Lee Valley Regional Park Authority

Name of Organisation

Why did you decide to go for Investing in Volunteers?

There were a few key reasons for deciding to go for Investing in Volunteers.

Firstly we wanted to see how we were performing against set standards. We also felt it would act as a reward and help to promote our volunteers and volunteering programme. We also wanted to raise the awareness of our staff and people working in the Authority who perhaps do not have much direct contact with volunteers and ensure they were aware of the work we are doing with volunteers at many of our sites.

What benefits have you found from working towards Investing in Volunteers?

The key benefit I would say is that we have raised the awareness of volunteers working in the Park throughout the organisation. Other benefits have also been to the volunteers themselves who have met and interacted with other volunteers throughout the process and enjoyed the experience. I have personally also seen some key benefits in how we have improved our process and procedure around working with volunteers and am confident that it has improved what we are doing for volunteers in the organisation.

Tell us about your experience of the assessment process in your organisation.

The assessment process was OK. Our assessor was very helpful and was happy to give advice and support where needed leading up to the assessment. One area that could have been improved was around the clarity of what was actually required on assessment days so perhaps a guidance note would have been useful. For example we provided a phone in the interview room assuming that some of the telephone interviews that were going to be conducted would be done on assessment days. In fact they were done at different times/days and we had originally informed our volunteers of the day and time they were likely to be conducted which did change. The scheduling of volunteers was also difficult for us due to many of our volunteers either working or not being available for face to face interviews. However, whilst this was a bit of a painful exercise the assessor was excellent and very flexible in the approach to getting enough and the right balance of volunteers interviewed either face to face or on the phone.

5 Practical tips you would give another organisation working towards Investing in Volunteers

Talk to your assessor and work with them
Set a development plan that you can achieve and review progress with regular meetings
Ensure you have buy in from all your organisation and communicate out what you are doing as early as possible
Make sure you involve your volunteers in the development plan and assessment process so they own it instead of having it forced on them
Be honest and critical when you do your self assessment