Volunteering at Dogs Trust Basildon Volunteering History of

Volunteering at Dogs Trust Basildon

Volunteering • History of volunteering within Dogs Trust, and the issues faced by centres • Pilot Scheme for the ‘new face of Volunteering’ • Recruitment of volunteers • Volunteer Roles • Retention of volunteers • Rota’s • Absence • A word from our volunteers • Questions and answers

Introduction • Karina Grimwade - Volunteer Coordinator and Line Manager for Home from Home fostering scheme • • Background in people management and customer service Been with Dogs Trust since opening of Basildon centre Passionate about animal welfare and so had a career change to move into this area Special place in my heart for the ‘waifs and strays’ and often found with a dog who needs a little extra TLC

History Volunteering has been an every day part of life since Dogs Trust began as NCDL in 1891. With the opening of the first rehoming centre in Bridgend in 1966 our volunteers became an even more integral part of Dogs Trust life. As time went on and volunteers were utilised for more and more roles each centre worked slightly differently, meaning there was no real ‘template’ for how things should be done. Inevitably this created some problems that were recurrent in multiple centres, some of the main problems were: • • • No rotas No time commitment No ‘go to’ person for volunteers to have regular contact Basic application process Lack of integration with the staff A revised volunteer scheme was introduced at Basildon when the centre opened in 2014 to try to integrate volunteers into the teams more, and to try to ensure that the volunteers time was being used wisely. The pilot scheme was a success at Basildon, and has since been rolled out to the Manchester centre, and partially rolled out to some of our other older centres. The scheme will be used as a template for future centres that Dogs Trust open.

The ‘new face’ of Volunteering • The vision • The challenge • Initial application process when the centre first opened Ø Ø Ø Applications Shortlisting Selection event Outcome Feedback • Integration and on-going interaction

Ongoing Recruitment • • Competition to become a volunteer Role descriptions Application forms Advertising Selection event Induction On the job training Uniform and name badges

Volunteer Roles • What do you want volunteers to do? • Create new roles as the team develops ØCanine Assistants ØVisitor Support ØHome Visits ØMaintenance ØGardening ØKennel Cuddlers ØDog Walkers

Retention of volunteers • 72% retention rate at Basildon – compared to some centres estimating their retention rate to be less than 20% • Volunteers have been given an opportunity to work with us, they have earned it, and so therefore are more likely to stay • Invitations to training sessions • Invitations to fun days and staff outings • Christmas awards • Volunteering at events • Merit certificates

Rota’s and volunteer levels One of the key issues raised by other centres was that they didn’t know when volunteers were coming in, and so couldn’t plan around this. When creating the new vision for volunteering at Basildon, we always wanted volunteers to work from a rota. • What works for the centre? • Set a rota, and keep to this. • Booking holidays • Signing in sheets

Absence Management Following many discussions within Dogs Trust and other charities who have volunteer involvement it was found that the main issue with volunteers was absence. • Initial contact • Try to find a solution and problem solving • Repeated absence • End of volunteer agreement, if necessary

A word from our volunteers

Any questions?