Do Not Forget about Your Volunteers: A Qualitative Analysis of Factors Influencing Volunteer Turnover

The number of individuals who share their time and talents as volunteers is on the rise. In 1993 it was reported that formal volunteer work was performed by 89.2 million Americans, worth an estimated $182.3 billion (Grube & Piliavin, 2000). In particular, most hospitals rely on volunteers to complete a multitude of tasks that both the clinical and the administrative staff cannot fit into their schedules. Those individuals who manage and oversee volunteer programs face a twofold challenge: orienting, training, and monitoring volunteers as well as retaining these volunteers (Forsyth, 1999). There appears to be a cause and effect relationship between these two facets of volunteer program development. An effective orientation and training of a program's volunteers will engage participants in a way that results in volunteers' willingness to participate in the agency's volunteer program for a significant period of time. However, if there is a breakdown in one of these functions, it is not long before an organization's volunteer program starts to flounder. REVIEW OF RELEVANT LITERATURE From the moment a program trains a group of volunteers, the focus should be on retention. Lynch (2000) stated that volunteer retention, in its simplest form, is making volunteers feel good about their assignment and themselves. If the volunteer experience makes the volunteers feel good, then they will continue to want to volunteer (McCurley & Lynch, 1996). Shanti National Training Institute, an organization that serves people who work as leaders of volunteers, identifies a number of factors that influence volunteer retention, including the quality and thoroughness of the initial training experience, the effectiveness of volunteer management, and the degree of personal satisfaction achieved through volunteering (www.shanti.org/ snti/retention.html). Retention has an evil twin: turnover, or the number of volunteers who leave the organization that have to be replaced. Retention and turnover are important variables to volunteer program managers because they present serious problems for organizations that depend on volunteers to execute their mission statement. Although volunteer turnover is to be expected in volunteer organizations and creates opportunities for organizational change, high rates of turnover can hinder the capacity of organizations to deliver the quality or range of services and programs clients come to expect (Razzak, 2001). In addition, high turnover rates are critical when there is a need for volunteers with special skills or intensive training; volunteer responsibilities that require long-term commitments; the clients served by volunteers are disrupted by the absence of volunteers; and there is a shortage of qualified volunteers (Wymer & Starnes, 2001). According to McCurley and Lynch (1996), studies of volunteer retention have determined that the first six months of volunteers' experience is critical toward their retention, as the greatest loss of volunteers occurs during this period. Wymer and Starnes (2001) have constructed a two-part life cycle of volunteerism that provides insight into when a large portion of volunteers depart from their commitment to the agency. Volunteers start their service in a "honeymoon" stage, which is composed of euphoria, self-congratulation, and eagerness to give of themselves. Upon gaining some experience, volunteers regress to a "post-honeymoon blues" phase. The idealism motivating their initial endeavor has now dissipated. This regression may occur when volunteers realize they are not able to accomplish what they had initially anticipated or when they realize that the organization does not represent the values or issues they originally thought. Such realizations put a damper on an individual's initial motivating forces, and it merely becomes a matter of time before the volunteer steps out of the role of servitude. Volunteers also require more attention at "anniversaries," at the end of large projects, or at the completion of an agreed term of participation (McCurley & Lynch, 1996). …