Ever since the Covid-19 pandemic hit the world and forced us into our homes, people have been tapping deeper and deeper into the internet to find ways to harness their true potential to provide creative and timely solutions to everyday challenges.

Everything that people thought would never be able to have the same effect online – is now being tried and tested and successfully shifted to online mediums. From meetings to business operations and from consumer base expansion to the selling of services, everything is being done online with maximum effectiveness and efficiency.

The art of volunteering is quickly catching up with this new trend, and today, people are using the internet to increase and maintain volunteer engagement.

But first, we must understand the value that volunteers bring to businesses and organizations.

What Do Volunteers Bring to An Organization?

Bringing volunteers on board can help you bridge the gap that exists between your organization and your target audience. They will come into your organization, understand the structure and processes, and the motivation behind all the work. Despite becoming members of your organization, volunteers are able to provide unbiased insights that leaders can utilize to evaluate organizational growth.

If the organization’s vision resonates with them and they find themselves on the same footing as you, they will go out into the community, engage with the grassroots level, and spread your message in a heartfelt and organic manner. The fact that they are not on your payroll will help them see things from a very neutral standpoint while still performing as your endorsers

This will also be directly beneficial for your organization. When given the chance, volunteers can give their suggestions to improve the organization’s current practices and make them more consumer-oriented. Furthermore, will help the organization piece together present-day strategies that are mission-driven rather than sales-driven.

Moreover, they can bring a fresh set of skills, diversity, experience, ideas, and creative energy that can boost your team’s performance, make the overall business operations more productive, and drive growth and sustainability for your organization.

So, now that the Covid-19 pandemic has taken its toll on us and we are still far away from resuming our pre-coronavirus lives, how can the internet be used to increase volunteer engagement for remote work and virtual meetings?

How to Engage your Volunteers for Remote Work and Virtual Meetings?

Start an Online Ambassador Program

You can give your volunteers the status of an ambassador so that they feel more valued being a part of your organization. And as we all know – with great power comes great responsibility; you can proceed to assign your ambassadors a set of responsibilities that they must undertake to represent your organization to the masses, and, in turn, help with audience engagement.

You can design your ambassador program and establish competitive selection criteria to recruit ambassadors that can help you with the following:

• Represent your brand/organization on social media platforms
• Repost your social media advertisements with creative captions
• Represent your brand/organization on live online events e.g., webinars, conferences, podcasts, etc.
• Answer audience questions on behalf of your brand/organization
• Foster goodwill and a strong relationship between your brand and the target audience
• Create content, virtual or textual, to promote your organization’s work or programs

But in order to ensure that your ambassadors feel valued and appreciated for the work that they have undertaken on behalf of your brand or organization, you must communicate your appreciation to them regularly. This can be done in a myriad of ways. You can give a shout-out to them during one of the virtual meetings that are conducted to evaluate and chart the progress of the organization. You can personally send them a handwritten and signed thank you note. You can send them gift vouchers or flowers along with a gratitude card. Or, you can give them a small award or a certificate of recognition that they can keep for the rest of their lives to mark their achievements while they were an ambassador for your organization.

All these small token of appreciation will keep them motivated, and the set of responsibilities will keep them engaged during the remote working situation.

Ask for Volunteers’ Input and Keep Innovating

To increase volunteer engagement and keep them as active during the lockdowns as they were before it, you must first hear their side of the story. You must start by communicating regularly with your volunteers and asking about the problems they are encountering on their end that are affecting their motivation levels at work. To keep them engaged, you must first step into their shoes and try to understand what it is that truly engages them.

Most likely, you will find out that your volunteers are encountering several challenges because of the pandemic or the work-from-home situation, which, in turn, is affecting their performance and their availability for virtual meetings. You must listen to them intently and be a good solution provider. If it is in your power to help them in any way, you should do it.

For example, you can agree to set the hour of the meeting according to their time zones, or you can change the medium of communication from Zoom or Google Hangouts to WhatsApp or conference calls if that is more convenient for your volunteers.

Second, you must invite and encourage their input. You should ask them for suggestions for improving the organization’s operations. After hearing their suggestions and feedback, you must assure them that their viewpoint will be discussed with the management and taken into account in the next round of policy formation or changes. This will give them confidence that even though they are not on your payroll, they are still considered valuable assets to your organization.

To further increase volunteer engagement for remote work and virtual meetings, you must continue to spark their interest. You can do this by organizing regular virtual team-building exercises or delivering exciting yet informational workshops and always linking them back to the mission, fieldwork, and or community service.

Final Word

Only a volunteer that truly believes in your organization’s purpose and vision and brand’s values will be able to honestly bridge the gap between you and your community members. Therefore, it falls on the shoulders of leaders to keep their volunteers motivated, engaged, informed, and appreciated. Even though you may be miles apart from your volunteers in a physical sense, you can use Internet technology to stay connected with them and give them the assurance that they are just as much a part of the organization as the paid staff.

At Stratagems, we provide leadership and follower development and skills training to members of professional industries, business professional groups, and membership-based organizations, and we would love to help. Contact us today to learn how Stratagems can help you make a difference.