Head of Volunteering to advise volunteer

The Africa Health Organisation (AHO) is evolving. It aims to upgrade its volunteering to enhance operational sustainability and positively impact more lives by providing robust health and social care. We seek assistance in creating an effective volunteering system and strategy.

What difference will you make?

Your contributions to our volunteering management will influence how we meet our health equity goal and present ourselves to volunteers, service users, stakeholders, funders, and the public. With your assistance, we will ensure that our volunteers meet AHO's vision and impact.

You are essential to AHO's success because you will create and lead a strategic, sustainable, and engaging volunteer programme. You will be responsible for recruiting, training, and retaining volunteers, maximising the impact of their contributions, and ensuring a positive experience for all.

You will help with crafting compelling role descriptions and promote opportunities through effective channels to attract the right people and with reputation, you also encourage current volunteers to recruit others.

You will boost retention rates by creating a positive and supportive volunteer culture ensuring volunteers have meaningful and engaging roles, which prevents burnout and increases their satisfaction and commitment to AHO.

By building strong relationships with both volunteers and the community, you will strengthen AHO's ties with the people we serve. You will ensure volunteers feel valued and connected, which fosters a sense of community ownership.

Through effective scheduling and resource allocation, you will streamline operations and ensure all volunteer efforts align with AHO's goals. This frees up time for staff to focus on other high-impact activities and enhances operational efficiency.

As a good volunteer leader, you will match volunteers with tasks that suit their interests and talents. By providing tailored training and support, you will help volunteers develop new skills, which increases productivity and gives them a rewarding experience and optimise volunteer skills and potential.

You will develop and implement policies and procedures covering everything from safeguarding to health and safety. This minimises risk for AHO and protects both volunteers and the communities we serve and ensures compliance and safety.

As part of your role, you will track and evaluate volunteer activities and hours, translating that data into reports on program progress and outcomes. This helps demonstrate the volunteer program's impact to senior staff and funders.

When issues arise, you will act as a mediator to address concerns and resolve problems in a constructive and timely manner. This preserves relationships, facilitates conflict resolution and ensures a positive working environment.

Ultimately, you will orchestrate the entire volunteer journey, from initial interest to sustained engagement and recognition. A positive, well-managed experience not only ensures that volunteers are productive but also transforms them into lifelong advocates for the organisation's mission.

What are we looking for?

PERSON SPECIFICATION

We Are Looking For

Essential

• You must be educated to a degree level
• At least three years of experience in the management of staff and/or volunteers
• Ability to build rapport quickly and maintain effective working relationships
• Strong written and verbal communication skills
• Proficient IT skills, including Microsoft Office and database management
• Excellent organisational skills with the ability to prioritise workload
• Confidentiality and discretion
• Ability to develop professional and productive relationships with a range of stakeholders, including members of the public, staff, volunteers and partner organisations
• Strong interpersonal skills and emotional intelligence
• Ability to work independently as well as part of a team
• Commitment to diversity, equity, and inclusion
• Clear boundaries with working relationships and to help others set their own
• Team management and recruitment practices
• Ability to record, evaluate, and analyse information for reporting

Desirable Experience Of

• Working in the charity sector and/or a grassroots organisation
• Delivering support to the public, particularly people experiencing vulnerability
• Developing and providing training opportunities
• Networking
• Experience using social media and other online platforms
• Educated to senior school or degree level
• Experience in attracting, recruiting and retaining volunteers.
• Ability to build relationships and provide personalised support for volunteers.
• Experience in designing and delivering onboarding and training programmes.
• Excellent organisational and administrative skills, with the ability to balance multiple priorities.
• Strong communication and interpersonal skills, able to motivate and inspire volunteers.
• Knowledge of safeguarding and GDPR requirements in a volunteer context
• Experience in using CRM systems to manage volunteer activity.
• Ability to work independently, take ownership of targets and plan work over several months.
• Strong teamworking skills.
• Passion for supporting people and driving social mobility.
• Experience in the charity or education sector.
• Strong interpersonal skills and ability to cultivate lasting relationships.
• Proactivity and tenacity, the ability to seek out new opportunities and remain resilient.
• Understanding of corporate partnerships and employee volunteering schemes.
• Experience in monitoring, evaluating, and reporting on volunteer engagement and impact.

What will you be doing?

We are excited to announce an incredible opportunity for a talented Head of Volunteering to join our passionate team at the Africa Health Organisation (AHO) Since 1999, we've been dedicated to delivering health and social care to millions across Africa and the Diaspora, and now we're ready to elevate our impact further.

Volunteers are vital to our work. They offer vital assistance to AHO, allowing us to expand our reach and impact. This year, we're embarking on a mission to strengthen our volunteering by upgrading our volunteering system. Our goal is to ensure that volunteers experience best experience from application to interviews, placement and volunteer support and development. We need a visionary like you to help us achieve our goals.

We're seeking a dynamic and experienced Head of Volunteering who can develop and execute our volunteer strategy to ensure that we receive the best volunteer applicants. There are numerous exciting possibilities ahead, from the developing new innovative volunteer systems, investment in volunteering, improving volunteering efficiency and we're eager to explore them all.

In this pivotal role, you'll plan and execute our volunteering investment efforts, ensuring that our volunteers not only shine but also come to life in meaningful ways. If you're a volunteer leader who thrives on creativity and collaboration, we want to hear from you Additionally, you'll have the opportunity to inspire and mentor volunteer teams, making a positive impact together. Join us on this exciting journey