Staying In Touch and In Tune With Online Volunteers
From Managing Offsite Volunteers via the Internet
by Jayne Cravens, Project Manager
Volunteers are responsible for meeting their deadlines, but the manager is also responsible for looking for new ways to inspire the volunteer to achieve their goals. It's true that online volunteer must rely more on internal motivation and inspiration than onsite volunteers, but that doesn't mean that the volunteer manager doesn't play an active role in helping to motivate and inspire volunteers. It's the volunteer manager's job to make sure that online volunteers feel in touch and in tune with your organization.
Coaching and mentoring
The traditional office environment includes external motivational and inspirational devices such as displays of charts, graphs, goals, and messages. Consequently, selecting self-motivated individuals is a prerequisite to your being able to effectively inspire the volunteer!
You may have to give directions to volunteers on how to find important information and resources as part of their assignment; for instance, is there a special database on the Internet that has information that applies to your organization, but can be difficult to find via commonly-used online search engines? Are there particular online publications that might be difficult to find as well by someone not already familiar with them?
Schedule regular meetings, on and offline
Volunteers need to talk with you regularly to assess needs, give feedback and discuss problems. And you need to communicate advice on performance immediately.
Most of your interactions with offsite volunteers can be done by e-mail, but make sure you do set up occasional "live" meetings, either by phone or with the volunteer visiting onsite, to help the volunteer feel less isolated and more a part of the team. Regular meetings for setting timetables and assessing progress will give volunteers the necessary guidance to keep them on target.
Other parts of this essay:
- Management by objectives
- Regular Online Reporting by Volunteers
- Staying In Touch and In Tune With Online Volunteers
- Building a sense of team / Ensuring inclusion of online volunteers
- Additional Tips to Ensure Success of Virtual Volunteering
- Links to Related Resources
Return to Index of Managing Offsite Volunteers via the Internet
- Virtual Volunteering Resources
How to find and involve volunteers working from home or work computers, online resources for volunteer managers, advice for individuals who want to volunteer virtually, etc. These pages are updated and added to each month.
- How Your Agency Can Utilize the Virtual Volunteering Project
Tips on how to use this Web site, information about our offline services, and how we can help you introduce or expand virtual volunteering in your agency. - Virtual Volunteering Project home page