Volunteer engagement policies that impact productivity and retention : a pragmatic account of volunteer work at NPOs.

Abstract

The importance of Non Profit Organizations (NPOs) has increased with the advent of the sustainable development goals, governments decreasing development expenditure and people becoming aware of world problems and taking initiative to fix them. In order to fill this gap and work towards the sustainable development goals, NPOs need finance and volunteers. Volunteers are the backbone of any NPO and therefore volunteer commitment is essential for human resource managers working within NPOs. Purpose: There is limited discourse on volunteer engagement and its practical implication. As volunteers are the most important resource of any NPO, their engagement is of the essence and therefore a study was conducted on the impact of volunteer engagement policies, focusing on productivity and intention to quit. The objectives of this thesis are: 1.To allow human resource managers to effectively implement a volunteer engagement strategy in their NPOs 2.To allow students of Bachelors-Masters primarily focusing on Human Resource Management, to develop a strong understanding of the importance of volunteer engagement and how students can get the most out of them in terms of productivity and commitment. Design: A case study approach was adopted, in which data was collected via in depth interviews. The president of AIESEC in Lebanon who is also the vice president for talent management was interviewed. The findings from the interview were then analyzed using a thematic table analysis. Major Findings: Through the thematic table analysis, it was found that AIESEC in Lebanon was facing four major problems of motivation and commitment, implementation problems, volunteer turnover and pipeline problems. These problems arise from lack of ownership, which can be seen, from the lens of the Ability, Motivation and Opportunities (AMO) model. AIESEC in Lebanon is not able to develop a sense of ownership amongst their members because of the lack of volunteer engagement.