{"alias":"blogEntry","byline":"","standfirst":"We always need more volunteers but COVID-19 has made the need evermore pressing.","content":{"layouts":[{"type":"singleColumn","areas":[{"items":[{"gridType":"RichTextBlock","content":"\u003Cp\u003EWe\u2019re getting ready to start a national volunteer recruitment campaign \u2013 coupled with local recruitment activity \u2013 from May onwards. Our volunteers have lots of experience in recruitment so we\u2019re sure they\u2019re going to get some great results, but it\u2019s always nice to seek a little inspiration before getting started.\u003C/p\u003E\n\u003Cp\u003EWe spoke with Amy, a County Commissioner from Lincolnshire, to see what she\u2019s planning. She\u2019s fairly new to the role of County Commissioner, but brings more than 13 years of Scout experience to the table. \u00A0\u003C/p\u003E\n\u003Cp\u003E\u003Cstrong\u003EHave you done much recruitment before? How\u2019s that gone?\u003C/strong\u003E\u003C/p\u003E\n\u003Cp\u003ESince I\u2019ve been in post, I\u2019ve been focusing on recruiting the County team. At this level, it\u2019s rare to get someone in from scratch so I\u2019ve mainly filled posts through the existing membership. I\u2019ve asked people to nominate someone who they think could be a good fit for the role so that I can then approach them and say they\u2019ve been recommended \u2013 this has worked really well, helping us to identify brilliant people who might not have applied otherwise.\u003C/p\u003E\n\u003Cp\u003EHowever, I\u2019ve also made sure to advertise all vacancies as I think it\u2019s important to have a transparent and open approach \u2013 rather than just bringing people in who you already know. I list the vacancies on our county website \u2013 using \u003Cspan\u003E\u003Ca href=\u0022/volunteers/growing-scouts/recruit-more-volunteers/recruiting-lead-volunteers/\u0022 title=\u0022Recruiting managers\u0022\u003Ethe vacancy pack\u003C/a\u003E\u003C/span\u003E from the national Scouts website \u2013 promote the adverts on social media and email them out to people who might be a good fit.\u003C/p\u003E\n\u003Cp\u003EI know there\u2019s a perception that you can only do a role in the district you\u2019re located in, but I\u2019ve been advertising across districts as it\u2019s really valuable to get a fresh perspective \u2013 plus, we can do lots more online now, too. I\u2019ve been challenged about this, but I do really believe you can end up with someone that can bring more to the table if you\u2019re open to trying new things.\u003C/p\u003E\n\u003Cp\u003E\u003Cstrong\u003EWhat roles are you looking to recruit now?\u003C/strong\u003E\u003C/p\u003E\n\u003Cp\u003EOur priority is to recruit section leaders to help deliver activities for young people, but we need a variety of volunteers across the patch too, including executive and management positions and activity leads \u2013 so, we\u2019re looking to get people in to understand their skills and help them find the right role. We\u2019ll select individuals with outstanding engagement skills to have the initial contact with potential volunteers, putting them front and centre.\u003C/p\u003E\n\u003Cp\u003EOur other key focuses are to see how we can retain people who might want to take on reduced hours or a different role and making sure existing volunteers are compliant with essential training requirements.\u003C/p\u003E\n\u003Cp\u003E\u003Cstrong\u003EHow have you planned to recruit?\u003C/strong\u003E\u003C/p\u003E\n\u003Cp\u003EWe\u2019re running a Development Day in May to reenergise and train members in our County (we stole the idea from Norfolk). We\u2019ll focus on key areas like inclusion, being more youth-shaped and of course, recruitment \u2013 the Regional Services Team are doing a \u2018Zoom to the room\u2019 briefing about adult recruitment. The idea is for this day to be the launch of a month of targeted focus on recruitment.