VSVA’s – what works for you?

Rory Port

Visitor Services Officer, Lanhydrock

Lanhydrock 2009

X 274 volunteersX 158 room guidesX 210,000+ visitors X 36.7% volunteer recommendation

1 x VSO to manage all things front of house.

= one very stressed VSO!= volunteers feeling unloved = inconsistency in service standards – VSO could only be in one place at a time= no time for long-term thinking or strategic planning

Background – 2 key drivers!

2 key reasons for re-thinking the structure of our volunteer management

1. Improving volunteer survey results – just 20% ‘strongly agreed’ that they were being well organised and managed

2. Reduce the operational demands on VSO in day to day running of the House

After consideration, I felt the obvious solution was to installa version of VVM.

What we were already doing that was working?

Book Shop volunteer co-ordinator

Education volunteer co-ordinator

Buggy Driver volunteer co-ordinators

Living History volunteer co-ordinator

The key, why ‘VSVA’ and not VVM?

VVM wouldn’t have worked at Lanhydrockbecause.

Our volunteers didn’t want to be ‘managed’ by other volunteers.

What are my top tips for success?

1.Tailor a solution that will be accepted and supported

2.Recruit the right people!

How did we go about introducing the concept

We had the full support of our GM

Consulted and obtained ‘buy in’ from our Room Guide Representatives

Recruited - internally and externally

Rolled out to all our volunteers during our 2011pre-season briefing days

New structure, what would it look like?

X6 ‘Visitor Services Volunteer Assistants’

These volunteers (VSVA’s) would act as assistants to the VSO

VSO

Room Guides

Liaison Representatives

VSVA’s

VSVA’s areas of responsibility

Each VSVA was assigned a specialist field based on their skills from:– X2 Communications (inc. newsletter)– X2 Admin– Social Calendar– Training (inc. mentoring)

In addition, general duties included:– Pager cover/first response (inc. disabled access)– Radio cover– Rotas– PMV’s and wheelchairs– Rota relief– Opening set up

What have the benefits been?

1. Better organised and managed volunteers

2. Better communication between staff and volunteers

3. Volunteers feeling and getting more involved

4. Volunteers more supported

5. Allow the VSO to provide more strategic support across the property

6. To provide challenging volunteering opportunities

7. Improve visitor experience

What are our volunteers saying now?

2011 volunteer survey results confirmed that 39% of our volunteers now ‘strongly agree’ that they are being well organised and managed, almost double that of 2009 (20%) - VSVA’s being introduced must have played a part.

Top Tips for success!

1. Think about what works for your property and introduce something that will suit your existing team

2. Involve the volunteers right from the start –have a volunteer representative involved in making the decisions

3. Get your key volunteers on side – representatives etc – and use them to pass on the key reasons/messages.

4. Pick the right people! If you are recruiting a person for each day, make sure their approach matches the attitude of the day

I would like to pay tribute to my team of VSVA’s.