Toolkit 3 Onboarding Your New Volunteers

Once your organisation has prepared the information in Toolkit 1 and Toolkit 2, you are ready to start onboarding your new volunteers.

In this toolkit, we will cover:

Creating a Volunteer Handbook
Preparing for the Volunteer Induction
Delivering the Volunteer Induction
Point of Contact / Mentor
Initial Training

1. Creating a Volunteer Handbook

A Volunteer Handbook should be created using all the information you prepared in Toolkits 1 and 2. You should send a digital copy to each new volunteer but have paper copies available for those that need them. You should also have a copy available at the induction.

Your Volunteer Handbook should include:

A welcome paragraph
Your organisation’s mission and values
The services your organisation provides
The role of volunteers in your organisation
Volunteer role profiles
Support for volunteers
What your organisation expects from its volunteers
Your organisation’s commitment to volunteers including training and support.

You should also include all your relevant policies for the volunteer to refer to such as:-

Code of Conduct
Safeguarding
GDPR/Confidentiality
Health and Safety
Equality, Diversity and Inclusion
Expenses
Complaints
Lone working (if applicable)
Driving (if applicable).

You should update your Volunteer Handbook on a regular basis.

For more information, please see: Charity Digital – Topics – How to write a volunteer handbook

Some examples to get you started include:-

Action Mind: https://www.actioninmind.org.uk/files/4315/4884/5506/Volunteer_Handbook_2016.pdf

Health Watch: 20210414 Volunteer Handbook.docx (live.com)

2. Preparation for the Induction

You should ensure that you have prepared the following to give to the new volunteers during their induction:-

Volunteer Badges: you should create volunteer badges for each new volunteer to wear when they are volunteering. This is important because:

Other staff and volunteers will know they are new volunteers
In public-facing roles, members of the public will know that they are volunteers
It gives a sense of belonging to the volunteer

Clothing and Equipment: you should prepare any clothing or equipment that volunteers need such as high-vis jackets or stationery.

Additional Forms: you should prepare any additional forms that you would like your volunteers to complete such as expense forms, volunteer hour records or car insurance so that they can take these away with them. Or you may prefer to send them links to online forms which is a much more efficient way to manage the information.

Access to IT systems: ensure that volunteers for office-based volunteering roles have access to your IT system.

3. Delivering the Induction

Purpose: the purpose of the induction is to introduce your new volunteers to your organisation and to make them feel more confident with their new volunteering role.

Role Profile/Volunteer Agreement: the new volunteers should have seen the role profile during their recruitment process and signed the volunteer agreement prior to the induction.

Volunteer Handbook: they may also have received copies of your Volunteer Handbook prior to the induction or you may prefer to give this out during the induction.

Group Induction: if you are recruiting a lot of volunteers you may want to hold group inductions which also help volunteers get to know each other and feel part of a team. Make sure you include some icebreaker and interactive activities. However, please be mindful that the group shouldn’t be too large.

What to include in a Volunteer Induction

You should include the following in your induction:

Provide background to your organisation/project
Answer any questions about the role
Answer any queries arising from the Volunteer Handbook
Introduce your new volunteers to staff and to other volunteers
Explain who they should contact if they have any queries
A tour of your building including kitchen, toilets and fire exits
Explain where they can find resources such as stationery.
Give the volunteers the links to your organisation’s website and social media.

Useful Links

For more information, please see Running a volunteer induction | NCVO

4. Point of Contact / Mentor

You should appoint one person to be the point of contact for your volunteer to answer any queries and to support the new volunteers as they find their feet. There is more about this in Toolkit 4 – Supporting Volunteers.

As well as providing a mentor, other ideas your organisation could consider include:

Shadowing different members of staff
Introducing a buddy system with current volunteers to provide peer-to-peer support within your organisation
Volunteering in pairs which gives volunteers confidence and builds a good rapport within your volunteering team.

5. Initial Training

Thorough initial training will help ensure that your new volunteers are well-prepared and confident in their volunteering roles and make the volunteer feel valued.

During your volunteer planning and recruitment (Toolkits 1 and 2), you should have thought about what initial training your volunteers will need. This could range from learning how to use your computer system to using equipment to carry out conservation tasks to well-being training.

You should think about whether you can provide face-to-face training with a member of staff or experienced volunteer, or whether you will use an outside organisation for the training.

There are lots of online training options that volunteers can complete from home too. For example, there are lots of useful online courses on the SEEDL Platform, provided for free by Rushmoor Borough Council – Home – Rushmoor Mental Wellness (seedl.com)

Checklist

Before you move on to the next toolkit, check that your organisation:

Have created a Volunteer Handbook.
Prepared for the volunteer induction
Delivered the volunteer induction
Established a point of contact and mentor for the volunteer.
Provided initial training.

You are now ready to move on to our final toolkit – Toolkit 4 – Supporting and Valuing Your Volunteers