5 Ways on Love on Volunteers

Irresistible Teams Founder and CEO, Christine Kreisher, joined us in the SALT studio to talk about 5 Ways on Love on Volunteers. This webinar was all about retention and making your volunteers your biggest recruiters.

Provide first-class support by recording a video on your phone. Include the following info for your volunteers:

• Here’s where you come in
• Here’s where you check-in
• Here’s where to go next.
• Here’s what to expect.
• This is your person should you have questions.

Of course, you’ll need to make sure you have that information ready to go before recording this video. Who is their person? What is that volunteer doing? Where should they go? Tell them when to arrive and how long they should expect to be there.

The biggest point, however, is to share the why behind their volunteer role. Tell them the vision and why they’ll do what they’ll do. For example, “When you do (insert volunteer role here), people get to experience the life-changing message of Jesus.” Be specific in this example! Help your volunteers understand precisely how their role impacts those they are serving.

It’s important to ask your volunteers, “What floats your boat?” Is it homemade snacks, coffee, a goodie bag, or more high-fives? Send out a survey and ask! What floats their boat? Then, start planning accordingly. Here are a few ideas that Christine recommends:

• Find a room or space that can be a dedicated volunteer lounge or green room.
• Decorate it to help make it extra special
• Stock some swag bags with cool and useful items
• Provide homemade food
• Have good coffee available

At Christine’s previous church, they hosted/staffed a “staff and volunteer kids’” room. After more than one service, it was taxing on kiddos (and teens not yet able to drive) to be at church for multiple services, multiple hours. There was an area/room for 5-11 years old and 12-16 years old with fun snacks, games, activities, etc. This was reserved for staff, high-capacity/multiple service volunteers, and their families.

An effective HUDDLE is a 7-10 minute focused, high energy, mini pre-game rally to cast vision, build team morale, communicate important details, last minute changes, and pray for the day!

• Choose a huddle leader who is energetic and fun*!
  If that’s not you, that’s okay! Take this opportunity to identify and equip one or more volunteers to take the lead.
• Replace Yourself…Huddles are a highly effective tool for leadership development. The fringe benefit is it also creates a healthy competition amongst your team for who can come up with the most creative ideas/activities for a huddle! {So. Much. Fun.}
• Gather your volunteer team, virtually or in person {ideal size is 10-12 people} 30 minutes before service time for a 7-10-minute volunteer huddle.
• If possible, provide coffee and a snack, or go all out and provide a full-blown meal. Whatever floats your boat!

In these huddles, it’s important that they stay upbeat. Taking prayer requests can happen, but make sure your volunteers are being prayed for and spiritually fed from the ministries in your church and not just the volunteer huddle time.

Here’s a tip you can implement during Easter services. Take pictures of your volunteers hard at work! Capture their faces, their smiles, their serving. Put together a well-made video collage with upbeat music. Now, share it from the main stage during that next Sunday’s service. Perhaps your worship leader or pastor can ask volunteers to stand after the video and have the congregation give them some recognition.

A bonus of this will be those who aren’t standing quickly see how many people serve and may feel compelled to join that volunteer community.

Don’t feel like you have the time to snap all those photos? It’s as simple as asking a volunteer in each area to grab some photos on their phone and send you the best 5 by Monday, or have a professional photographer whose job is to take pics of volunteers. One tip: be specific. Give them a map with specific shots you’d like so no one/dept/area gets missed.

This could look like:

• A handwritten thank you note (so meaningful to people). Also, try dropping in a coffee or ice cream shop gift card for after those big services like Easter and Christmas.
• Invite them to a FUN gathering to celebrate making it through those big holiday weekends. Meet up for ice cream, coffee, pottery painting, a nice lunch… the options are endless.
• BONUS: Give them a voice- send a survey that asks:
  • • What went well?
    • What was confusing?
    • What was missing?
    • What can we improve next year?

Watch the full webinar and get access to all the resources for free by clicking the button below!