Once you have identified the skills and behaviours you need, you can create a simple matrix to help you evaluate what you need against the current skills and behaviours of your existing volunteers. 

If you haven't undertaken a skills audit on your current volunteers, then we recommend you do this first in part one here

Step 6 - Creating a skills matrix

There is no right or wrong way of doing this, the most commonly used method is to ask people to rank their skills and behaviours using a system of your choice.  An example is set out below and you can download a template by clicking here.

Name:

Role / tasks you undertake:

Date that you started volunteering with us:

 

Level of expertise*

 

Do you think this skill or behaviour is important to your current role / task?

Courses attended/

qualifications

Notes

 

Skills, expertise & Behaviours

1

2

3

4

Yes / No

 

 

Add as many rows as you need and insert the skills, expertise, and behaviours you have identified….

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Other relevant skills, experiences, qualifications and behaviours

Volunteer to list…

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

*Key: 1 = no experience, 2 = some experience, 3 = proficient, 4 = very experienced.

You can also use your skills matrix to find out a bit more about your volunteers including; their motivations, experience relating to equalities and diversity, any areas they are specifically interested in and their development needs. We would also recommend using the skills matrix as a way of checking that your volunteers are happy to stay involved with your organisation. You can build out your skills matrix by adding sections to capture the answers to these and any other questions you might have.

In addition to auditing the skills and behaviours of existing volunteers, some organisations capture the skills and interests of their participants and members when they first join or register for an activity. They then review this on a regular basis, for example at the point of renewal or at the end of season. 

Step 7 - Review and use the results of your skills matrix

Reviewing each completed skills matrix and looking at the results across your pool of volunteers will help you determine if and where any gaps exist. You will then be able to think through the different ways you can fill these gaps including:

    • Internal training, development, and mentoring.
    • External training and development courses.
    • Recruiting new volunteers.
    • Realigning your existing volunteers to better match their skills and interests.

The responses to the suggested questions ‘tell us more about you’ (Step 6) will also enable you to:

    • Understand if your volunteers want to continue. This can help you to plan to replace them should the need arise. Also see our succession planning and recruitment guidance
    • Understand why people volunteer. You can then build on this and emphasise these in your communications and retention and reward techniques. Also see rewarding and retaining your volunteers.
    • Help you consider if you need to increase the diversity of your volunteers.
    • Determine if you need to reconsider the roles and tasks of any volunteer to best fit their interests and skills.
    • Understand how satisfied volunteers are with their experience and whether there are actions that can be taken increase the likelihood of retaining them.

It is important to take the time to summarise your findings, identify any actions and the timescales for completing these. Sharing these documents with your committee/board can help to secure their ownership of the process and drive actions forward. Remember to anonymise any results so that your volunteer’s personal details remain confidential.

Step 8 - Recruiting new volunteers

There are various ways that you can go about recruiting new volunteers from within and outside of your organisation. Our website pages on recruitment offer lots of advice and guidance which you can access here

One way you can recruit from within is by asking your participants and members (and their parents and carers) to regularly complete a skills matrix. This will help you to determine what skills they have and how they would be willing to put these to use to help you! It’s important to remember that just because someone has skills in a particular area, it doesn’t necessarily mean they will want to volunteer in this area, they might prefer to do something completely different!  

An example of an adapted skills matrix that you can use for your members, participants and their parents and carers is provided available on the skills matrix template document here.

Name:

Mobile number:                                                           Email address:

 

Level of expertise*

 

Courses attended/

qualifications

Are you interested in

Notes

Skills, expertise, behaviours & interest areas

1

2

3

4

 

Yes/No

Before asking people to complete this section, add as many rows as you need and insert the skills and behaviours you have identified in your skills audit.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Other relevant skills, experiences and qualifications

Volunteer to list…

 

 

 

 

 

 

 


*Key: 1 = no experience, 2 = some experience, 3 = proficient, 4 = very experienced.

Tell us a bit more about you

The success of our organisation relies significantly on volunteers giving their time.  There are lots of ways you can support us and any time you can give is greatly appreciated.

How much time can you volunteer to help us and when would be best for you to do this?

Add in a list for people to choose from, for example, weekly, monthly, per season etc. on evenings, weekends, weekdays, only during holidays etc.

Which areas of our organisation are you particularly keen to support?

Add in a list of the possible opportunities here for people to choose from- remember to think as broadly as possible, from behind the scenes tasks such as grounds maintenance, finance and marketing, to front line delivery, including coaching and catering.

Please use this space to tell us about any training or support you think you might need to be able to support us.

 

It is important to take the time to summarise your findings and decide how you are going to use them. By sharing the skills and time available from your participants, their parents and carers, you can potentially increase your pool of volunteers and help to alleviate pressure on your existing volunteers. Be sure to share the findings with your committee/board to secure their ownership of this process and drive actions forward. Remember, it is important to anonymise any results so that any personal details remain confidential.

Last modified: Thursday, 29 July 2021, 3:57 PM