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Why Networking is Keeping You Stuck

I often hear “I love networking and sharing experiences with others, it helps us all grow.”

But does it really help us grow? Let’s have a look at that.

Connecting with others feels good.  You feel heard and understood.  You feel part of a bigger family and less lonely in your pursuit.  Yes, there’s value in that.

But… We also inadvertently reinforce some of the thinking that keeps us stuck and spinning our wheels.

“This is not an easy journey, it’s hard for everyone. We have to live with the limited resources available.  There’s only so much to go around.  There are not enough people to do the work.  There are too many organisations competing for funds.  We are just not big enough to get more funding.  Our [insert your industry – environment/ health/ arts etc] is not ‘sexy’ enough”

But we think to ourselves… “Afterall, what we are doing is important and it takes something special to do this work.”  And it feels significant because you are working on a bigger picture, so sacrificing some sleep and family time is ok, because it is for the greater good.

We accept that this is just what it is when working in Nonprofits.  You see it everywhere around you so this must be the truth. Right?  But constantly reinforcing these ideas is a big part of exactly what’s keeping you stuck.

You go to a networking function and you feel invigorated because you feel you are part of something bigger and you are not alone, fighting for a better world.  And you walk away from an event with some new ideas and inspiration.

But let me ask you, how much has networking changed your outcomes?

It feels good to see others in the same situation. For a moment, until reality sets in. When you wake up in the middle of the night, anxious about how you can do all the work with limited support.  When you can’t go back to sleep.  When you feel overwhelmed by it all and when you get to the end of the week feeling like you didn’t get anything done but you’re exhausted.  That is when you find comfort in the thought that ‘everyone is going through the same thing’.

Networking absolutely has its merit. We all need connection. But let’s not use it as an excuse to stay in the same situation.

Just be very aware that it often becomes a place to validate each other in not achieving your goals.

It can lessen the pain and make you feel more comfortable, because you are not alone.  But that’s not helping anyone.  You are simply normalising it.  Working too many hours, sleepless nights and not spending time with loved ones has become the new normal. And you look back over the past 10 years and don’t even know how that happened…

To start with, here are a few things to keep in mind when looking at networking and growing your impact:

  1. Choose wisely who you spend time with. As Jim Rohn said “You are the average of the 5 people you spend the most time with”
  2. Check in with yourself when networking. What’s your intention? Why are you attending specific event/ catching up with colleagues?
  3. Choose consciously what helps you grow. Chose tools and behaviours that support you to grow.
  4. Get support. Doing it on your own can take years. Plus, we all have blind spots we just can’t get around on our own. Getting supported is what powerful leaders do, so they get to their outcomes faster.

If you are sick and tired of constantly working too many hours, sacrificing your social life or time with family and if you are ready for more freedom while scaling your impact, then let’s chat and see what’s in your way of growth.

Book an Impact Power Hour with me: https://eventeamwork.com.au/impact-power-hour

How to win at constantly staging bigger and better events?

The month of September always marks the anniversary for Eventeamwork. This year we are celebrating 8 years and I have taken a moment to stop and reflect on the journey.

I am extremely proud of my amazing team that I got to work with over these years. I am grateful to our clients for trusting us and the process. I am inspired by the amazing outcomes our clients achieved. I am grateful for the incredible experiences and learnings along the way.

Being in business has its own various challenges but the most challenging part for me has been to keep standing for a different approach to leading people in our fast paced and process-oriented industry.

As Event Managers these days, we are not taught people management and leadership except for basic HR principles. The focus is on learning about operations, which is important but not enough. Once we enter the industry, we quickly see that people form a large part of the industry and even entry level roles often need to supervise teams of casual staff or volunteers.

It is no wonder then that the operational focus that requires short term thinking and efficiencies often dictates how people are managed in events.

The downside of efficiency

The operational phase of events tends to be tactical and task focused, including a constant search for immediate solutions – hiring structures and stages, using systems, automating tasks – and in amongst all of this we will see the search for immediate solutions to cover tasks to be done and this is where the search for help often comes in and with it the well-known “Call for volunteers”.

This approach stands in direct opposite to the principles of effective engagement, which focusses on long-term benefits through creating stronger bonds, not only with staff and volunteers but also with customers, participants, suppliers, sponsors and other stakeholders – in short with the event’s market, with everyone the event touches.

