Training Session AiS

1
Recruitment Techniques

• Training Session AiS
• Maria Helena Guerra

2
Trail map

• Recruitment approaches from other organizations
• Recruitment techniques
• Role play to implement

3
Recruitment

• Recruitment is the act of identifying groups and
  individuals for service, and then actually ASKING
  THEM to volunteer
• Susan Ellis, The Volunteer Recruitment Book

4
Why do we recruit?

• Spread the work among our volunteers
• Keep alive
• For new ideas
• To acomplish the work that needs to be done
• To growth
• Because we are loosing volunteers
• ...

5
Recruiting Adults

• There are many ways to recruit volunteers

Your choice of techniques will depend on the type
of volunteers you are looking for and the tasks
you need them to perfom
6
Blood Donor RT

• Face-to-face

The potential donor realizes how important
his/her donation is and how many people he/she
may be helping

• Enthusiasm

Enthusiastic advertisment commitment

• Be prepared

Brochures and pledge cards on hand,...
To touch the hearts

• Use of opening phrases

• Information

About the process acknowledge their fears
Source www.nybloodcenter.org (Feb 2005)
7
Student Activism RT

• Connection

Shared aspects makes the connection more personal
(a class, same hometown or neighborhood, a person
known in common,...)

• Context

Background/history on the issues

• Commitment

Clearly identify the tasks

• Catapult

Start small and be clear about what are the next
steps
Source www.phrusa.org/students/recruitment.html
(Feb 2005)
8
New Religious Movements RT

Cult methods of recruiting are not exotic forms
of mind control, but only more intensely applied
mundane tatics of social influence

• Reciprocity

The offer of free things (daily messages,
personality tests, subscription to newsletters,
books, audiotapes,...)

• Authority

The availability of an expert on-line, through
e-mails, movies, newsletters

• Linking

Friendliness, smiling people, ethnically diverse
people

• Scarcity

Cosmic awareness and bliss change the world/self
instantly
Source KJAERLAND, Maria et all. An exploration
and comparison of recruitment techniques
exhibited by bible-based and non-christian new
religious movements on the world wide web.
University of Liverpool
9
Gang RT

• Seduction

They create glorified myths about the gang that
are very attractive to new recruits

• Subterfuge

Misrepresentation of what the gang really is and
what the it stands for

• Obligation

Gang members will do a favor or make a loan of
something to a prospective recruit and demand
that they give loyalty as payback

• Cohersion

Used most often by large gangs in chronic gang
cities, during times of gang conflict

• Self recruitment

The reasons are many and not always because the
individual sees the gang as glamorous (necessity,
money, protection)
Source Urban Dynamics, Inc. Comprehensive
Community Reanimation Process
10
Firms bolster RT

• Behavior-based interviews

To know about their energy, ambition and
personality. To see communication skills,
ability to work in team environment and
willigness to learn

• Team involvment

Involving staff in the hiring process, so they
can see the candidates in different settings and
have a voice in choosing their future team members

• Bottom-line impact

Hiring practices affect a firm for years.
Probing, coaching, motivating, counseling and
career path planning will eventually increase the
botton line and the potencial for long-term
employees
Source BAST, Gail (2002) Firms bolster
recruitment techniques. The Wisconsin CPA
11
Word of Mouth
References to friends and relatives

• Pros
• most effective method
• least expensive
• particularly useful in smaller communities

• Cons
• Little diversity
• Risk of being unprepared to initiating the new
  volunteers

12
Personal Contact
Direct invitation

• Pros
• Targeted and effective
• Team cohesion
• Risk minimization
• Used particularly in internal recruitment

• Cons
• Little diversity
• Few cases

13
Recruitment Campaign
Bring-a-friend campaign, contests for
recruitment, Open house

• Pros
• Can double your work force for the day
• The host volunteer will accompany the visitor
• Its attractive and fun

• Cons
• Unlekely to show the job
• Risk of loosing the meaning and purpose

14
Approaching community groups
Arrange presentations to local groups (to inform
and to recruit)

• Pros
• Enhances the visibility of the Association
• Promotes the recognition of volunteers work

