With the rise of events such as industrialization, war, health challenges, increased religious activities, socio-political activities in recent times, and the surge in human population around the globe, the need for a more efficient and effective workforce becomes even more needful, especially at a time when inflation is rapidly rising. Rising to the occasion, organizations have adopted a hiring staff system that would accept to work passionately and for free as the case may be for a specified period and in a defined position when such work conditions are within affordability range to the potential volunteer. This is known as a volunteer job description.
The doctrine of volunteer job becomes necessary especially at a time such as this that we live in when the society is faced with diverse challenges such as job loss, lack of experience by job seekers, inadequate qualifications, inflation, health challenges, take, for example, the current global health challenge the world faces, covid-19. Growth and development aren’t left behind in the area of industrialization, socio-political and economic activities. This turnout of events necessitates the need for volunteer jobs.
Volunteer Job Description
We must also reckon that we live in a society of mixed races, ethnicity, tribes, gender, personalities, faith, ideologies. This combines and interacts to form a complex society that must be properly managed as far as interpersonal relationships and organizational activities are concerned. This brings the need for a volunteer job description to the point of careful and deliberate outlining.
To comprehend what a volunteer job description is, it is important to understand the concepts separately. Shortly, we will know what volunteering means, what a job means, and what description means, what job description means in the paragraph that follows immediately;
- Volunteering: this is the act of offering oneself self in service to a community or an organization that is not obligatory. To volunteer is committing to a service that is not mandatory for a person or group of persons.
- Job: this refers to a piece of task or work assigned to a person or an employee.
- Description: in simple terms, it refers to a written or verbal account or prescription of an event, person, or task.
- Job Description: it refers to the specifications of the role of an employee.
Rationale for Volunteer Job Description
Having said that, It would be fundamental to know the rationale behind the volunteer job description. You see, society is dynamic and complex. People vary in their perceptions. It will be an error if people and society aren’t properly studied and understood. The responsibility of having to study and understanding the host community rests on the organization in the case of services to be rendered by an organization or in the case of services to be rendered by an independent person, the person or organization must properly study the community to understand it’s complexity for effective communication and service delivery. When this is done, it helps to fill the lacuna that exists. This process helps employers outline effective descriptions for the job to achieve its objectives or meet its goals. This is the bridge that connects the organization or individual rendering service and to society.
An In-depth Look into Volunteer Job Description
In light of the discourse of this article, we must give a more in-depth look at volunteering. Volunteering must not divorce itself from love, tolerance, emotional intelligence, sacrifice, selflessness, respect, altruism-giving without expecting anything in return. These are a necessary element for employers to consider in a volunteer when recruiting. The volunteer must be willing and able when the employers might require the volunteer to have certain experience if the job will involve more technicality and professionalism. For instance, medical consultation, prescription of drugs, legal services, and in some cases, the job might not require experience depending on the nature of the job if such a job would only involve environmental sanitation, general cleanings, for instance. Volunteering sometimes can be exhausting, as employees can lose motivation easily because volunteering most of the time is without incentives to motivate the employee volunteering even when performing full duties as a paid employee.
Employers who offer volunteering jobs are met with the great task of rigorously describing the volunteer’s job role. This will enable the expectation of the volunteer as regards job tasks and responsibilities to be met. It will also guard against potential maladaptive work behaviors by the employee in the workplace. This is critical to achieving the goals of the job and the organization as a whole. The volunteer job description should include certain critical factors that I consider basic although it may vary with organizations based on work ethics, goals, and tasks involved. They are;
Job Title: The title of the job is essential as it gives the employee a glimpse into what the job is about and provides a portfolio for the volunteer.
Job Location: The location of the workplace is also necessary to let the volunteer know. This will help the volunteer evaluate transport fare’s affordability or a place one can take a walk to.
Duties and Responsibilities:
The employer should do well to outline the employee’s tasks to perform effectively, and it should concur with the title of the job. The volunteer should have adequate knowledge of the duties and responsibilities required by the organization.
Salary/Wage: It is essential to emphasize if the employee will be entitled to payment or any other incentive type. The employee will not be eligible for any salary or wage or any other incentive giving that the job is a volunteering one.
Work Ethics: Work ethics must be clearly defined so that the employee can have excellent interpersonal relationships towards the success of tasks. This, to me, is the lifeblood of employee qualities. Interpersonal relationships such as tolerance, high emotional intelligence, teamwork, time management, multi-tasking, etc., Give an employee the taste of a good staff. This furthers the agenda of the organization.
Job Qualifications:
Since it is a volunteering job, it is necessary to state if the job will require qualification or not or even if it will require experience, especially regarding the job role, that is, the employee’s duties and responsibilities. Certain jobs such as medical services will require professional qualifications and experience, while other jobs such as environmental sanitation might not require special qualifications or experience. Certain jobs may require just orientation by the organization before the employee can resume work.
Medical Fitness: One critical thing to consider in the job description is the employee’s health status and the potential work hazard the employee might sustain. The employers must clearly state the type of hazards associated with the job role and consider the employee’s health status. Although some persons might want their medical report confidential even to the employers, the employer must know to evaluate the volunteer’s health fitness for the job; this is a matter of organizational ethics. Will the organization provide health insurance for the employee, or the employee will be responsible for that. This factor is a delicate one as it can result in discrimination or, worse, stigmatization depending on the volunteer’s health condition, if there is any at all. Knowing the employee’s health status can also help in job placement.
Work Time: The work duration of the employee should as well be stated so that the volunteer can know if they can cope with the time or not.
Conclusion
The aforementioned factors might not be exhaustively discussed, but I consider them very basic, and depending on the organization and their type of work, it may vary. The volunteer job description should be taken very seriously and carefully as it can help the overall success of any organization. Organizations must, therefore, have their recruiters abreast with the requisite skills for a proper description of job roles for volunteers and must be able to indoctrinate volunteers into the world of volunteering jobs effectively.
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