Yet the operational approach prevails because that’s all we get exposed to through education and through the people we work with in the industry. It tends to treat the people who willingly give their time for an event as a commodity, basically treating them the same as the marquee we are hiring. But it’s just what we have been taught to do.

However, this approach doesn’t just negate the value people who volunteer for your event bring to you, it also does a huge disservice to the event.

The result is that people who volunteer are not engaged, meaning they don’t turn up or they don’t return, which then cements the idea that volunteers are unreliably – closing the circle. A common request then is to find other or new volunteers.

But the same approach will always just lead to the same outcomes.

We need a new leadership approach

Event volunteers make up 60+% of any event workforce and they are predominantly engaged in customer facing roles. They talk about your event not only to your customers and participants, but also to their friends and the wider community – basically creating the event brand. If they feel engaged, they will happily share that but if they don’t feel engaged, heard and supported they will also share and create a potentially unfavourable image of your event in the community.

Events are always looking to be bigger and better, typically with the vision behind to create a bigger impact, the very reason why they were created in the first place.

This immense drive and the hard work people put in to create events is what attracted me to the industry in the first place.

What I learned is that to achieve a greater impact we need to engage our people. We can’t do it alone. The 60+% of our workforce can be so much more than bodies implementing tasks – if we allow them to and support them to – essentially leading them effectively.

Effective leadership creates higher engagement and retention, which reduces costs, but it also elevates the event community building, allows for a greater reach, attracts more of the right people and it impacts people and their communities.

Leadership is taking responsibility and involving people strategically rather than as a short-term fix. If leaders are able to look inward and recognise their role in this, they can significantly change the culture of an organisation and accelerate the impact they make. It always starts at the top.

So, yes it can be sometimes challenging to challenge the status quo, but what I love is seeing leaders succeed and achieve the big impact they want to make. Here is to many more years of transforming event leadership.

5 Easy Steps to create a ‘Lived Vision’ to Effectively Engage Stakeholders

Bringing a large-scale event to life that truly reflects your vision will always require buy-in from the various stakeholders involved. It can be very time intensive to manage competing stakeholders when running large-scale events and it can feel like you are being pulled in several different directions.

In this post you I’ll show you five easy steps to create a “lived vision” that will help pull everyone together and ensure that you get the best outcome for your event without always having to communicate separately with each stakeholder group.

Related content: Do you really know your event stakeholders?

Now, having a vision for your event is surely nothing new to you; however, having a lived vision is a step further. As the name implies, a lived vision is known and lived by all stakeholders. It also helps to easily attract more of the right people to your event – those who truly connect to your vision, and hence saves you valuable time while creating a bigger impact.

Managing competing stakeholder interests

Mitigating the great challenge of competing stakeholder interests means getting stakeholders to all work together towards your event’s success. Yes, they are all very different but the one thing that unites them is your vision for your event or organisation.

It is also much easier to manage these competing interests when you have your own cheer squad – or “A-team” of stakeholder ambassadors who share the vision for your event and can hence carry it through to their respective stakeholder groups. 

Creating an “A team” with vision

The easiest way to create your own A-team is to share openly and honestly the vision you have for your event. For example, if you are running an event benefitting health, you will want to use language that is attractive to stakeholders who share a common interest in healthy communities.

This way you will pull together a small group of people across all stakeholder groups, who are most enthusiastic about your event. They will see their involvement as more than a transaction and they will help you engage all stakeholders. See them as your advisory panel and your cheer squad.

Regardless of the type of event or its purpose, your entire team will function more cohesively when united by common goals, and the same goes for all stakeholder groups. This calls for a clearly spelled-out vision at the centre of all your event planning, around which your A-team will rally and take everyone else along for the ride. Do this early!

Your event’s vision statement

Write up a single vision statement for your event. Leverage this vision statement to engage potential stakeholders around the common interest. Use this vision statement as the basis for a “pull strategy” designed to attract stakeholders who share your vision.

Often, event leaders create different visions for each stakeholder group, such as sponsors, staff, suppliers, volunteers. This segmentation limits the stakeholders. However, a well-articulated vision attracts people across all stakeholder groups to your event and you never know how people may want to get involved. For example, a ticket holder can also be donating and volunteering; they may also own a company and may be interested in sponsoring the event.

So, it’s important to not limit yourself; create a single vision of how you want your event to be perceived and what you want it to achieve – this alone will attract the right people once you share it.

