On-boarding together – Youth Volunteering

What challenge inspired this recipe?

In the last 2 years we faced the challenge that it is very hard for us to start a long term volunteering group at the same time. Many factors cause it: last minute cancellation at the beginning or the project, long Visa process, someone leaving earlier or sent home earlier so we need to replace the mobility, personal issues etc. When a new volunteer arrives to an already established group it means that we need to put extra effort to include the new person, provide on-boarding and team building. It can be also challenging for the rest of the group as well. Next to our already existing on-boarding process we had to come up with a more flexible and tailor made support in case of new arrivals. In the process all the youth workers and volunteers are taking part.

✍️Egysek

Ingredients :

It depends what training methods you would like to use for the on-boarding.

Step by step guide

First step is the communication towards the group that shortly new volunteers or volunteers are going to be arriving to the group. Usually we notify the volunteers when we start the selection process with the applicant. We also appoint one person who is going to be the buddy of the new volunteer for a month.

Before arrival:

Once the volunteer is accepted for the project we organize an online meeting for the rest of the group and new volunteers. During the process the volunteers can meet each other before the arrival, the new volunteer can ask questions and also the rest of the group can share important things on preparation and arrival.

After arrival:

The coordinator and youth workers prepare the on-boarding plan and the involvement of the volunteers in it. From the side of the organizations we prepare a 3 day long on-boarding. We also involve one team building day

Introduction of Egyesek and volunteering with us
Visiting the field and being an observer – after workshop about our work
Involvement partially in the work – methodology and how do we work

Responsibilities of the buddy:

The buddy is responsible to arrange meetings (with the involvement of the others) and onboard the volunteer based on the following topics:

living together, common rules, routines, activities
sightseeing in the town
talking about how to get on board with the work
technical support and answering questions
one informal event together

Once the one month of joint on-boarding is done the coordinator and youth workers evaluate the on-boarding part together with volunteers, exchanging feedback and explaining the next steps in the project.

Important to highlight!

We think this practice is a success:

the already existing group feels more responsibility to include the newcomers and they get the proper preparation for that;
the newcomer feels more calm when talking to the rest of the group before the arrival , there is already a sense of belonging to the group;
once the new volunteer get the information the next day can already practice it;
the volunteer get targeted assistance from the appointed buddy;

Before you start cooking, keep in mind…

In case you always do group on-boarding since your volunteers arrive at the same time this practice cannot be used.