Emergency Services Volunteer Experience Project
Project members
Project lead
Jane Chong
Project lead
Professor Marylène Gagné
Project lead
Professor Patrick Dunlop
Project lead
Djurre Holtrop
Overview
Improving the experience of new volunteers
Volunteers’ socialisation being one of their first experiences with the organisation is shown to significantly influence their engagement, motivation, and intentions to stay or withdraw from an organisation. Failure to socialise newcomers is known to lead to lower levels of commitment and premature departure from organisations, leading to an organisation not capitalising on their recruitment and training investments.
Essentially, poor socialisation is financially and reputationally costly for an organisation. On the other hand, effective socialisation can lead to members feeling engaged, competent, and socially integrated with others in the organisation.
The goal
Therefore, it is important to optimise the socialisation process. DFES is partnering with Curtin University on research looking at improving the experience of new volunteers in the Volunteer Emergency Services. We are working to identify the most effective ways and biggest challenges to on-board and train new volunteers.
Outcomes
The purpose of this research is to develop tools, resources, and approaches that can help volunteer leaders improve the experience for new volunteers. With volunteers’ first hand input, we can identify important strategies to make sure future emergency service volunteers have a positive experience.