Five simple steps to creating a lived vision statement

The best way to instil a sense of purpose in your stakeholders is to write a vision statement for your event and then help them to own it and share it. To do this, follow these five steps:

  1. Answer three questions to determine the value proposition of your event:
    1. What is the main purpose of the event?
    2. What type of person is this event for?
    3. What is their incentive for attending this event?
  2. Write a rough draft of your vision statement.
  3. Share the vision statement with your A-team of stakeholders for input.
  4. Write the final draft of your vision statement.
  5. Share your vision statement in all appropriate channels (website, local media, social media).

A vision statement is emotional; it’s about positive change. This is what people will connect to and that’s when it becomes a lived vision.

Health triathlon

Darryl (not his real name) belonged to a triathlon club and was tasked with organising a public triathlon.

Particular challenges

While Darryl had organised triathlons before, this was especially challenging as it was ‘tri-purpose’, which he delighted in telling people was appropriate for a triathlon club. Its purpose was:

  • Increase the number of club members
  • Raise funds for the local hospital’s oncology ward
  • Raise fitness levels of the citizens of the half dozen or so suburbs that were his target

Finding his A-team

It was obvious that this was going to be a big, complex task and that planning would take the best part of a year and involve many volunteers. Fortunately, Darryl quickly recognised a small number of community members from various stakeholder groups who were as enthusiastic as he was – so these five people became his A-team.

Writing the vision

Darryl had written vision statements before, but it was crucial this time to formulate a single vision that would be relevant to all stakeholder groups: contestants, individual clubs (swimming, running, cycling), hospital auxiliary, sponsors, volunteers, race directors, coaches, team leaders, vendors, retail outlets, council staff, police, ambulance … the list seemed endless.

He liked the idea of a lived vision that would pull everyone together to ensure that he would get the best outcome for his event without always having to communicate separately with each stakeholder group.

He drafted and redrafted many versions of a vision statement that he felt would appeal to all of these groups, then finally felt ready to share it with his A-team.

Sharing it with his A-team and beyond

After some minor revisions by the A-team, the vision statement was finalised – less than a page of their why. This became the basis of some very effective advertising, including social media, television, newspapers, leaflets and posters.

(And yes, it was hugely successful. Darryl and his A-team were immediately booked for a repeat performance the following year.)

A vision for your A-team

Feeling stuck? Writing your own vision doesn’t sound as easy as it was for Darryl? You can always schedule a consultation with the team at Eventeamwork who can assist you in developing a lived vision for your event.

If you’d like to up-level your stakeholder engagement, download our free checklist “How to manage competing stakeholder interests when running large scale events”.

Do you really know your event stakeholders?

stakeholder management

If you’re planning a large-scale event, you’ll already know that they don’t ‘just happen’. And of course, the more stakeholders you have, the more potential there is for interests to compete and for you to struggle to satisfy them all.

In this post, I’ll show you why it’s important to really know your stakeholders and share some easy tips to help get to know them better.

No doubt, you already know your stakeholders are important and you are already thinking about them and their interests. This simple process will help you clarify how you can engage them more effectively.

Who are your stakeholders?

Large-scale events usually involve a staggering number of stakeholders from advisory boards to suppliers to temporary staff and volunteers (the latter can constitute up to 85% of the event workforce). There are many different people with whom event leaders must interact to successfully stage the best possible event. The best advice here is to really know your stakeholders and (perhaps even more importantly) to understand what’s in it for them.

Why it’s important to know your stakeholders

Don’t assume that all of your stakeholders are anxious to just be part of a big happy family. Getting to know your stakeholders helps you balance different priorities and competing interests, make use of everyone’s strengths and talents and help everyone feel valued and engaged. It’s the first step in getting everyone to work together for that common goal – a successful event.

List your stakeholders

To get to know your stakeholders, the first step is to list them. That may sound like an easy task, but many event leaders skip this simple step, which can not only mean that they fail to engage with key stakeholders, they can accidentally ignore them completely. Naturally, this can make them feel neglected, disengaged and more self-interested as a result.

What’s driving your stakeholders?

To make sure you engage with all your stakeholders, in addition to listing their names and contact information, add something even more valuable: your stakeholders’ motivations.

Consider what interest each stakeholder has in the event. Ask yourself, “What’s driving my stakeholders?” The answers may vary depending upon each stakeholder’s unique situation, but they are certainly worth knowing and including on your list.

