How to make a volunteer roster people stick to

Start with the jobs, not the names

It’s Sunday night and you’re staring at a list of 30 volunteers and a blank spreadsheet. The temptation is to start typing the names you trust into the hardest slots. Don’t, yet. Begin by writing down every job that has to be covered and what it actually involves.

For a community pantry that might be: Tuesday morning packing (3 hours, lifting boxes), Thursday afternoon distribution (3 hours, talking to people, a bit of record-keeping), and a key holder who opens and locks up. Each of those is a role. Give each one:

• A plain name people will recognise: “Thursday distribution”, not “Shift B”.
• A headcount: the fewest people it can run with safely, plus one if it’s busy.
• Any requirement: a key, a food-safety course, a working-with-children check, a driver’s licence, being able to lift.
• The real times, including set-up and pack-down. If people need to arrive at 8:45 for a 9:00 start, put 8:45 on the roster.

Requirements matter more than people expect. If only five of your 30 volunteers hold a key, the key holder role has to be rostered on its own, or those five end up on every shift by accident.

Work out how often each person will be on

Before you fill anything, do the sum. Count the places across the period and divide by the number of volunteers.

Example: 13 weeks of Thursday distribution with 3 people a week is 39 places. With 20 volunteers who can do it, that is about two turns each over the term, so roughly one Thursday every six or seven weeks.

If the answer is more often than people signed up for, you have learned something important before anyone gets tired: you need more volunteers, fewer places per shift, or fewer shifts. If it’s much less often, people may forget how the job works between turns, so consider fewer, slightly busier shifts. The guide on how often volunteers should be rostered goes into this.

Ask for away days before you roster

Send one short message about two weeks before you build the roster:

“I’m doing the roster for February to April this weekend. If there are any dates you’re away, send them to me by Friday. No need to say why.”

Ask only for the days people can’t do. If you ask which days they’d like, most people pick the same easy dates and nobody picks the public holiday weekend. And don’t ask for reasons. A volunteer who has to explain a hospital appointment or a custody weekend to the roster coordinator is less likely to tell you next time.

Keep the replies somewhere you’ll see them while you’re filling. A list scribbled on the back of an envelope is how volunteers end up rostered on the day of their daughter’s wedding.

Fill the shifts by turns, not by who says yes

Go through the dates in order. For each empty place, choose someone who can do that role, isn’t away, isn’t already on at the same time, and has had the fewest turns so far. Keep a running count beside each name.

This one habit fixes the most common volunteer roster problem: the reliable people get asked first, every time, until they quit. Counting turns protects them. It also gets newer volunteers onto the roster quickly, which is when they are keenest and most likely to stay.

Pair new people with old hands

For a volunteer’s first two or three shifts, put them alongside someone who knows the job. Write it down as part of the roster rather than hoping it happens. Once they know the ropes, mix the pairs: people enjoy meeting someone new, and it stops your knowledge sitting with two people who always work together.

Watch the hard dates

Before you publish, scan the dates nobody wants: the week before Christmas, school holidays, long weekends, the 7 am starts. Make sure they haven’t all landed on the same handful of people. If they have, swap a few by hand and say so.

Publish it early and in one place

Publish at least two weeks before the first date, and a whole term ahead if you can. Volunteers have jobs, children and other commitments, and they plan around what they already know.

Put the whole roster in one place everyone can open. A printed sheet in the kitchen helps on the day, but people need to see it at home too. A single link they can open on a phone is better than a spreadsheet attached to an email, because when something changes there is still only one version. Show everybody’s dates, not just each person’s own, so people can see the load is shared. A printable volunteer roster template is a fine place to start.

Keep it running through the season

• Set one rule for changes. For example: “If you can’t make it, tell the coordinator as early as you can.” Then update the roster everyone looks at the same day. The guide on when someone can’t make it covers finding cover.
• Remind people, a day or two before, in a short friendly message. There are examples you can copy in roster reminder messages.
• Welcome newcomers onto the roster quickly. Give them a date in the next few weeks, with a buddy.
• When someone steps back, hand their future dates to the people with the fewest turns and leave everyone else’s dates alone.
• Say thank you. A line in the newsletter naming the people on this month does more than you’d think.

Doing it in FairTurns

FairTurns follows the same steps for free. Each team can have positions with headcounts (Packing, 3 people), and volunteers can be limited to the roles they’re set up for, so nobody without a key is put on as key holder. Volunteers mark their own away days, and you can mark them for people who have no account. Fill gives each empty place to whoever has had the fewest turns, and a public roster link shows everyone the roster without signing in. Volunteers without email can be added by name. See the volunteer roster page for the whole picture.

Questions