Reception of new volunteers

New volunteers are always needed and every volunteer is valuable. Therefore, it is important to ensure that volunteer recruitment and the branch's activities are open to everyone. The more diverse the group of people involved in volunteering, the better they can help together.

On this page, you will find tips for welcoming and inducting new volunteers, whether you are a branch chairperson, a volunteer and member coordinator, an activity group leader, or another person who welcomes new volunteers.

Make sure the volunteer receives the information they need

Contact the volunteer quickly, for example by email, telephone, or message. Take multilingualism into account and focus on a friendly and welcoming tone in your communication!

Describe the volunteer tasks concretely so that the new volunteer understands what the task involves and what it requires. Present different forms of activity and options as equal: short-term, long-term, local, and national tasks are all equally important.

Take the volunteer's previous skills and experience into account when considering a suitable task for them. Listen to the new volunteer's wishes and, if necessary, help them find and choose a task.

Tell the volunteer who they can ask about the task or where they can get more information about the activities. Ensure that the necessary contact details are easy to find and up to date.

If suitable or interesting activities for the volunteer cannot be found in your own branch, guide them to contact another branch or, for example, the district. Every new volunteer can be of invaluable help to the Red Cross and to those receiving aid!

Guide the volunteer to use the Oma Punainen Risti volunteer system and to create a profile in Oma. Tell them about the benefits of Oma and encourage the volunteer to search for activities and sign up in Oma. You can find more information about Oma and its benefits here.

Ensure the volunteer connects with the community

Consider what or who constitute the new volunteer's immediate community. How can you ensure that the volunteer feels a sense of belonging and is integrated into the community? A sense of belonging increases volunteer commitment, and working together enhances everyone's skills.

Invite volunteers to joint events and help them get to know other volunteers. Adjust schedules so that new participants can also take part and, whenever possible, provide options for remote participation.

Think about what kind of opportunities for influence and development can be offered to volunteers in their work, especially once the volunteer has become involved in the activities.

Every community may have practices that unintentionally exclude those interested in the activities. It is occasionally good to examine your own branch's activities through the eyes of an outsider – how does your activity appear to people from different backgrounds, and can everyone who wants to join participate?

Materials to support the volunteer path

From here you can print the Volunteer Path image:

• Volunteer path (printable image).pdf

Another Volunteer Path image outlines the key tasks for branches or activity groups to promote the inclusion of new volunteers:

• Volunteer_path_branches_activity_groups.pdf

In the presentation below, you will find more detailed instructions and support questions to help support the volunteer path at its different stages:

Supporting the volunteer path fi sv en.pdf