Various stakeholders will have different motivations which may or may not align with your objectives. A politician involved in your event might want to drum up good publicity. A bureaucrat may be looking to capitalise on the potential for your event to attract new business to the area. An operations team member might be using the event as a stepping stone for their next gig. Volunteers may simply be looking for meaningful experiences and personal fulfilment. The list goes on and on.

Determine ‘what’s in it for them’ and add this to your list. Doing so will help you to build a more meaningful relationship with each individual stakeholder as well as to mediate their competing interests when functioning collectively.

Simone and the big top

A colleague of mine (I’ll call her Simone) was helping to stage a major student music event in a town in Victoria. Without a major concert hall, a big top was used for the event and was erected on the town’s showground. The old adage ‘never work with children or animals’ was frequently playing in Simone’s mind, reminding her of what she was taking on.

She described her list of stakeholders as ‘more than a little bit lengthy’. Apart from the obvious – students, teachers and parents – there were many others on her list, such as the owners of the big top (who were wanting to use this event for promoting their company and to ensure that their prize possession wasn’t ruined by all those kids), the Showground Trust (who were wanting some publicity for the showground but were also concerned that their oval was going to be ruined), suppliers (who provided everything from trapeze swings and sound gear to toilets, and who managed everything from ticketing and parking to crowd control), the local ambos, the state and federal members of parliament (who were from different parties, but both wanted to speak at the event), local newspaper and television film crews … every woman and her dog.

Even though Simone thought she was across all her stakeholders, once she had taken the time to list the stakeholders and their motivations, she thought it was absolutely worth it. It enabled her to engage with all of the stakeholders effectively and to streamline communication, but most of all to ensure that their seemingly competing interests were harnessed. The result was that stakeholders were very engaged across the entire event, which lead to a successful three-day event and happy stakeholders who are all likely to return next year.

Ready to get to know your stakeholders?

Create a list of your stakeholders, their contact information and their motivations. Use these tools to help you be more effective in managing their competing interests.

If you’d like to up-level your stakeholder engagement, download our free checklist “How to manage competing stakeholder interests when running large scale events”.

Why we need people centric leadership in events

We see varying levels of system approaches and people centric approaches in volunteer management. One approach is relying on a volunteer management system (software) to solve the recruitment problem, the other is reluctance to use a system out of fear to lose the connection with volunteers. I believe the solution is a combination of a system approach AND people centric leaders to run a volunteer program effectively.

We often get asked one of the following two questions “Why do I need a system, I am just fine doing the rostering in my head?” and “How much is it to use your database?” Then the other day I listened to a podcast where an accountant spoke about their service and the impact of accounting software on the service they provide. Now everyone can basically do their own accounting but it doesn’t replace the service that is provided by professional accountants. I could see so many parallels to volunteer management in event and community organisations.

Seven years ago when we started Eventeamwork there were very few volunteer management systems on the market. Back then volunteer management typically involved many manual tasks around rostering and communication, particularly for volunteer programs involving hundreds of people over multiple days. These days there are literally hundreds of software solution to assist with database management and rostering on the market and there are more appearing every other week.

The search for efficiency and automation is changing the volunteer management field just like in the accounting profession. The system is really important to assist with the manual tasks, avoid errors and provide a better and faster registration experience for people. Coordinators save time and do their jobs more efficiently. They can now concentrate on planning and improving the volunteer program, focussing on communication and engagement, all of which will make the program more effective.

However the thread of having a system, particularly if it includes automation such as automatic confirmations and reminder messages, self-scheduling, self check-in etc, it can also be easy to lose touch with your volunteers. Where previously there would have been many emails and phone calls to determine availability and confirming rosters, we now need to find other ways to stay connected and have real communications.

Engagement is important and can get lost in the process of relying too much on the system. This unfortunately results in low attendance and low retention rates. The missing engagement and connection also contributes to volunteers at times being seen as a commodity rather than a valuable team member.

Interestingly the system approach is often experienced in event volunteer programs, whereas volunteer coordinators in community organisations tend to be fully aware of the importance of the engagement piece and the organisations often shy away from systems.

Just like in the accountant example, volunteer management systems cannot replace a volunteer coordinator. They cannot replace the building of relationships and connections between people and organisations. However systems can indeed add convenience and efficiency to the profession that allows volunteer coordinators to focus on planning and improvement rather than being bogged down by manual tasks.

As with everything, it’s about finding the right balance.

