HEACF: case studies of good practice

Recruitment

The HEACF has as one of its central aims the development of new volunteering opportunities. HEIs have used various methods to create these opportunities such as increasing volunteering activity centrally or devolving responsibility or funding to smaller independent groups. However, recruitment of students and staff to fill these new volunteering roles is of course, key to the success of the HEACF in each HEI.

Given that approximately 30 per cent of the student membership of HEIs changes annually, it is difficult to establish a loyal cache of volunteers for any time - two years is perhaps the best one can expect from a loyal volunteer. This means that retention campaigns focus very closely on the relationship already formed between the HEACF staff or leadership team, the beneficiary organisation(s) and the individual volunteer. The individual's decision to withdraw from volunteering may also be affected by external pressures (such as academic work, part-time paid work, internal voluntary work). Similarly, it is increasingly the case that students are very aware of all of these pressures before engaging in any voluntary work, thus they are looking for more short-term opportunities - ranging from one or two months all the way down to a single day or afternoon. Therefore recruitment is an ongoing activity at the very core of making the HEACF work on a local level.

Diversity of volunteers is another key issue when recruiting for programmes. Promotional campaigns tend to target as broad a cross-section as possible in order to garner the maximum interest, which may not always take into account minority groups of students, such as international students, mature students, postgraduates and students from ethnic minorities.

The following case studies explore both the promotional side to recruitment and the practical side; key information on screening, volunteer registration and assessment of opportunities sits alongside promotional and targeted campaign planning and execution.

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