Do you treat volunteers like staff or robots? Are all the critical decisions saved for staff meetings only attended by those on payroll or is the vision being shaped and formed also by those who step up to the task with you, without pay?
I've seen several different types of volunteers over my time working with different organizations. Even within my day job where I earn a salaried paycheck, I've seen people volunteer extra hours. But there's one type that has always stood out to me. They're the ones that work the hardest, at least so it seems to me. And the question I've asked myself is "why?" Ultimately, I think it comes down to personal ownership.
There's many reasons to volunteer to do something. Maybe you're just bored. I know at times I'm thankful for something to do when the alternative is sitting around all day zoned out in front of a TV. Maybe you have friends there, and it's an activity to do something with your community. What about those who are seeking to improve their environment or clean up their city? All of those are good reasons, but the ones that truly amaze me are the ones that serve and get nothing from it.
I heard someone say that you should serve in the children's ministry if you have children attending the children's ministry. You take a month and spell some other parent, the next month they swap with you. Great system, and I fully support it. But what about the young single adults? I've openly admitted that I serve now while I can in hopes that someday when I have a family and cannot serve to the extent I am now, some younger, single adult will be willing to step in as I had. That's still a rather selfish motive, though. What about serving the homeless? The down and out? The third world country? These are some of the most "fruitless" (to yourself) endeavors you can pursue. It is in these examples that I think we find our best motive to serve: love. Love for those whom the world has classified as people unworthy of love, or one of our best ways of expressing it: time. When we serve these groups, we are investing in them with no hope or interest in a return. We are giving our resource of time.
I know many young adults, mostly single ones because that's my own life stage, and they talk of their financial difficulties. I know God has blessed me with my job and the salary it comes with, yet even I find myself struggling to keep it in the black. But there is one thing I have a lot of right now, while I lack commitments and responsibilities to other people: time. God calls us to use our resources to His benefit. When pastors get up to talk about giving toward the Church, I've often heard the phrase "you're not giving what is yours back to God, you're giving what is God's that He has entrusted in you, back to Him." Great message right there, and profoundly true. So why do we stop at that resource? What about time? What about our love? "No, this is my time. I worked hard to earn it! I can do whatever I want with it!" Yeah? Considering you didn't make it, that's a bold claim. We are responsible for using our resources He has given us. Think about the parable of the talents, then, and ask yourself if you're storing up your time, emotion, and money such that when the Master comes back, you will go, "Well at least I didn't lose any of it!" when servants around you go, "I invested and all I got was two fold." Do not be stingy with your resources. They're here today and gone tomorrow. Not just your money. Not just your possessions. Your time, your relations, your emotions, your friends, and you. A vapor. Spend your vapor well.
Ok, long tangent on why we might volunteer, but back to how people who volunteer fit in within an organization that has paid staff. I have noticed that when you hire on an employee (well, at least a decent one), there is an expectation: You work these tasks and I will give you a paycheck. Don't do these tasks and I will not pay you, and may fire you removing any hope of future pay. The expectation is then that the employee will do whatever the employer (reasonably) requests. If the requests are too great, they may quit. If they pay is not adequate for the risks and work being undertaken, they may ask for increased pay or quit. Employment is inherently self-seeking. The employee's primary interest is in themselves. I mentioned earlier that I have seen salaried employees volunteer extra time, for which they are not paid. Why would you do that when employment is generally selfish? Here are a few of my observations so far:
They seek to improve their standing with their employer. They may not get money for their work, but they may earn respect and rank for going above and beyond.
They're bored. They don't want to go home to their families.
They believe in the product and mission of the company and want to do what is within their power to advance it.
Last one sticks out a little, right? It does to me (granted, I wrote it...). In a culture of self, someone putting in more resources without expectation of reward (again, granted if the company does well, they'll likely see some reward, but it is not a guarantee) is not normal. When we see people like this at a company, we either dislike them because they're "showing us up" or find ourselves inspired. This group is the closest connection I think you'll find to the volunteer group who does something without expecting reward. When people believe in the vision of the solution the organization is providing to those in need to the point that they willing to invest beyond what is expected of them, there is a greater power flowing through it.
