What could cars and oil changes possibly have to do with building successful volunteer-staff teams? If you are scratching your head, then read on…

The analogy comes from Donna Lockhart, CVRM, of RETHINK GROUP. Her father always told her that the best and most simple thing she could do to increase the life of her car was to change the oil every 5,000 kilometres. When you do something on a regular basis, it helps to increase the life span and the performance of the car. This same principle applies to investing in volunteer-staff team building, as Lockhart explains in the following way:

Short-term outcomes: (oil change every 5,000km) Investing in building a volunteer-staff team in the short term helps to raise, discuss, and work to eliminate wrong perspectives and misconceptions about who the volunteers are and what they are willing and not willing to do. Change only happens when people start listening to each other and working together. Then the organization can move toward greater efficiency and effectiveness.

Regular support and maintenance helps teams to function well and increases everyone’s knowledge about roles. The more information people have, the more engaged they are and the less likely to feel threatened. Those regular ‘oil changes’ are also like completing the goals in a strategic plan…each completed one moves the organization closer to its vision and that builds better understanding, develops a framework for volunteer engagement, helps staff understand their roles with volunteers, etc. These are all short-term outcomes leading to a longer vision of being a cohesive volunteer-staff team.

Long-term outcomes: (car runs better for longer) Over the long term, a culture of caring and valuing the efforts of both staff and volunteers means that the vision, mission and goals of the organization can be accomplished with greater efficiency. People want to work in organizations where a positive culture exists. When teams work well together they actually get stronger. A stronger image starts to emerge. When this happens, recruitment of both staff and volunteers should be easier. There also should be less turnover…and since recruitment and retention issues are major challenges today (both for staff and volunteers) this is a great long-term outcome. An organization with a strong positive image is a magnet for volunteers and staff seeking meaningful experiences. Better run organizations are also more creative and more successful at attracting funding, which continues to translate into being more sustainable.

Successful volunteer-staff team building can take two forms

Volunteer-staff team building can be an actual event or exercise, or it can be a process or approach. At Hamilton Health Sciences, where , CVRM, is the manager of volunteer resources, she finds that the most effective team building exercises are ones where the group must construct, build or complete a task in a limited amount of time while competing against others. This encourages the group to work together to the best of their ability. However, it is very important following the exercise to debrief.  “The value of the exercise is understanding team dynamics in any environment,” says McGrattan. “Did someone become a leader? What kind of consensus was there in making decisions? Did anyone not contribute? What where the roadblocks or challenges? What worked well? How were you feeling during the exercise? These are important questions to ask after the fact and to help people stop and really think about others and what they might be thinking.”

In ‘s experience, team building is a process. She is the director of volunteer services and events for the Boys and Girls Clubs of Winnipeg and states that volunteer-staff team building “is about building community and it doesn’t happen right away. It’s about developing a culture within your organization that utilizes volunteers.” She also notes that creating this type of culture fits very well with the core values of the Boys and Girls Club of Winnipeg: inclusion, opportunity, respect, belonging, empowerment and collaboration.

The very real barriers to successful volunteer-staff team building

Having said how important volunteer-staff team building is, it’s also important to acknowledge the barriers that exist. The first barrier that McGrattan identifies is that it can be threatening for staff to have volunteers present, and that means that staff doesn’t always embrace volunteers. As a result, says Lockhart, it is important to respect the staff perspective and then work with staff to demonstrate that volunteers are not there to take work away from staff. Instead, volunteers supports the work of staff and in the end meet the goals of the organization. Both paid staff and volunteers have the same purpose – to fulfill the mandate of the organization.

A lack of leadership from both the board and senior staff to commit to and follow through on developing a new team approach is another barrier identified by Lockhart. She asserts, “Building a team is not a one shot event but a process over time. It means getting everyone on board at all levels of staff.” That involves assessing the current situation, clarifying the concerns, and determining the issues that need to be addressed if there is going to be an organization-wide commitment to building a strong volunteer-staff team. A philosophy and commitment to both staff and volunteers needs to be developed together.

Knowing that the relationship between an organization’s staff and its volunteers is crucial to its overall success, the HR Council for the Voluntary & Non-profit Sector thought it was important to include a new section of information and resources on staff-volunteer relations in its newly expanded and relaunched HR Toolkit. “Managing the efforts of both paid employees and volunteers isn’t always easy,” comments communications manager Lee Rose, “Volunteers may have different expectations and come into an organization with skills or knowledge that they want to share. Staff members often work as coordinators, placing the right volunteer in the right role at the right time. If it’s going to work out, it’s important to tap into the strengths of both staff and volunteers to achieve desired results.”

So, just like the benefits of regular oil changes for Lockhart’s car, an organization that regularly invests in volunteer-staff team building is an organization that will run more smoothly and longer as volunteers and staff work together to meet the mission and mandate of their organization.

Louise Chatterton Luchuk is a freelance writer and consultant who combines her love of writing with experience at the local, provincial and national levels of volunteer-involving organizations. For more information, visit www.luchuk.com.

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