Why is the volunteer survey so important?

We firmly believe that in order to best serve the interests of the volunteer community, we need to immerse ourselves in it and fully understand what drives people. The survey forms an integral part of a circular feedback loop that begins and ends with the volunteer community.

What will you be doing with the results?

Surveys can deliver strong messages about what drives people, what we are doing right and what needs improvement. For the VSC, the critical path is to turn these messages into concrete action with the support of the staffed office and the membership themselves. The process we will be following is as follows:

1. Analyse the data and draw conclusions, deriving specific action points with delivery metrics
2. Disseminate the results to the community so you are aware of what your fellows are saying
3. Report back to the membership over the course of the year on our progress.
4. Summarise the results that we have achieved and consult on any addition/amendments to the next survey

Can you share some highlights with us?

We are committed to transparency, so a write up of the results can be found here

To summarise:

• We were pleased with the increase in the number of respondents which indicates a higher level of engagement. We will be looking for a further increase this coming year too.
• The most noticeable change in the Net Promoter Score which increased significantly to 28 (from 15 in 2016) against a Survey Monkey NPS benchmark average of 26. This indicates there has been a positive shift already in views that we look to build upon.
• There is a clear differentiation between new respondents (those volunteering for under 1 year) and those volunteering for longer. We have formulated concrete action points to ensure that the benefits that new volunteers are experiencing are propagated more deeply into the community
• The majority of volunteers have felt that many of the improvements made to volunteering in 2018 had a positive impact on their experience. The introduction of clearer role descriptions and better communication from the volunteer team were the two improvements seen as having made a positive difference. “Networking”, “Sharing experience” and “Helping others to develop” were highlighted as key motivators for volunteers. We are working on ways to ensure that we can facilitate the realisation of these.
• Elsewhere, professional development and more training opportunities for volunteers were repeatedly highlighted, plans are afoot to ensure we deliver on those needs in 2019.

What can we expect next?

Now that the results have been analysed and a series of action points agreed, a working group has been established to take forward and monitor their implementation over the course of the year. We plan to report back to you in June and September with the results.

Thank you, Mark, and the VSC for sharing with us how you plan to implement the views of the volunteers, we look forward to hearing more from you as the year progresses.