Recognising and valuing volunteers
From recognition to feedback loops
Whether it’s how we’re greeted in a store, what our boss says about a piece of work, how quickly (or slowly) we respond to clients, how we value volunteers or how we show gratitude to a friend — recognition and feedback are everywhere. Netflix is one of the many organisations shifting how they give feedback and value people, by prioritising radical honesty and immediate value exchange over more traditional ‘slow burn’ recognition systems.
Yet in the ‘for purpose’ sector, many of us have struggled with how to recognise the effort and impact of the people that make up our ‘movements’. Whether you call them volunteers, members, investors or supporters -recognition of the people ‘doing good’ should focus on how to create a sense of connection, to make their action feel valued and show them how their effort contributes to something important.
Feedback loops can build these connections, create momentum and nurture change makers by valuing and giving feedback on moments of action/good, rather than only recognising hierarchy and traditional metrics such as length of tenure, dollars and hours.
Last week organisations, communities and individuals have been celebrating the millions of volunteers across the Australia as a part of National Volunteer Week. The celebrations provide a great opportunity to pause, reflect, recognise and honour the contributions of volunteers — without them many of our programs, services and supports within the community simply would not exist. A large scale national week is great, but should not be seen as the silver bullet for recognition. Yet it’s often one of the few occasions when organisations make a conscious effort to give recognition.
The current approaches for recognition do not go far enough — they lack the immediacy, personalisation and practicality that can really build momentum for doing good in networks and communities. Traditional modes of recognition tend to focus on:
Time as a value exchange
We wait for organisational or program relevant timings to recognise volunteers. For example, annual recognition, end of program recognition or awards that increase recognition based on your length of tenure. These approaches are relevant to those seeking deep and long-term engagement with specific organisations or causes. Recognition in this way will feel less relevant to the broader ‘crowd’ of people who are taking action in more personally meaningful/relevant ways, that may not be captured in our traditional or program view of volunteer.
Focusing on impersonal metrics
Highlighting the number of people and hours contributed may be incredibly useful from an organisational or program perspective. We often model this value exchange based on hours contributed and minimum wage to demonstrate the economic contribution of people and programs to communities or causes. This alone fails to provide the immediate or personally meaningful insights, that can improve the sense of connection between your individual effort/action and how this contributes to the bigger picture.
Why we need to change how we think about recognition
There are a number of trends that are influencing not only the way we do good but the role organisations and movements should play in recognition and feedback:
Doing good through moments
The way people volunteer or take action has changed dramatically over the last couple of decades. Individuals are now involved with multiple causes and organisations, inadvertently building an individual ‘portfolio’ of action/volunteering . Loose affiliations means that people are more regularly changing the cause, organisation or role they choose to be involved with based on their own changing context — such as life stage/events, professional expertise, ease of engagement, social networks and availability. This means that many volunteers are not looking for one long-term role or program, instead many people are looking for ‘moments’ to do good. Opportunities that are individually relevant or impactful and connected to their life.
Direct action and impact
Technology has been a key enabler for the increased visibility and number of self-organising groups and movements emerging globally. Successful self-organising groups and movements spark action in ways that are easy, immediate and personally meaningful. They also show tangible connections between these often ‘small’ acts and the bigger global issue or impact it contributes to. This makes it easy for individuals to bypass structured organisations in search of more personally proximate ways to do good and clarity about how their effort contributes specifically to the impact.
How we can move from recognition to feedback loops
As organisations, programs and services we have an opportunity to reframe the way we recognise, acknowledge and nurture the participation of individuals and communities in doing good. Moving from recognition to ‘feedback loops’ requires us to focus on three areas:
Frequency and timeliness
Give feedback in informal and small ways — often. We operate in feedback-oriented processes and systems already, for example, how long it takes to complete a form, the thank you note at the end of a survey, how quickly we return phone calls/emails or how easy we make it to be part of our group or organisation. Feedback loops can be built into every step of your volunteer or crowd lifecycle. The more positive feedback loops we can introduce early on in the experience, the greater the likelihood that we can engage, sustain or re-engage people to do more good.
Make it personal
Proximity matters in how we motivate and sustain doing good. Positive feedback loops need to be relevant and meaningful to individuals and how they are connected with you, the organisation and cause. A blanket thankyou from the CEO will be meaningful to some and at some points in time, but more importantly feedback needs to show the value of your individual connection to ‘us’ through each moment.
Show the progress
Individuals are often motivated by aspirations to have impact on ‘global’ issues (large scale societal issues or causes) and often want to take action in ‘hyperlocal’ ways (mobilising and connecting their network and on issues that are personally meaningful). Effective feedback loops build experiences that show you the connection between the hyperlocal (your impact/effort) and global impact. Finding ways to break down recognition into bite size ‘feedback loops’ to show how your action (not matter how small) connects and contributes to the bigger picture.
Providing immediate, personal and tangible feedback is a critical role for volunteer involving organisations and movements. Not only to show the individual contribution, but to change the conversation about how we value and recognise people doing good. Finding more meaningful ways to value and give feedback on moments of action and good (rather than rewarding hierarchy and long-term relationships alone) will help to build connections, create momentum and mobilise the power of people helping people to create change.