So then to the question that started this whole thing off in my mind: why, then, do we treat volunteers like robots? I have seen people day in and day out (or week in and week out) invest their resources into organizations. Sometimes just because they're bored. Sometimes because of the friends they've made. And many because they believe in the vision. But vision changes. Directions are altered. At least if it's a healthy, living breathing organization. But these changes don't involve volunteers for the majority of what I've observed. Instead the changes happen in meetings behind closed doors with people on staff who are expected to be there because they are paid to be there. The decisions are made and then the paid staff are released to disseminate the new vision and direction to the volunteers. And like good volunteers who believe in the mission, they take these changes and do what they can with them. Do you see the one-way flow to this? You're constantly asking volunteers to trust you when they're investing just as much of a time resource for little to no reward, and when it comes to executing, they have to fully assimilate that into their belief to be effective. What if they have an idea for how to better execute tasks to realize the solution to the problems of those they're serving? Ahh, but they can send it up the chain of paid staff... So long as they can do so in such a way that the paid staff fully assimilates those ideas into their own mind for the next paid staff only meeting. Otherwise those ideas will likely be forgotten because they were not personally owned by the paid staff, were not fully understood, or just not communicated well. Not to say that volunteer ideas should always be adhered to, but that they at least have the chance to be heard. Volunteers own the mission just as much as paid staff do. Quite often in these organizations, without the volunteers, there would be so little of an organization that it would fail to run at all. Why then do we treat volunteers like this?
I struggle to write this because I want to speak in general terms as I have volunteered a lot. I don't mean this as a direct confrontation on any organization I've served with. To be honest, I've seen it in every single place I've volunteered. But this is written from experience. Especially as a volunteer leader. That's where this gets really rough. Now a paid staff has hopefully disseminated the vision to me in such a way that I can execute that vision and answer questions that arise from those I lead. But I find myself struggling. I have taken to showing up as early as possible so that I can spend as much time trying understand the situation of the tasks we're about to perform, so that when executing, I can do at least a decent job. Why do I care about whether it's a good job vs. a decent job? A great job vs. an ok one? Because I care about the mission. I care about those I'm serving. But when I step into the situation and have been given very little communication to that point of what we're doing, the staff is ultimately relying on my intuition and gut calls. I'm not terrible at those, but they don't leave me feeling like I've given my best. It does not allow me to do the work I wish to do toward the mission, but instead asks me to do what I can.
So here's what I ask of organizations that utilize volunteers (whether fully volunteer or salaried employees volunteering time): treat them like employees. Do you step into a meeting room and make decision with the rest of the paid staff? What if one of the paid staff was not at the meeting? In my company, that's immediate cause for the action of "let's reschedule." We want full buyin from the critical stakeholders, and all voices to be heard that might be able to improve our processes and address the tasks effectively to provide good solutions. Just because they don't earn a paycheck does not mean they are any less critical of a team member, stakeholder, and at the very least, voice of someone who believes in the mission. Volunteers are employees, they're just not paid.
Or are they? Last year I went to a hack-a-thon (yes, I'm geeky like that) for a Christian coding group. They pitched several ideas for problems we could solve with our applications. One that was presented stuck with me, though not a single team attempted it. The presenter started off with statistics about how many volunteers work weekly for churches, ministries, and various other organizations. I don't remember the number, and I haven't found it since, sorry. But trust me, it was a large number. The next number introduced the problem: burnout. The amount of time volunteers will stick with an organization over time until they are no longer interested. I would rephrase this to "until they don't see the vision anymore." And then they presented the "solution." Recognition. Their study used a test group that had the leaders send a simple "thank you" following the task compared to a reference group that was just sent home afterward. The burnout for the thanked group was exponentially less, with people staying with the organization much longer. I didn't like this project because I dislike the idea of automated "thank you" messages. But what it did show me was that volunteers need recognition. If we starve them of that, or worse, treat them like they're robots, we are burning them out ourselves. Now I work with great people, and they seem to always find times to thank me. I appreciate them, and their words are telling me that they appreciate me. Appreciate your volunteers. Do anything and everything you can to show them that they're part of the team and involved in shaping the direction of your organization. Yes, someone has to lead, and with that leadership comes dictation, but make sure that they feel like their voices have been heard. If they lead others, recognize that the same struggles you face in leading them are likely what they're facing. Lead by example. The people he is leading are probably starving for appreciation and involvement too, and it will trickle down the chain.
I have an issue with trying to always give my best. I know, it's something that can choke me just as much as it can be a good thing. It can leave me paralyzed looking for the absolute best choice when it would have been wiser to just done whatever I could and run with it. But ultimately, I'm ok with this trait in myself, as long as it is not something I hold above someone else, or rely on to "earn" myself a better position, recognition, or treatment. I serve where I serve, regardless of how I am treated or rewarded because I have been served in the most ridiculous way by someone who laid down His life for me. I love because He loved me. I serve because He served me. When He gave at such a great cost, being a spotless lamb, why would I offer up my crippled, lame service and not my best, firstfruit effort?
Serving with a whole heart, for His glory. Loving Him by loving those around us. Onward Christian, walk.
Edited to add: Most of what I wrote here is purely my own understanding. I referenced a couple Biblical principles of which you can look up, but the majority of this is my own opinion based off my own experience and my own studying. Take it for what you will.
