Abstract
• 44 per cent of the global volunteer workforce stopped volunteering over a four-year period, from 2018 to 2021, a loss equivalent to 48 million full-time volunteers.
• To enable more effective turnover monitoring and management, there needs to be a revised definition and measures of turnover that are suitable for volunteer involving organisations. We recommend the following definition of volunteer turnover be adopted — “Turnover occurs when a volunteer withdraws their participation with their current organisation out of their own free will” (Forner et al., 2022). To measure turnover, we suggest volunteer involving organisations; 1) calculate turnover rate with organisational data, 2) track volunteer participation – if a volunteer is not present at any event or activity over 1 year, we would consider the person has withdrawn their participation with the organisation, or 3) assess turnover intentions.
• Our systematic review and meta-analysis of volunteer turnover research identified four factors that prevent volunteer turnover; 1) support from paid staff, supervisors, and peers, 2) affording volunteers autonomy, 3) roles where volunteers feel they are contributing productively, and 4) preventing burnout.
• Evidence-based recommendations for key actions that will have the greatest impact on minimizing turnover rates in volunteer involving organisations include:
• Increase social support – create stronger social connections and encourage
support from staff, supervisors, and other volunteers. • Improve the experience of autonomy – when possible, grant volunteers decision making authority, and when not possible, provide a clear rationale. • Help volunteers feel productive – design volunteering tasks to be stimulating and clearly related to organisational goals. • Minimize burnout – regularly check with volunteers if they have enough
social, cognitive and physical resources to deal with their task demands.
• This paper is intended to inform and guide the volunteering sector, national
volunteering strategy and government policy to address the serious and ongoing
decline in volunteer numbers.
• To enable more effective turnover monitoring and management, there needs to be a revised definition and measures of turnover that are suitable for volunteer involving organisations. We recommend the following definition of volunteer turnover be adopted — “Turnover occurs when a volunteer withdraws their participation with their current organisation out of their own free will” (Forner et al., 2022). To measure turnover, we suggest volunteer involving organisations; 1) calculate turnover rate with organisational data, 2) track volunteer participation – if a volunteer is not present at any event or activity over 1 year, we would consider the person has withdrawn their participation with the organisation, or 3) assess turnover intentions.
• Our systematic review and meta-analysis of volunteer turnover research identified four factors that prevent volunteer turnover; 1) support from paid staff, supervisors, and peers, 2) affording volunteers autonomy, 3) roles where volunteers feel they are contributing productively, and 4) preventing burnout.
• Evidence-based recommendations for key actions that will have the greatest impact on minimizing turnover rates in volunteer involving organisations include:
• Increase social support – create stronger social connections and encourage
support from staff, supervisors, and other volunteers. • Improve the experience of autonomy – when possible, grant volunteers decision making authority, and when not possible, provide a clear rationale. • Help volunteers feel productive – design volunteering tasks to be stimulating and clearly related to organisational goals. • Minimize burnout – regularly check with volunteers if they have enough
social, cognitive and physical resources to deal with their task demands.
• This paper is intended to inform and guide the volunteering sector, national
volunteering strategy and government policy to address the serious and ongoing
decline in volunteer numbers.
Original language | English |
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Place of Publication | Australlia |
Publisher | Volunteering Australia |
Number of pages | 14 |
Publication status | Published - 2022 |
Publication series
Name | the Volunteering Research Papers Initiative |
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Publisher | Volunteering Australia |
Keywords
- Volunteering
- Turnover