The Management of Volunteers in the National Trust [UK] (2016)
01/03/2017
The Management of Volunteers in the National Trust. To what extent is the management of volunteers similar or different to the management of paid staff within the National Trust? A commissioned study by the National Trust 2013-2015
A Greene, J Ward, Leicester Business School, De Montfort University Leicester, UK [2016]
Available free from: https://www.dmu.ac.uk/documents/research-documents/business-and-law/hrm/crowe/managing-a-volunteer-workforce-report-june-2016-final.pdf
The research is based on the staff at two medium sized National Trust houses in the UK and aims to understand: (1) what it means to manage a volunteer in the National Trust; (2) the nature of similarities or differences between the management of volunteers and paid staff; and (3) the implications of these similarities or differences for policy, resourcing and strategic planning around volunteer management within the National Trust.
The study used interviews and arts-based techniques with staff and volunteers and it includes a lot of quotes from both. Although not emphasised in the report, it is apparent that the two sites have very different management approaches and that management practices are inconsistent between individual managers. For example, one manager would never allow a volunteer to operate the till in the shop while another is happy for a volunteer to run the shop alone.
They found:
"…we can, with confidence, argue that in practice, the management of volunteers within the National Trust is, and should be, significantly different to the management of paid staff. These differences can be classified around five broad, yet interconnected, themes:
1) Performance Management
2) Communication
3) Task Differentiation
4) Trust and Fear V Autonomy and Creativity
5) Emotional Labour" (Report, page 5)
The researchers made some recommendations for management policy and practices:
- Recognise emotional labour as a key leadership and management skill.
Management and volunteer belief and buy-in to the mission of the organisation is the most powerful motivation (or demotivation) for volunteers.
- Assess the impact of long term secondments
This refers to the issue of imbalance between very long-term volunteers who have very high emotional attachment and legacy knowledge to a house, and management who are moved between sites every few years.
- Encourage local empowerment
This is in response to a National Trust culture program which wished to reverse a previous finding that volunteers have a greater affinity and commitment to the house in which they work than the National Trust overall. This report's authors suggest harnessing the volunteers' affinity rather than trying to replace it.
- Be responsive to volunteer voices
Volunteers are marginalised or ignored in decision-making about the houses despite often having greater knowledge of the house, and sometimes great skill and knowledge gained from previous employments. While some volunteers relish the opportunity to work without using these skills, some can feel frustrated that, to them, obvious actions are not taken.
- Reflect on the appropriateness, utility and impact of the Volunteer Recommendation being a KPI for property managers.
This is a comment on a KPI (Key Performance Indicator) assessment measure used for managers and staff. The concern is that staff wanting to get a 'good' score may not undertake needed but unpopular management actions. This in turn can lead to stress for the staff (or even, as in one case quoted, where the manager simply goes back and fixes mistakes without ever telling the volunteer about the error).
Overall this is an interesting snapshot of the opinions of managers and volunteers in a setting which involves a lot of often unskilled volunteer work in locations to which the volunteers can have significant emotional attachment. It is valuable reading for senior and operational managers of groups of volunteers.