|
Providing Ongoing Evaluation and Feedback
Volunteer Program Managers do not commonly look forward to the prospect of conducting an evaluation of a volunteer with great enthusiasm.
Staff who work with volunteers may be even less enthusiastic. Many volunteer programs, in truth, cannot even claim to have a process for volunteer evaluation, except in a very loose sense. Evaluation, however, is not something to be avoided, especially if you realise that it can be a positive management device.
Why Evaluate Volunteers?
Rather than dreading the prospect of evaluation, the smart Volunteer Program Manager should realise two important facts:
Most volunteers want to do the best job they can.
The absence of feedback and assistance is bothdemeaning and disturbing to them.
Most volunteers will “win” in assessment situations.
Failing to evaluate a volunteer sends a clear messagethat you don’t care about the quality of the work,and that you don’t care much about the volunteer.Both volunteers who know they aren’t doing welland those who think they should be congratulated for good work will think less of the volunteer effort,and of you, if evaluations are not conducted.
There are two basic reasons for conducting volunteer evaluations:
1. To help the volunteers work closer to her/his potential.
2. To help the organization
|