What is a Role Description, and Why Does Our Organisation Need Them?
Role descriptions help your volunteers understand the tasks that they will be doing and their role in the organisation. This helps them carry out their volunteer tasks effectively, and acts as a point of reference for their time in the organisation – it is important that the role description is clear and accurate, so the role is defined. During the induction process, the role description should be given and explained to the volunteer. For each volunteer role that you offer, there should be a separate role description. These written role descriptions will also inform any adverts you post to recruit volunteers.
Do these Role Descriptions Need to be Updated?
If the volunteer role changes in any way, these changes should be reflected in the role description and communicated to any existing volunteers. We recommend that you review volunteer role descriptions on a regular basis to ensure that both you and the volunteer are happy with the information detailed – this could be done during volunteer supervisions, for example.
How do I Write A Role Description?
We have created a role description template that you can use to create role descriptions for your own organisation – here is a blank PDF and DOCX version which you can use. We have also created a sample role description for an Admin Volunteer role, as a guide only.
