VOLUNTEER MANAGEMENT PROFESSIONAL DEVELOPMENT SERIES

Managers' Learning Circles

At our July Circle, we will be addressing a fundamental issue in organisational life:

"ORGANISATION CLIMATE AND STAFF MORALE"

The Climate of your Organisation is the State of its Health

How staff (volunteer and paid) feel about their jobs, their supervisors, their peers, top management, and many other factors, affects their individual productivity, and collectively the ability of the organisation to achieve its objectives.

Without a formal process, finding out about staff attitudes usually relies on the manager's instincts or staff’s own willingness to communicate upward. But managerial instinct rarely provides the kind of hard data needed for decision-making. And most staff are hesitant to communicate anything but positive information to their supervisors.

We'll examine strategies for building better morale, particularly actions managers/supervisors can take to promote morale among all (paid and unpaid) staff.

We'll also apply volunteer retention principles to examine program strengths and challenges:

One indication that a program is being managed effectively is that volunteers return again and again. Examining volunteer retention principles allows program managers to evaluate their programs. Volunteer turnover can be a serious problem that impacts on the usefulness of an organisation's services.