Your volunteers play an essential role in keeping your church running and growing, but sometimes their skills are needed in different areas.
Volunteers might not realize they’ve reached their full potential in one area or how much help they’d be working on another project.
While this might seem like a tricky situation, it’s easier than you might think to move volunteers on happily. In fact, they may even enjoy volunteering even more as a result.
Explain Their Value To The New Opportunity
Simply assigning a volunteer to a new area without any real explanation might feel more like a punishment than a reward. If you want to move volunteers on happily, you have to make the move sound like a good thing. Start by explaining what the new opportunity is and why it matters to the church.
Next, explain why you’re choosing to move them specifically. What special skill do they have that makes them perfect for this opportunity? Maybe it’s an area with few volunteers, but this one person is highly skilled at attracting other volunteers. The idea is to make the move sound rewarding to them and the church.
Allow Friends To Remain Together
Sometimes people volunteer on certain projects to spend more time with their friends. With busy schedules, this may be the only time they really have to socialize at all. Before you try to move volunteers, pay close attention to their interactions with fellow volunteers. Next, talk to the volunteer you want to move and see if they have any reservations.
If so, offer to move their friends along with them. This allows them to take on a new challenge but still socialize with their friends.
Look For Areas That Fit Their Schedules Better
It shouldn’t come as any surprise that volunteers often have very little time to give. If you notice a volunteer has reached their full potential in one area, talk to them about their schedule. There may be a better opportunity that fits their schedule better.
Not only does this allow you to move them to an area where they can help out even more, but it fits their needs too. This keeps them both happy and engaged.
Explain How There’s Room For Growth
One of the top reasons volunteers quit is because they don’t feel they’re challenged enough. Your best volunteers want to grow in their faith and their skills. After doing the same thing for a while, they get bored. This is the perfect time to move on volunteers without upsetting anyone.
Move volunteers to areas where they have room to grow. Perhaps a volunteer just had to step down from a leadership position due to time constraints. Move another volunteer into this position to offer a new challenge. They’ll appreciate getting the chance to do something new. Just pay attention to your volunteers and you’ll easily see which ones are eager to move on.
Show How You’re Preventing Burnout
When volunteers stay in the same position too long, they might start to experience burnout. When this happens, you could lose your volunteers. Instead, move volunteers on to something new. At first, they might fear you’re punishing them but explain your reasoning.
Tell them how much they mean to your church and that you don’t want them to ever get bored or try to deal with burnout. This shows you care about their well-being and it gives them a chance to rotate through different engaging opportunities.
Show Your Appreciation
Whether you’re trying to move volunteers on happily or just keep them engaged in general, always show your appreciation. Volunteers are happier moving to different opportunities when they feel they’re valued. Tell them thank you often. Show them how they’re impacting the church and the community. If you need them in a specific area, show them how much of a difference they’d make.
All of these are ways to show your appreciation. After all, who doesn’t want to feel appreciated after working hard?
Want to further engage your volunteers and show your appreciation? Keep them happy by mentioning their hard work on social media and your church’s website.
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Comments 1
What a thoughtful article! Coincidentally this very situation has come up twice this last two months.
I so wish those who were tasked with suggesting the changes had read it.
Sometimes as much as we like to think we are compassionate Christians, we fail miserably.
I will definitely share these words of wisdom with my friends.