An effective volunteer program combines system and people centric leadership

While a good system helps volunteer coordinators be more efficient, to be able to really engage people and to retain people over time we need to go beyond systems. Engagement is key to achieving positive outcomes for organisations. Creating positive experiences for volunteers and engaging them in the outcomes will have a ripple effect on creating positive experiences for clients or attendees.

Volunteer management is more than allocating bodies to positions and the aspect of managing people, having conversations, ensuring well-being and satisfaction cannot be replaced by even the greatest systems.

Your engagement determines your culture, it is how you interact with staff, volunteers and people in general. Your culture will determine if your organisation can reach a competitive advantage. Anyone can replicate products and services. Anyone can get a volunteer management system but it’s what you do with it that will make all the difference. Nobody can replicate your unique culture.

So yes, systems are great in making our life easier and saving time on manual tasks but considering people and engagement will set you apart.

Why to Focus on Event Outcomes when Managing Volunteers

focus on event outcomes to create outstanding experiences

The operational focus naturally is on our next event but there is a need to also focus on event outcomes to create long-term benefits. Many of us fall into the trap of focusing on outputs rather than outcomes, not because we don’t know any better but because it’s so easy to. Hence there are literally thousands of articles written on the topic. So it’s not a new concept at all. However, let’s be honest we all are creatures of habit and we are looking for the best way to prove what we are doing is worthwhile or of value and usually the easiest and most tangible way is to show outputs.

Let’s have a closer look at the difference. Outputs are controlled and immediate results of a product or service and therefore can be measured very easily. Outcomes on the other hand cannot be fully controlled and are a longer term and less tangible result. While outputs are necessary to achieve outcomes, it’s not always a straight path.

For example, recruiting 500 volunteers for an event is an output, but it doesn’t mean the event outcomes are achieved simply by having 500 volunteers on site. In fact, it is still possible to have negative outcomes such as poor customer service due to lack of engagement or lack of training.

Creating experiences

I believe there is a need in the event industry and particularly in volunteer management to focus more on outcomes. We see measurements such as ‘this many people attended’, ‘this many volunteers came’, ‘this many programs were handed out’, ‘this many surveys were filled in’ etc. Usually these are impressive figures, however they don’t say much about the quality aspect of the event experience. The experience is what determines the event outcome and more importantly determines if people return to the event, the image of the event in the public arena. These are important aspects for events with a long-term impact on time, money and operations.

We all know that the customer experience is more than watching a show, installation or fireworks. It goes far beyond the “show” and it will in fact influence the experience of the show. If you go to a large outdoor event, the show may be great, but you have been pushed around by event staff to make room for more people and keep certain areas free, been told they can’t help you when asking volunteers a question and were sent the wrong way when looking for the toilets. A simple example, but it is highly likely that your experience of the show will be greatly diminished by your experience as a customer at the event.

Similarly sporting events need to look after the participant’s experience all the way. It is not enough to take the entry money and leave participants on their own. We need to look after people for their entire experience from start to finish and even beyond.

The experience with an event is essential to bring participants and customers back and influences the public image of the event. We all know that, but often there seems to be a disconnect between the vision and the operations of events. The operational focus naturally is on the next event but I believe there is a need to keep an eye on the long-term vision and involve the team in it to make better decisions for long-term benefits.

Why is it relevant for managing your team?

We ourselves were guilty on focusing too much on outputs. Our volunteer program reports showed how many volunteers were recruited, what tasks were performed, what was trained, how many newsletters were sent and what policies and management structures were created. All of this just shows that we successfully implemented the volunteer program.

But what did this achieve? While we were telling clients that the number of volunteers is secondary to the quality of service, our reports still consistently showed outputs we produced and not outcomes we achieved.

The volunteer program is not a supporting function of an event but integral to achieving the event outcomes. Therefore we shifted our reporting to show the impact on the outcomes rather than how many volunteers were recruited.

We clearly didn’t ask the right questions and were surprised we kept getting the same answers. We believe that real change can be achieved by focusing on outcomes rather than outputs. Event organisers who take responsibility to drive their teams towards achieving outcomes will produce more successful events. The outputs produced are part of the equation but by shifting our focus to the outcomes, we may even create better outputs. Ultimately, we will create better event experiences.

For us this means bringing the volunteers on board to be part of achieving the event outcomes. The focus on the outcomes also creates a better volunteer experience and ensures a higher engagement. The result is volunteer retention, saving time and money in recruitment, training and advertising. Most importantly, engaged teams that are focused on the event outcomes will keep creating quality experiences for patrons and participants and as a consequence create more successful events.

