How to recruit volunteers with skills

In this guide you can learn more about who skills-based volunteers are, how to design and define your role, and how to make sure that you come up with a plan on how to work well with your volunteers.

Introducing you to skills-based volunteers

Skills-based volunteers are people who want to use the skills and experience that they have gained through work and volunteering to help organisations like yours achieve their goals. Skills-based volunteers can make a huge difference to good causes, adding capacity, growing capability and helping them to innovate. 

How skills-based volunteers can help you

Volunteers can help on a long term, ongoing basis, or with a short term, specific project. They will have a specific skill set, or series of professional skills, often with several years experience.

Skills based volunteers can provide expertise, expand networks, capacity and capability, offering strategic guidance and practical support. 

Our blogs have some great examples of how volunteers with skills have helped organisations.

Key things to consider before you start the recruitment process

If you’re thinking about recruiting a skills-based volunteer, it’s tempting to start writing the role description immediately. But a well-defined volunteer opportunity will give you the best chance at achieving your goals, and finding the best person to help. Think about:

What do you want to achieve?

Be clear about what you want to achieve. Perhaps your organisation needs to increase its online reach or undertake an evaluation. Deciding what impact you want the volunteer to have is crucial to finding the best candidate. And it will help you ‘sell’ the role to the right person. 

We recommend being clear about what you want to do, but be flexible about how to do it. In our experience the most successful placements happen when the organisation is clear about its goals, and they then collaborate with the volunteer to define how they do the work. 

What do you want the volunteer to do? 

How can a volunteer help you reach your goal? For example, if you need to generate more income the volunteer may raise your profile, write bid proposals or organise fundraising events. Or if you are struggling for time and capacity, do they need to be involved with planning and writing a fundraising strategy? 

What are the core skills your volunteer needs? 

Before you start, you may like to take stock and do a skills audit to help you understand what skills your organisation needs and therefore what you are looking for in a volunteer.

When writing your role description, don’t be afraid to be specific. This will help attract the right candidates. Remember that skills can be transferable - for example, someone with marketing expertise could write great funding bids. Think creatively about the skills you want and the impact you want them to have. 

How to create an opportunity that works well for you and your volunteer

The goal is to create a role that clearly outlines what you need, and also works for the volunteer that you recruit. Volunteers are different to paid staff and it is important to respect those differences in the roles you create, making the commitment and responsibility appropriate for a volunteer. We would recommend that you:

Break the work into phases 

If you have a big task or project, break it into phases and recruit someone for the first phase. This helps you to think through the first steps, and you might find that your needs change once you have completed the first stage. 

It can also be easier to recruit someone for a shorter project. Volunteers tend to prefer shorter assignments when they first join a charity. If you both agree, you can always extend later. This also gives you an opportunity to test the fit - if they’re delivering great work and you’re both happy, develop an ongoing role, but if not, a predefined break like this can offer either you or the volunteer an opportunity to step back. The first volunteer could even help you to recruit another for the next stage of the work. 

Spread the responsibility

If the role is mission critical to your organisation, make sure that you don't put all the responsibility on one volunteer. It is unfair to the volunteer, and risky for your organisation. Share the responsibility with a team. You can always recruit more volunteers to build this team, if you need to. 

Don't ask volunteers to manage paid staff

Some volunteers may be happy to, but it can cause problems. Likewise, we would advise that you do not ask a volunteer to act as CEO unless your organisation is entirely volunteer-led. 

Leave enough time for recruitment and induction 

It can take time to recruit and bring on board new volunteers, and they may take longer to carry out the work than you initially thought. Volunteers may only be available on a very part time basis or have to prioritise other commitments above your project. If your role is urgent, or time sensitive, it may not be suitable for skills-based volunteering. 

Set clear expectations on how you plan to work with your volunteers

Too often, enthusiastic volunteers with skills lose interest in an organisation simply because they don’t get prompt replies or it is not clear what is expected of them. To avoid this: 

Write a clearly defined role description so that volunteers know what to expect

This will help you make sure you have focused discussions with potential volunteers and make sure that you and the volunteer understand their responsibilities once they take on the role. This is particularly important in skills-based volunteering as the volunteer manager may have less specialist understanding than the volunteer. Having a written role description to refer to could help resolve any confusion that may arise. 

A role description is similar to a job description. It should include the title,who they report to/ who will be responsible for supporting them, an idea of time commitment, where they will work, the length of the role (whether on-going or a discrete project) and include a list of their agreed work tasks and goals. However, remember to emphasise that this is a voluntary agreement and not a contract, or you risk creating an employment contract by mistake. Read NCVO’s guidance on this here. 

Make it clear who is going to support and manage the volunteer

Who will manage the volunteer’s induction? Think about what they need to know about the organisation – your strategy, values, history, goals, stakeholders. Do they need to be introduced to the beneficiaries or service users? 

Once they have been inducted, who will manage them long-term? All volunteers need someone to guide and manage them and make sure they’re doing what the organisation needs. This doesn’t mean micro-management, but regular check-ins will make sure they are supported and producing the agreed work.

Where will they work? Make sure it’s clear whether the volunteer will work from home, hot-desk or use their personal laptop.

Promote your role and attract volunteers

It is important to win the attention of a professional who may not have heard of you, and may be exploring different options. Along with your role description, write an opportunity advert which sells the unique and exciting aspects of your organisation, and the role.

Volunteers want to know that their work will make a difference, so clearly state the impact the volunteer will have if they join you. Outline how your organisation and the communities you serve will benefit from their time and input. 

Volunteering can have so many positive benefits for volunteers themselves. Tell them about what your role can offer them, for example, the opportunity to learn new skills, professional development, gaining an understanding of new subjects or issues, connecting with new people and improving their overall wellbeing. 

How to get started

The Reach platform is designed to help you create an opportunity that will help you to find the right volunteer. The more time you invest in designing your opportunity, the more likely you will be to recruit a volunteer who will make a real difference.