but of clear value to clientele. |
While there may be demographic diversity, most paid staff are likely to be at least 21 and under 70. |
Volunteers can be of any age, occupational background, citizenship, neighborhood, and more. In fact, by design, some volunteer corps are recruited to be more like the clientele than the employees, especially if recipients of service are under 21 or over 70, or speak a different language, or are dealing with specific health or other problems. |
Employees have a defined scope of work and organization-defined priorities, and may have to operate within guidelines or restrictions imposed from legal sources.
Volunteers can always be asked to focus their attention on priorities, even those that were not anticipated in advance.
Employees are an organizational expense. While we may solicit them for voluntary cash donations, that is not an obligation. When they leave our employ, there are no official ties (except perhaps retirement benefits). |
While expenses to support volunteers should be budgeted, volunteers are time donors. We find ways to solicit them for financial gifts in addition to their hours of voluntary service (which already stretch what the organization can do with the funds on hand). We cultivate long-term relationships with them because they are community friends and can be advocates and financial donors long after they leave their volunteer positions. |
Employees are paid labor. As individuals they can care deeply about our organization’s mission and give of themselves above and beyond their job descriptions. But they are defined by their work positions. |
It is short-sighted to think of volunteers simply as unpaid labor. Their contributions go way beyond assisting in the delivery of services – and not all volunteers do direct service. Volunteers govern, advise, advocate, organize, represent us in the community, provide a link to the client perspective, add new ideas into our strategic planning. Their potential is limitless, if we unleash it. |
- What do you think of this comparison?
- What would you present differently?
- What would you add (to either column)?
- How should the differences between employees and volunteers affect the way these two groups are managed in your organization?
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