What are your thoughts on this? Are your teams involved in the vision and outcome focuses? Are your reports focused on outputs or do they include outcomes?

A Solution to Recruiting Volunteers for your next Event

recruiting volunteers

I lost count of how many times recruiting volunteers has been pointed out to be a challenge for event organisers. Not having enough volunteers, not having the “right” volunteers and volunteers not showing up are commonly reported problems.

This is supported by many articles stating that often there are not enough resources put into volunteer recruitment to ensure we have enough and the right people supporting the organisation. As a result event organisers wear themselves out recruiting double the amount of volunteers.

Simple math isn’t it? We need more volunteers to cover the ‘no shows’ so let’s recruit more! When looking closer though we often observe exhausted and frustrated event organisers who still end up short-staffed.

Yes, more investments are required for managing volunteers. However, simply putting more resources into the recruitment without considering the bigger picture is in fact a waste of your resources. Solely focusing on recruitment is commonly considered the solution and it just seems the most obvious one. However it is a short-term fix that doesn’t actually solve the problem, which means it will be re-occurring at the next event.

A different approach

We need to acknowledge that recruiting and retaining volunteers for events goes beyond rustling up some people to help out for a day. We need to stop seeing volunteers as a commodity. It carries the assumption that there are people just on stand by to help at any given event.

With recruitment being the most tangible task in volunteer management, organisations consistently spent time and money on advertising and call outs to fill positions.

While this is absolutely needed to make people aware these opportunities exist, I believe a more holistic approach with a long-term solution rather than a short-term fix is required.

This means any organisation can save resources down the track by investing in a positive sustainable outcome rather than solely into filling the next position. Recruitment is part of the solution but not the sole focus.

Essentially, if retention rates and show up rates are consistently low, this is not a recruitment problem and usually cannot be solved by just recruiting more people. It usually indicates one or more of the following three problems.

Culture 

A culture that acknowledges the contribution volunteers make and communicates what makes your event unique and how volunteers are part of it will be attractive to potential volunteers and it will also ensure volunteers stay engaged. A less supportive organisational culture can significantly increase your recruitment needs and thus your costs.

Culture is one of the determining factors to retain employees, not to mention volunteers. With more and more choices available, culture will be a competitive advantage in terms of retaining people in the organisation.

Visibility 

You might have a great organisation with a great cause or providing a great service, but your market doesn’t know about it.

Being visible will attract customers, sponsors, staff, volunteers – in short your event community. You may need to raise the profile of your organisation or event to attract your community. Volunteers are part of your audience, so building your audience is half the battle.

Clearly defined roles 

Could your volunteer roles be too vague or too restrictive? If the role is unclear people may be cautious to sign up.

Make sure the volunteer roles you are recruiting for are clear from the outset. This way you can manage expectations and ensure the people who register are already committed to some degree. Being too vague may get you a lot of registrations but no commitment. Being too restrictive on the other hand may mean you lose out on some great candidates.

If your organisation struggles with any of these problems, purely spending more time and money on recruitment, will not be an efficient use of your resources.

In this case a more holistic approach will be more efficient and effective to achieve your desired outcome of recruiting more volunteers. This includes investing in the volunteer management strategy & planning rather than just investing in recruitment and implementation.

A volunteer program strategy will integrate into the organisational strategy and address the points above, so that you can implement an effective volunteer program.

We have put together a 6-Step Checklist that will help you create a more effective volunteer program step by step. You will avoid all the above mistakes and save time and money while achieving better results. CLICK HERE for FREE download.

Why It Matters that Event Volunteers are Not Outsourced

outsourcing volunteers

When event organisers first approach us, we often hear the following “Can you please provide us with 50 volunteers?” It always makes me cringe. Nobody can be providing people to anyone, let alone volunteers. I think it’s interesting that especially short-term staff and volunteers are often thought of as a commodity.

To clarify, we don’t trade volunteers. We provide a management service that helps event organisers to leverage their volunteer program to achieve positive event outcomes. People volunteer for an organisation because they support the cause or align with their values. How can you outsource your volunteers and expect them to represent your organisation?

From our experience managers who understand the value their volunteers bring to their event and organisations often fear working with an outside management service. It is those organisations that by adopting a more effective volunteer management are able to achieve more positive outcomes.

