How the Faculty of Actuaries (IFoA) changed the way they approach volunteers and volunteering in general, to raise the number of volunteers among their members.
Debbie Atkins, Head of Volunteer Engagement for the IFoA
Discovery
The way the IFoA recruited and engaged our members as volunteers needed updating. Doing so would increase the number of members expressing an interest in volunteering for the IFoA, and provide a sustainable resource for the future.
Why? Volunteering for the IFoA is in the DNA of IFoA members. Members have always played a vital role in working with the executive staff to run, regulate, and enhance our membership body, using their intellectual expertise to advance our research and thought leadership. Traditionally these individuals have been identified and asked by a tap on the shoulder to volunteer, or to take on a task or non-executive role.
After a merger in 2010 and a period of rapid growth, our Council realised that things had changed and there was a need to update the way in which we recruited and engaged our volunteers. The Council set a five year strategy in 2011 and part of it included providing appropriate opportunities for members to volunteer.
This was to measurably increase the number of members expressing an interest in volunteering; create a sustainable future resource; dispel some misconceptions; raise the profile of volunteering; and grow the number of members who are actively involved.
Objectives
Volunteers are vital to the success of the IFoA. Part of our strategy is: “providing appropriate opportunities for members to volunteer”.
As part of this strategy, the objective was to professionalise the IFoA’s volunteer recruitment and engagement; increase the number of members wishing to become involved; and to provide a sustainable resource for the future.
Our targets were to:
Raise the profile of volunteering
Change the culture from a “tap on the shoulder” to an inclusive process
Ensure the volunteer message became mainstream
Increase the number of members expressing an interest in volunteering
Match relevant skills and experience with tasks and non-executive roles
Encourage younger members to volunteer
Encourage more women on to the boards
Increase the diversity of our volunteer base
Deliver a professional and responsive recruitment service that includes service levels and a volunteer vision to ensure members feel valued.
More members volunteering would also let us select the best candidate for each role and avoid volunteer burnout.
Our vision is for each volunteer to feel that they:
Are valued
Are making a difference
Are advancing actuarial understanding
Feel supported
Enjoy the engagement
Gave a clear idea of their remit
Work in partnership with our staff in a collaborative and mutually inclusive way.
Activities
We wanted to:
Make it as easy as possible for all our members to volunteer, regardless of location;
Provide clarity for members;
Showcase the member benefits;
Create a digital offering accessible 24/7
Most importantly, we made recruitment open, fair and transparent.
We also created a pioneering volunteer 400 Club for members. This provides a gentle introduction to volunteering and a route for the member’s voice to be heard. Feedback from this group is highly regarded by our Council, Management Board and Directors.
A Volunteer Induction Pack (VIP) and VIP Champions group to support and guide our volunteers. The VIP is a one stop shop for volunteers providing them with support, guidance and a letter from the President of the IFoA and Chief Executive of the IFoA
A section highlighting benefits that members can gain from volunteering
Parties and pins to say thank you to our volunteers
A fun give-away for our conferences - our blue Bendy Men! This helped raise the profile and bring a smile to members’ faces.
Blue Bendy Men
And here is a photo of our fun Blue Bendy Men that have helped us raise awareness of Volunteering for the IFoA and got members talking about it! These have become a giveaway on the IFoA stand at our 7+ residential conferences – the largest of which is our Life conference for 1,000 delegates.
In June 2016 we created a stand alone volunteer newsletter. Designed in response to member feedback, it contains information about opportunities, resources and benefits available to our volunteers. It has been well received and we will develop this further.
Challenges
Our actions changed the culture in an incredibly positive way. As with all change, we had to work hard to bring people on side. Some members saw this as an immediate win and a hugely positive step forward, while others had to be convinced. In the last year we have seen significant buy in and success. Some of the members who thought that this would not benefit them are now delighted at the new offers of support they are receiving for their volunteer groups. This has provided them with access to talent and resources they did not previously know about. These are members who have become our advocates.
We made sure we introduced changes gradually and built in time for training and peer review (both with our members and with colleagues) and to actively listen to feedback and respond to concerns.
Next steps for the future:
We have been primarily focusing inwardly to provide support to our members and to our membership body. We now also plan to focus outwardly and this summer saw us begin an initiative called “Pro-volunteering”.
Pro-volunteering is a platform in the public interest to help membership associations, public bodies, charities and trusts to recruit volunteers and non-executive roles. It will help the IFoA recruit appropriately qualified non-members for our “lay” roles and provide opportunities for our members to use their skills and expertise to help other associations too.
In addition, with a continually growing membership we need to:
Keep the communication plan active to ensure members are aware of opportunities at the right time for them
Enhance how our volunteers can engage remotely to make best use of their time, reduce the organisation’s carbon footprint, and enhance the ability for members to volunteer from any location
Evolve our offering to meet members' varied and evolving needs.
Achievements
Targets were surpassed!
Over the last year, we have seen a 20% increase in the number of potential volunteers offering support. This is a record level of engagement. It represents a 164% increase compared to the 2012/2013 year (i.e. from 544 to 1437 offers of support last year).
Positive results include:
Over 10% of our members volunteered for the IFoA last year - an increase from just under 2,000 individuals in 2012 to just over 3,700 this year. This represents an 85% increase
Increased diversity: more international members involved; more women on our boards; and a significantly higher amount of younger members involved in helping shape the future of their profession
Presidential team support - our 2015/2016 President championed volunteering as one of her main causes during her year in office
The closed shop feel to volunteering has now been removed.
Under the initial recruitment and awareness stages of our service, we now respond to a volunteer enquiry within three working days.
Our volunteer vision is now published in our annual Corporate Plan.
What would we do differently?
Peer involvement and review is a vital ingredient to the success of any project or initiative – not only the involvement with members but also internally amongst colleagues. We have been involved in both throughout but in the last year we have increased the involvement of internal colleagues through our team of VIP Champions. Their involvement across the organisation, and directly with our wide range of volunteer Boards, sub-committees etc, has been very beneficial in the last year, and I would recommend implementing something similar at an earlier stage.
Feedback & Testimonials
“The transparent nature of the IFoA volunteering process made such a difference to my volunteering experience. I could see how my skills best served my profession and it encouraged me to volunteer much earlier in my career than I otherwise would’ve done.
I have seen first hand how volunteering gives a voice to all active and engaged members, allowing them the opportunity to come forward and add their say to the direction our profession takes. It’s expanded the reach of those volunteering for our profession and as such created much better diversity in those sitting round the board table. The greatest advantage by far is that it has levelled the playing field. It’s no longer dependent on who you know, but what you know and your enthusiasm to serve a great profession.”
Suzanne Vaughan, Council volunteer member and Scottish Board Leader
We invited all of our volunteers to take part in a survey in 2015 to track our progress. The findings showed the following:
“98.7% of people responding to the survey either strongly agreed (56.4%) or agreed (42.4%) that the recent changes to the way volunteer vacancies were advertised were a positive step forward, and 93.9% of respondents agreed that the IFoA were “providing members with appropriate opportunities for volunteering”.”
