To ensure a good corps there are number of activities that needs to be carried out from the recruiting and all the way to the leaving of a volunteer from the corps.

Recruitment, team spirit, the best possible use and continuously optimizing of our corps of volunteer is a crucial effort in Early Warning. We must continuously ensure recruitment and access to competent and committed people, and that we are skillful in using their competences, and that the corps is an attractive network that the individual volunteer wants to be a part of. Below you will find what we in EWDK has found appropriate.

Recruitment
When recruiting, a conversation with the candidate is held. Present in the meeting are the regional project manager and an experienced volunteer (who is typically the regional member of FRR (Member of Volunteers Council). If the project manager, in consent with the FFR-member, estimates that the candidate should be taken as member of the corps, the following points need to be followed:

  • Signing the agreement for Volunteer Mentors regarding admission in the corps of volunteers. 
  • Add the volunteer’s CV in the CRM. The new volunteers must accept that the CV can be send out to other without prior approval.
  • Sending a welcome mail. Other regional project managers, the national project manager, the volunteer that participated in the meeting and possible other EW consultants in the region are CC.
  • It is recommended that the new volunteer places a short description of him/ her on our closed LinkedIn group.
  • Together with the volunteer plan how he/ she should be introduced to the task. It can be together with an experienced volunteer or by associating the volunteer with an experienced one as a mentor.
  • Make clear to the volunteer that we expect that he/ she prioritizes participating in minimum the national meeting, annual meeting and the regional gatherings.

The first half year: Integration

  • The regional project manager makes sure that the new volunteer is appointed tasks.
  • Follow-up conversation after a period’s experience with concrete tasks.

Continuously follow-ups

  • The regional project manager must be in regular contact with the volunteers (arrangements, solutions of tasks, reporting to project manager etc.)
  • The volunteers that do not sign up for tasks, and with whom the project manager have no contact, will be contacted to clarify the cause for the lack of interest. It must be considered whether the volunteer wishes to remain, and whether the regional project manager wants the volunteer to continue.

Exit of volunteers

  • Volunteers that choose to resign, gets phone call from the project manager for further explanation of the underlying causes.
  • Volunteers whom the regional project manager estimates as not having the right behavior, are invited to a meet, where the volunteer is confronted with the project manager’s point of view. If necessary, an experienced volunteer can be involved in the meeting and in the following decision about the volunteer’s association with Early Warning.
  • If the regional project manager in advance has decided that the concerned volunteer should exit the corps, the volunteer is invited to a meeting. At the meeting the project manager explains his/her choice and the following arguments. It is important that this meeting is held in a respectful manner and with dignity, and that we say thanks for the contribution that volunteer have given.

Crucial elements in maintaining the corps

  • The values of Early Warning must be underlined in the contact with our corps.
  • All volunteers must feel like they are being listened to, seen and acknowledged.
  •  We shall have those we need and we shall use those we have.
  • We need to be good at using the individual volunteer’s competences.
  • We need to be good at giving both positive and negative feedback to volunteers.
  • We need to communicate precisely: This is what we want and this what we do not want.
  • We need to be good at allowing the volunteer to feel that he/she can easily build up an attractive network via Early Warning.
  • Volunteers that no longer have the necessary competences and/or have an unacceptable behavior, must be taken out of the corps.