Commitment and retention of volunteers in a not for profit organisation

Abstract or Summary

It is vital for any NFP organisation to understand how to effectively manage volunteers to build organisational commitment and thereby increase volunteer retention. This study firstly investigated significant differences between managers’ and volunteers’ views on which HR practices are important and should be implemented when managing volunteers in a NFP organisation. Secondly, organisational commitment was investigated: specifically whether volunteers are more committed to the organisation or to their teams. Volunteers and managers from a large New Zealand NFP organisation providing health services, participated in two very similar questionnaires which were compared. The results identified several significant differences in the views of managers and volunteers, specifically: matching volunteers to positions; the usefulness of the organisation’s induction programme; the impact of a close interpersonal relationship between volunteers and their managers; and informally thanking volunteers as recognition. These significant differences have identified some areas for management to focus more on and less on. The organisation volunteers were also found to be overall slightly more committed to The organisation than their individual teams. The organisation could do further research into what is causing this low commitment to teams.