• Cons
• Risk of ineffectiveness
• Could create tension inside the community
• Volunteers too much used to work in a specific
  way

15
Approaching local companies
Recruiting individual employees or groups, within
a partnership, to perform one-off challenges

• Pros
• Enhances the visibility of the Association
• Promotes the recognition of volunteers work
• Once employees are volunteering, the company
  might also be willing to offer additional support

• Cons
• Risk of ineffectiveness
• Risk of too technical volunteers
• Oriented to short-term tasks

16
Partnerships
Agreements with local educational institutions in
order to create training programmes for students
(apprenticeship)

• Pros
• Could become a long-term source of volunteers
• Involvement of senior experts
• Potential contact with frontline knowledge
• Enhance the visibility of the Association
• Promote the recognition of volunteers work
• Other kind of support or advantages

• Cons
• Risk of too technical volunteers
• Oriented to short-term tasks

17
Direct mailing to former scouts

• Pros
• Recruiting volunteers already within the
  Movements spirits
• Could be focused on people who have already
  passed some critical moments
• Family involvement

Contacting former scouts by letter, postcard or
e-mail asking for their return (make a party of
it!)

• Cons
• Risk of revisiting some old conflicts
• Risk of conflict if people return trying to
  impose old ideas
• Risk of recruiting people who come just cause
  their kids joined scouting (over-protetion)

18
Direct mailing to other groups
Contacting specific groups of individuals by
letter, postcard or e-mail inviting them to join
scouting (an outdoor activity)

• Pros
• Targeted
• Potential diversity (if invested in different
  groups)

• Cons
• Risk of ineffectiveness
• Potencial recruitment of volunteers too much
  used to work in a specific way

19
Advertising in the Media
Advertising in newspapers, radio, TV and feature
articles

• Pros
• Enhance the visibility of the Association
• Promote the recognition of volunteers work

• Cons
• Can involve financial investment
• Difficulties in reaching some media forms
• Unlikely to have much impact
• Inflexible layout (press advertising)

20
Special Events and Fairs
Displays, exhibits and booths

• Pros
• Enhance the visibility of the Association
• Promote the recognition of volunteers work
• Opportunity to face-to-face recruitment
• Particularly useful in smaller communities

• Cons
• Involve financial investment
• Can involve a lot of work without return in
  recruitment

21
Printed Material
Newsletters, pamphlets, brochures, fliers, posters

• Pros
• Can target particular audiences
• Eye-catching designs can create a good image
• Becomes increasingly cheap and easy to produce

• Cons
• Can involve financial investment
• Unlikely to have much impact
• Tends to circulate for a long time and produce
  poor results (out of date)

22
Volunteer Centres
Job centres for voluntary work

• Pros
• People referred to by a volunteer centre will
  have seen an outline of the work
• Some volunteer centres may provide advice

• Cons
• Unlikely to provide instant results
• Not widely spread
• Risk of misleading information

23
Website
Institutional homepage with recruitment area

• Pros
• Cheap and easy to produce
• Worldwide

• Cons
• Unlikely to have much impact
• Only viewed by usual visitors
• Risk of misleading information

24
Outdoor notices at headquarters
Visible identity notices at Association facilities

• Pros
• Enhance the visibility of the Association
• Act as an identification sign for foreigners,
  people recently moved to the community
• One-off work

• Cons
• Recruitment not explicit and static

25
Whatever technique...

• Be sure you have the volunteer jobs for the
  volunteers you are recruiting
• Produce your recruitment advertisement in such a
  way as to appeal to the right volunteer
• Include the benefits of volunteering
• Be clear about your expectations of time
  commitments
• Describe the organization and its mission
• Outline the support and training which will be
  provided

26
Secrets of Success

• Sincerity (be honest and open about your
  volunteer programme)
• Passion (enthusiasm is contagious)
• Innovation (be creative and flexible and remember
  to have fun)
• Risk-taking (be willing to break the bureaucratic
  mould)
• Inclusiveness (be inclusive and empowering of
  others)
• Thinking like a visionary (envision things the
  way they could be, not just the way they are, and
  think strategically)