Volunteer Recruitment: Make It or Break It

I recently wrote a guest blog for thrivechurchnetwork.com on volunteer recruitment. In this post, I covered four ways you can “Break” or “Make” your volunteer recruitment system. Here is a quick summary of this article.

You can read the article in its entirety here.

Placing Pegs into Holes

Break It: Put Anyone Anywhere – You are saying that “We need people who are willing more than we need people who are able.”

Make It Count: Put the Right Person in the Right Place – Figure out what you need before you start looking. Use that to match the people to the ministry.

Equality vs. Individuality

Break It: Treat Everyone the Same – Use an assembly line to recruit people to people.

Make It Personal: Tell Them Why They Are Being Asked – Make the recruitment process personal. Meet with the person one and one and tell them why they are a good fit.

Presenting Opportunities

Break It: Make All Ministries the Same – You reduce ministries to tables with sign ups.

Make It Exciting: Show Them Why They Want To Be On This Team – Give people the “why” behind the “what” they will be doing.

Explicit Expectations

Break It: Give No Clear Direction – Don’t sign people up, have them show up, and not tell them what needs to be done.

Make It Clear: Show Them What It Is They Will Be Doing – Provide a detailed job description. Allow them to shadow you so you can bring the description to life.

What are some ways in which you have “made it” with volunteers? Have you ever “broken it”?