Volunteer Policy
POLICY
Each SPCA must adopt a policy on volunteers, have this policy documented and keep to it rigidly. A volunteer programme based on this should be developed. The reason most volunteers give up or cause problems is the lack of management and the “take-it-as-it-comes” approach of SPCAs.
Policy must include age specifications. For example, if you accept volunteers under the age of 16, you might specify that they must be under parental control and supervision at all times. Would you introduce an indemnity form (two “master copies” included in this Operations Manual) in case a volunteer is injured, bitten or hit by a falling roof tile when on duty? Would you specify any health requirements such as a full course of anti-rabies vaccinations to have been completed by anyone coming into direct contact with animals?
Would your policy include the need to reveal any criminal convictions, the maximum number of volunteers present at one time, a training period that has to be completed and a roster for duties? Your policy should outline what is acceptable in terms of dress, behaviour, bounds of responsibility and so forth.
Volunteers are simply unpaid staff members. If you have requirements such as a need for punctuality – say so.
DEFINE YOUR NEEDS
Be realistic. You often find young people who “want to be a vet” coming to an SPCA thinking they can play doctor or young people who “love animals” wanting to come along and pet them or play with them. You are a professional operation. When you define your needs, do so carefully and write your needs down. The last thing you need is to become a child-minding operation or a dumping ground for bored youngsters or a training programme during student holidays.
You may need legal advice, secretarial help, a plumber, gardener, retired teacher and so on. If your need is NOT someone to be shown and trained how to handle and groom animals, then be realistic and say so. A professional groomer to come in twice a week and groom for you at no cost is an entirely different situation.
Far too often, the SPCA is seen as something to do or somewhere to go with the onus on you to supervise, train and take responsibility. That is not how it should work. You define your needs, list them and then look for voluntary help to match them. Volunteers should be matched to your requirements not the other way round.
If you really stopped and asked yourselves what your requirements were, they would probably be a volunteer legal advisor, teacher, plumber, fund raiser, secretary and someone with the ability to supervise. Volunteer veterinary students, groomers, dog trainers (who use humane methods), animal behaviourists are what you would choose if you could. If none have volunteered – ASK!
CONSIDER THE LAW
We do not have the answers as situations change from time to time but we do urge caution in terms of young people and implications of working (albeit unpaid) plus liability if anything goes wrong. For example, someone badly bitten whilst dipping a dog, a volunteer who contracts ringworm (or worse) from an animal, is a genuine consideration. Your policy should have defined if volunteers are allowed to travel in or drive an SPCA vehicle and, if so, under what circumstances. Insurance issues then arise. Cover all bases before moving forward.
SCREENING SPCAs are usually only too grateful when someone offers help that they either fail to screen the person or people or are hesitant to do so for fear of causing offence. Screening is essential.
Interview a potential volunteer the way you would interview a potential new member of staff. NSPCA Operations Manual 2020 Section 3-5: Page 2
Organisations like LIFELINE have a strict screening process, an introductory training programme and a “pass-or-fail” at the end of it to establish who is suitable to work for them on a voluntary basis. We need to check the age of the potential volunteer, what skills he or she can offer (not what YOU can train them in), what commitment he or she can make, why he or she wishes to volunteer – and if he or she has any criminal convictions. We are not opposing rehabilitation or community service but the animals are in our care and our top priority. Yet we know of an instance when a person convicted of child molestation was volunteering at an SPCA.
Make sure that you have everything in writing: – name, address, contact details, next of kin and so on. A copy of the identity document of each person volunteering at your SPCA is a minimum requirement in order to prove identity and to trace the person for whatever reason. Accidents do happen. So does theft.
The reason why someone wishes to volunteer at the SPCA is often a good indicator as to the person’s potential value to you. A love of animals may be a good start but an SPCA is not a petting farm. You have serious work to do.
ORIENTATION / TRAINING
Volunteers often come in brimming with enthusiasm but failing to understand why, for example, you don’t plaster details of animals for adoption on lamp-posts and don’t simply give pets away free to good homes. It is worth the time and trouble to hold a short orientation course for new volunteers. It may take only a few hours or even an hour a week but it is essential that each volunteer is adequately versed in the SPCA Act (Rules), as well as your own policies, by-laws and operations. It may take time but it is time saving when you consider the potential damage that can be done when a volunteer gives the wrong information or goes public with details of euthanase figures and so on. The SA GARDENING magazine recently published advice given to the writer by “A senior volunteer at the SPCA Sandton twenty years ago.” Really!
