The topic of policies and procedures is not one that most administrators of volunteers find exciting. It is probably one area of volunteer management that most struggle with, and with no wonder.

Policies are certainly not exciting or “sexy”, they tend to be dry and they can take a long time to do. They require approval from senior management or the board of directors and they are seen as setting boundaries and focusing on what volunteers cannot do.

Having said that, it is probably one of the most important areas of the volunteer management cycle that needs to be addressed.

This article serves both to reinforce to those agencies that they are doing it right and suggest that maybe they could share their knowledge with others. It also provides some background on why the smaller agencies need to create their own.

Reduce your risk

There are many grassroots organizations that focus on their mandate, mission and goals, but it’s critical to realize that without some screening tools you are putting your communities at risk. Without policies and procedures, we are not protecting our clients or volunteers from harm. We are not giving our volunteers parameters to work within and we are not laying out the standards of excellence that we should be setting for our programs.

Policies are critical to reduce risks around potential inappropriate behaviours. Volunteers come to us for many reasons and sometimes their motivation is not clear at the onset and only through time and evaluation does one find out the true meaning of the volunteer intent.

Unfortunately, there are many stories out there of volunteers who have done things that are just not appropriate.

As an example, I have had many situations where volunteers have taken relationships with clients to a level beyond the scope of their positions. There have been cases where volunteers have contacted clients, or given them rides or offered to lend money, just to name a few. These are extreme cases, but without the volunteers having the tools to know what they can or cannot do, you end up having to fix problems instead of avoiding them.

But policies and procedures are not just for the volunteers. All staff working with volunteers should have a copy of these as well. They are the ones who are supervising and evaluating the volunteer, so it is important that they have the same information as the volunteers.

Numerous benefits can be realized

When you have policies and procedures in place, they’ll serve many helpful functions:

• Set the foundation of how volunteers interact within their volunteer position.
• Define the role of the volunteer and how they are expected to be treated.
• Ensure that staff understand why volunteers are involved and what their roles are.
• Demonstrate the organization’s commitment to both the volunteer program and to the individual volunteer.
• Ensure that everyone is treated fairly.
• Assist in orientation and ongoing support.
• Provide consistency and cohesion across your regions and programs.

Volunteer Canada has created a resource tool called The Canadian Code of Volunteer Involvement. Within this document there are two guiding principles. The first is that, “Volunteers have rights and that organizations recognize that volunteers are a vital human resource and will commit to the appropriate infrastructure to support volunteers.” The second code states that, “Volunteers have responsibilities. Volunteers make a commitment and are accountable to the organization.”

These two codes are pretty standard across organizations, but to ensure that volunteers are staying true to their assignments and representing your organization appropriately, you need to have those policies and procedures! If you don’t have even basic standards on paper, then you are opening yourself up to potential liability and you are not doing your due diligence.

Interestingly, when it comes to policies and procedures, there is not a huge difference between these and the human resource policies of your organization, and they are not too different from agency to agency, either. I would feel comfortable enough to say that the larger organizations and organizations that work with the vulnerable sectors have their policies and procedures down to a fine art; in fact there are probably many.

There are many resources available in Canada and around the world on how to build policies, templates to be used, and even other organizational policies to look at and use as a guidelines. You should not have to invent the wheel, but (to continue the example) if you do not look after the maintenance of your car, eventually it will start to fall apart and your costs will grow incrementally.

So here is a call to action: If you do not have policies and procedures in place after reading this article, please start the process. Talk to your human resource staff, see what you can share with your volunteers and start bridging the gaps today.

Lori Gotlieb is the Manager of Community Engagement for The Arthritis Society, Toronto Region and the founder of Lori Gotlieb Consulting. Lori is an internationally published author and workshop facilitator. Lori can be reached at lori.gotlieb@rogers.com.