\u003C/p\u003E\n\u003Cp\u003EWe\u2019re planning to:\u003C/p\u003E\n\u003Cul\u003E\n\u003Cli\u003EEncourage every member and parent to put up at least one poster in a public space\u003C/li\u003E\n\u003Cli\u003EFund some social media advertisements targeted by postcode, as well as free media posts \u2013 we\u2019ll ask leaders and parents to share everything too\u003C/li\u003E\n\u003Cli\u003ESend out letters, posters and emails to all major local businesses to find people with specific skill sets\u003C/li\u003E\n\u003Cli\u003ETrial advertising on supermarket billboards for a month to see if it works\u003C/li\u003E\n\u003Cli\u003EWork with the local radio station on their community impact day\u003C/li\u003E\n\u003Cli\u003EEngage further with local Universities and Colleges to attract more 18-25 year olds\u003C/li\u003E\n\u003Cli\u003ERun family activity days\u003C/li\u003E\n\u003C/ul\u003E\n\u003Cp\u003EOff the back of that, hopefully people will come through in June/July. We\u2019re trying to standardise and enhance our on-boarding, so anyone who expresses an interest goes through the same experience.\u003C/p\u003E\n\u003Cp\u003ESo that we don\u2019t lose momentum over the summer months, we\u2019re also organising a series of skills weekends just for adult volunteers. We\u2019ll run a variety of activities so people can learn Scout skills and see what all the fun is about.\u003C/p\u003E\n\u003Cp\u003E\u003Cstrong\u003EWhich tools are useful?\u003C/strong\u003E\u003C/p\u003E\n\u003Cp\u003EWe\u2019ve used \u003Cspan\u003E\u003Ca href=\u0022https://scoutsbrand.org.uk/\u0022\u003Ethe brand centre\u003C/a\u003E\u003C/span\u003E a fair bit, like short videos that we\u2019ve top and tailed to personalise them. We\u2019ll email these to schools to use in assemblies and help us bring in more young people. We\u2019ll also send leaflets for book bags, which is where we can put messaging about adult support, too.\u003C/p\u003E\n\u003Cp\u003E\u003Cstrong\u003EFinally, what\u2019s your top tip for others to consider when recruiting volunteers? \u003C/strong\u003E\u003C/p\u003E\n\u003Cp\u003EWe need to open to bringing in wider skillsets and different people. I don\u2019t disagree with recruiting from the parent population, but we should be brave and broad in our reach, too.\u003C/p\u003E\n\u003Cp\u003E-\u003C/p\u003E\n\u003Cp\u003E\u003Cem\u003EThanks Amy for this really interesting insight into your plans to recruit in Lincolnshire. We\u2019ll check back in a few months to see how things have gone.\u003C/em\u003E\u003C/p\u003E\n\u003Cp\u003E\u003Cstrong\u003EFor support recruiting volunteers visit \u003Ca rel=\u0022noopener\u0022 href=\u0022https://www.scouts.org.uk/volunteers/growing-scouts/\u0022 target=\u0022_blank\u0022\u003EGrowing Scouts\u003C/a\u003E.\u003C/strong\u003E\u003C/p\u003E","gtmId":"","gtmClass":""},{"gridType":"callToAction","gtmId":"","gtmClass":"","buttonText":"Check out our other news this month","buttonLink":{"name":"April","id":null,"url":"/news/2021/april/","newWindow":false,"target":null},"colour":{"value":"490499","label":"490499"},"alignment":"left"}]}],"config":null}]},"searchDescription":null,"pageType":null,"location":null,"versionDate":"19 April 2021","reviewDate":null,"furtherReading":[],"relatedLinks":[],"id":48658,"nodeName":"How one county commissioner is recruiting volunteers","title":"How one county commissioner is recruiting volunteers","type":"blogEntry","image":{"url":"/media/5065/adult-support-scout-crafts-jpg.jpg?width=800\u0026height=450\u0026v=1d9becd060f2810","caption":"Adult helping Scouts","type":"jpg","size":1676526,"width":2560,"height":1709,"altText":"Adult helping Scouts"},"assets":null,"headerOptions":{"headerTitle":"How one county commissioner is recruiting volunteers","headerSubTitle":null,"headerCta":null,"headerCtaText":null,"headerCtaLink":null,"headerBackgroundColour":null,"showSEOImage":false,"headerBackgroundImage":null,"quickLinks":null},"subHeader":"We always need more volunteers but COVID-19 has made the need evermore pressing.","browserTitle":null,"silktide":"eyJjbXMiOiJVbWJyYWNvIiwiZWRpdG9yVXJsIjoiaHR0cHM6Ly9wcm9kLWNtcy5zY291dHMub3JnLnVrLy91bWJyYWNvIy9jb250ZW50L2NvbnRlbnQvZWRpdC80ODY1OCJ9","canonicalUrl":"https://www.scouts.org.uk/news/2021/april/how-one-county-commissioner-is-recruiting-volunteers/"}