Brief the volunteers on what they may and may not do. This includes talking to the media, advising the public on animal care or taking on the mantle of “the SPCA”.
When a mother says her daughter “will be able to groom horses if you show her how it’s done and keep watching whilst she does it” – this is not what we mean by training.
LIFELINE and HOSPICE have tailored programmes for volunteers to orientate them to the aims, policies and operations of the organisation. This includes aptitude for the work to be done and basic but essential training in the aspects of the work they will be doing.
Likewise with SPCAs. It is too easy when a complaint comes in of shoddy or inefficient handling of a telephone call to say, “Oh, she was a young volunteer.” Should volunteers be answering the telephone? Should you be training volunteers in these skills or should you be bringing on board people with the skills you need and can use?
The daily policies and procedures put in place should be explained and adhered to by all, including Committee members in the role of a volunteer.
Volunteers should be told that if a staff-related problem is observed, it should be drawn to the attention of the manager and not dealt with by the volunteer (no matter who the volunteer is)
JOB DESCRIPTIONS
We are serious! More volunteers give up because they spend time hanging around or don’t know what is expected of them, than for any other reason. Be specific. Speak to the person and advise of the starting time and any other details you may feel would be helpful. Volunteers feel unwanted when you tell them they can come in “Whenever suits you”. It is equally frustrating when your own staff is run off your feet and you find three volunteers “on lunch”.
Include the authority and restrictions for the volunteer. NSPCA Operations Manual 2020 Section 3-5: Page 3
Emphasise that ANY volunteer takes instruction from the Manager and must not give instructions to other staff. This includes situations where Committee members are at the SPCA in the capacity of volunteers. If you as a Committee member, ask a staff member to do something, you could be undermining the authority of the Manager who could have asked the same person to do something else. It is a question of protocol and courtesy. It is being professional.
ROTAS
These are essential. Far too often, a volunteer turns up only when he or she feels like it or arrives late with an excuse such as a late night or just feeling tired. You can’t operate like this. It may happen that one week you have no-one, the next week each volunteer brings friends along. A professional organisation cannot work like that.
Setting up a standard time, say 08h30, for a staff briefing which will include volunteers is a good idea. You would outline the priorities for the day, who will be doing what and any special or specific messages you might wish to convey.
Work out rotas, advise the volunteers and stick to them.
A volunteer’s ability to keep to a rota or arrive on time is a good indicator of how seriously the person takes the voluntary work and how suitable he or she might be for any paid or permanent position that could become available.
If a volunteer can’t commit in this way or lets you down badly, then the value of that person and his / her commitment must be questioned.
It has been the experience of many SPCAs that you have to be quite firm (especially during holidays) regarding arrival and departure times. A volunteer is perhaps dropped off at 07h00 because a parent goes that way to work. This is not how volunteer programmes should run. How they get to you is their business. You are neither the lift club nor the minder.
HIRE AND FIRE THE SAME WAY
Much as voluntary help is appreciated, it needs to be remembered that individuals can be instructed to leave if the behaviour is not up to standard or if there has been any kind of breach of protocol or misbehaviour. Use the same criteria to “hire” volunteers as you would your own staff. Use the same criteria when it comes to telling a volunteer to stop coming to the SPCA. Do not risk your good name, reputation or compromise the welfare of animals in any way by the voluntary staff you “employ”.
WORDS OF WARNING
SPCAs frequently receive approaches from people overseas who wish to work with animals on a voluntary basis. They often motivate this by saying they could see Africa at the same time or learn English at the same time etc. There are frequently hidden costs to you plus pitfalls that you need to be aware of.
Many of these people ask for basic living costs or a “stipend” to be paid. A person living in the USA, Germany or other first world country’s idea of ‘basic living costs” or “stipend” may be quite different from what you could afford or even in excess of what you pay your existing staff.
The NSPCA advises such applicants that affirmative action is legislated in South Africa. If an overseas volunteer has skills that could be imparted to local people – skills we do not already possess – then a work permit could be applied for but that this process could take up to two years.
The key to successful volunteer programmes is identification of needs, planning, management, supervision and STRUCTURE.