Developing guidance to help clubs recruit new volunteers

from outside the club

Peter Taylor, Richard Moore & Simon Goldsmith,

Sport Industry Research Centre, Sheffield Hallam University.

Geoff Nichols, Management School, University of Sheffield

Volunteers in sports clubs – what’s the problem?

• 53% of clubs say recruiting / retaining volunteers is a problem (SARA club survey 2011)

• A few volunteers do a lot of the work• Volunteer roles grow around key people –

who are hard to replace.

Volunteers in sports clubs – what’s the problem?

• Volunteers’ work becomes more demanding and therefore off-putting– Coaching qualifications– Accreditations – Clubmark– Legislation – CRB checks– Club have to offer an experience that attracts

and retains members – more ‘professional’

Clubs don’t look outside for volunteers

• Unusual for volunteers to come outside of– Players and parents: easier to recruit from but

they restrict recruitment

• If a new person just comes along and wants to help – do clubs know what to do with them?

The ‘market’ for volunteers – less volunteering and more episodic

• 25% of people volunteered formally at least once a month in 2010-11, which is lower than at any point between 2001 and 2007-08.

• A trend towards ‘episodic’ volunteering – people are willing to volunteer for a limited time.

The EYV project

• Funded from Office for Civil Society• Brokered by Sport's Strategic Partnership

for Volunteering– Phase 1: guidance from best practice cases

of recruiting volunteers from outside the club– Phase 2: test guidance with clubs which do

not recruit from outside the club– Phase 3: finalise guidance and disseminate

Phase 1: best practice

• Six focus groups with clubs– facilitators and constraints to the recruitment,

utilisation and development of volunteers from outside the club

• previous guidance - NB runningsports; NGB guidance

Phase 2: testing the guidance

• 12 interviews:– 1 Phase 1 club– 6 Clubs with volunteer shortages and internal

recruitment of volunteers – 3 CSPs – 2 NGBs

• Clubs have 'just not thought to recruit volunteers from outside'

• Very positive response to guidance• Presentation as important as content

The guidance: key messages

• People from outside the club are not aliens– they have relevant skills – in the current economic environment they

want opportunities

• Many tasks in the clubs are not sport-specific, e.g.:– chair, treasurer, secretary, fixture secretary,

child protection, health and safety, PR, sponsorship and fundraising, website

The guidance: key messages

• Preparation for recruitment, e.g.:– task descriptions– task splitting– specific skill requirements– training needs– duration and frequency of tasks

• Consider appointing a volunteer coordinator• But the bottom line is: what does the

volunteer want?

The guidance: key messages

• Consider all possible external sources, including:– Friends of players and members– Local volunteer centres– Universities and colleges– Probation Service– Local sports centres, fitness clubs, etc.

The guidance: key messages

• Use a variety of means of promoting opportunities– club website– open day– NGBs– websites, NB Do-it, vinspired, Sport Makers,

Time Bank, Gumtree

The guidance: key messages• Either specific role, or general helping out• Nurturing new volunteers:

– Speed of response– Volunteer coordinator– Mentors– Training opportunities– Rewards

• Formalities vs. informalities - get the balance right:– task descriptions, CRB checks, club rules and procedures

vs.– making the volunteer feel comfortable and maintaining their

motivation

Phase 3 events and further dissemination

• Leeds (27/10); Birmingham (28/10); London (1/11)

• Key agencies: NGBs and CSPs

Challenges

• Alerting clubs to opportunities outside their clubs

• Achieving clubs' searching for volunteers outside clubs

• Capacity of local volunteer centres to respond

• Capacity of universities and colleges to respond

• Connecting with Sport Makers

Thank you. Questions?

peter.taylor@shu.ac.uk