Why outsourcing your people may hurt your event

Nonetheless there is an interesting trend happening. More and more event organisations are looking for a “done for you” service and do not want anything to do with it.

The underlying problems for this trend are:

  • High turnover of short-term staff
  • High no-show rates of volunteers
  • Volunteers often don’t know what they are doing
  • Volunteers often don’t represent the organisation

As organisations struggle with this, the blame often falls to the staff and volunteers and the solution is sought in outsourcing this ‘hassle’ altogether.

This is a short-term fix as it ensures that there are sufficient people at the event to provide the required services. However, from my experience, organisations don’t do themselves a favour by bandaging the problem and outsourcing this important responsibility.

The outcomes can be quite negative. Negative customer feedback can damage the brand and lead to a decrease in fundraising or ticket sales, and difficulties to attract sponsors, staff and volunteers.

Due to the short-term or as I call it ‘cyclic’ thinking, this often becomes the norm of how things are managed each year. As a result organisations cannot see the opportunities available by putting more focus on their people to achieve different and better outcomes.

Re-thinking what to outsource

On the other hand there are hundreds of studies showing a direct relation between staff engagement and productivity. People who are more engaged and looked after in their workplace get more done, stay longer and identify with their organisation. As far as I am aware there are no studies about volunteer engagement being linked to customer service yet, however considering we are working with people, we can assume the same is true for volunteers. If you take away remuneration as an incentive, engagement is even more important for volunteers.

So what does that mean for the future of event organisations?

Well, outsourcing sure has its place but maybe we need to re-think what exactly is being outsourced. Is it the recruitment, the administration, the management or the people?

I believe we can outsource systems, processes and procedures such as recruitment; administration and the entire management but outsourcing the people can do some real damage to your organisation and brand.

This is going to become a lot more relevant as competition for sponsors, funding and customers grows. Often your volunteers are your biggest assets to create the customer experience. It makes sense that you want to ensure they are managed and looked after well. Investing in good management is essential to achieve positive outcomes.

Volunteers also need to identify with your organisation and this can only be achieved by engaging them in your organisation. It seems illogical to give this part away – the part of aligning people with your vision, goals and values. It is the part that makes your organisation unique and standout and will be the determining part in keeping your event organisation sustainable.

If you want to focus on effective volunteer management and need some help, book in for a FREE Volunteer Management Chat with me.

3 Steps to a Winning Strategy for your Event Volunteer Program

winning strategy

Constantly running against multiple deadlines? There are just so many hours in the day and just so much you can do? Yes this is the reality not just for event managers. This makes it all the harder to make any changes to how and why things are done in your organisation. But effective planning can save you time and money.

Our experience in working with hundreds of events demonstrated that investing time in the planning of your volunteer program will achieve better outcomes for your event and organisation. Creating a better volunteer experience does achieve a better customer experience. It will also increase volunteer retention rates, which will save you time and money in the long run due to less recruitment and training needed.

So why is it that so few event organisers embrace this? Why is the strategic approach beyond the next event missing in organisations? I believe the tendency to contract work in the event industry fuels this short-term vision and prevents people from looking beyond their contracts to ensure sustainable organisations.

However, in this world that gets more competitive every day and where more organisations are looking for the same funding or the same sponsorship dollars, can leaders really afford not to look at opportunities that can provide a higher return in the long run? Wouldn’t it be beneficial even to short-term staff to assist organisations stay sustainable to ensure future work opportunities?

But how do you ensure your investment in volunteer program planning is effective and achieves the expected return? Where do you start? We have put together three simple steps you can do to get started with incorporating more volunteer program planning that achieves a positive impact.

1. Vision and impact of our organisation

Every organisation has a vision but sometimes that is forgotten in the day-to-day routine. It is important to check in regularly that all the actions you are taking within the organisation point to your vision and the impact you want to have locally or even on the world.

Reconnecting to the bigger picture of what your organisation is here to achieve can be very empowering. This is especially true when things are tough or when you have fallen into a routine.

It is also great to share this with the rest of your event team. This will not only re-inspire everyone but it also creates a bigger picture in which you operate as an organisation. It will put all your tasks into context and you will make your decisions with view of the bigger picture, even when under time pressure.

Think about how this would influence your supplier choices for example.

2. Create roles strategically

The outcomes you would like to achieve with your event specifically and with your organisation in the long-term determine the tasks that will achieve those outcomes.

For example, if you would like to have visitors enjoying themselves at the event you can create tasks such as welcoming visitors, being available to provide information about the event site and locations readily, directing visitors around the site to achieve a smooth crowd flow, assisting visitors etc.

Often event organisers create tasks on event day based on what needs to be done in that moment. As these tasks were not planned, people were not recruited and trained specifically and often the connection to the vision or the organisation is missing. The results are poor turn up rates at the event, poor customer service and poor retention rates past the current event.

Volunteer roles that are connected to the outcomes are more meaningful for the volunteer and therefore serve the event by creating better customer experiences. The results are higher turn up and retention rates.

3. The plan

Finally the volunteer roles determine when you need to complete each of the tasks for recruitment, engagement, training and onsite management.

As you are planning each of the tasks you will be very focused on the volunteer roles you have created and the outcomes you want to achieve. Organising this in a timeline or planning document will help you stay on track.

Adopting this approach of planning saves time down the track. Focusing on the outcomes means all your actions will be more effective towards achieving those outcomes.

Why not give it a try? Maybe a few months prior to your next event, spend a day with your team reconnecting to the organisational vision and the outcomes you are trying to achieve. Then plan the volunteer roles and then set the tasks for implementing the volunteer program.

Do you notice a difference? I would be keen to hear your comments on how the planning of your volunteer program is working.

If you would like a simple template to follow this 3-step process download our free Volunteer Program Planning Template.

Program Planning Template

Are you really saving costs with your Event Volunteer Program, and should you?

saving costs

From small to large-scale events, something everyone deals with is allocating limited resources. Often this means that the time frames for event contractors, including volunteer coordinators are getting shorter. This means that the volunteer coordinator is required to plan and implement the volunteer program in less time in the interest of saving costs. But is it really a saving or does it end up a far bigger cost than you thought?

What, for example, are the costs if your volunteers are not treating your event attendees welcoming and friendly? What are the costs if your volunteers don’t know how to help your visitors? What are the costs if your volunteers are stressed out or bored? How does this affect your customer’s experience? What does that mean for your organisation’s brand image?

This is what could happen if the volunteer program is not planned effectively. These costs are not as easy to quantify as a shorter contract for your volunteer coordinator. However, to put this in perspective, would you consider the design of your marketing material a waste of money, for example?

If you’d like to have a better designed brochure, you typically need to invest some time and money and the result is more professional and can leverage more exposure and credibility. And just as a badly designed brochure could have a negative impact on your organisation, poorly planned volunteer programs can have a negative impact on your event outcomes.

Investment in the volunteer program is required to achieve a different outcome. What if you would look at your volunteers as your event day brochure? Your volunteers are the ones on the ground who will be the first contact with your customer, they are the ones who talk about your event and organisation and provide services to your event patrons. Your volunteers can be your professional “brochure” if you value them as people and invest in their experience.

So what does investing in your volunteers mean? Think about your organisational objectives and the event outcomes you want to achieve. Then think about how your volunteers support this. Then design the volunteer experience in your plan.

A solid plan is essential, as it defines the quality of the implementation of your volunteer program.

Volunteer Program Planning

On a regular basis it is important to review and reflect on why your organisation is engaging volunteers. What are the big goals your organisation is out there to achieve and how does your volunteer program support that? This will clarify what to focus on during the implementation phase of the program. It will make the job of the volunteer coordinator and the rest of the event team a lot easier.

For your volunteer program to have a positive impact on your event, you need to allocate time for yourself or your team to plan. A solid planning phase will define the quality of the implementation of your volunteer program.

Your planning phase should include a review of your registration system as well as the processes to attract, engage and train and supervise volunteers. This will clarify your approach to recruitment, engagement, training and onsite management.

When you have a clear plan and a clear goal in mind, the implementation will be easy. Instead of recruiting a certain number of volunteers, you now create a volunteer experience in order to achieve your anticipated outcomes.

Quality rather than quantity

A successful volunteer program is about quality rather than quantity. Quality lets you leverage your efforts to create amazing events for your audiences.

Just like when producing a professional brochure, it is worthwhile investing time and money in your volunteer program. The outcome will be a team of people who will become the extension of your event or organisational brand.

What’s your experience? How do you measure your volunteer program impact?

Program Planning Template

Want help?

If you would like help with your volunteer program planning book in for a 15-minute FREE consultation with me.