Convened by: Title Sponsor:

Convened by: Title Sponsor:

Understanding Soft Risk in Volunteer Engagement

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We all think about hard risks…

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What is soft risk?

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And, why should we talk about it?These stories illustrate how soft risk can affect our programs and organizations

– We work to minimize hard risks: liability insurance, workers comp, background checks

– We need to bring the same thought and evaluation to the soft risks that occur in our volunteer engagement programs

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While many of the things we do help minimize soft risk – screening, training, policies – when we review these activities through the lens of soft risk we realize we may be exposing our programs and organization to more risk than we’re comfortable with!

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Determine Soft Risk

Your organization’s culture determines what types of actions and behaviors are okay…

But, sometimes our culture allows, or even rewards, actions that have negative outcomes for • our program, respect for the work of volunteers,

our clients, our organization’s reputation

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Determine Soft Risk

Soft risk can happen when• Volunteers are in the wrong role – screening

policies not aligned with the work• Training and orientation are not designed

around real-life volunteer responsibilities • Unclear where decision-making authority

starts and stops• Volunteers are poorly – or are not - supervised

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Determine Soft Risk

Soft risk can happen when• Culture prevents correcting or disciplining bad

behavior• Policies are on paper only• Volunteers don’t have the tools or resources

to find the right answer

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Where is the soft risk in your organization?

Take a minute to share where you might have soft risk exposure in your program.

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Minimize Soft Risk

• Ensure that policies have buy-in and are enforceable– Enforce them!

• Address training and orientation outcomes– Talk about them early and often

• Outline and define each role’s authority continuum– Where does the decision making start and stop?

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Minimize Soft Risk

• Provide resources and support – What is the right answer?

• Talk about it!– Model difficult situations or conversations– Role play or have volunteers switch roles

• Know who’s the right volunteer for the role– Implement screening practices to ensure that

you’re making the right match

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Help others understand soft risk

This isn’t something that will go away if you don’t think about it –

We need to talk about the ramifications of soft risk in the same way we do hard risk.

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Help others understand soft risk

• Tell your stories– What if…– How would this look on the front page of the

paper?• Identify negative outcomes

– Link to staff time, resources, reputation– The more volunteer work matters, the more soft

risk can damage your program and organization

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Make the case to address soft risk

• Create buy-in around soft risk as an issue– Story telling with morals

• Identify the ramifications of the status quo– Culture held hostage– Failure to discipline or dismiss

• Changing roles for volunteers require new attitudes– There isn’t a lot of soft risk in stuffing envelopes

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Resources and Getting Started

• Tap into your ethics “backpack”– Where is your gut telling you there’s a problem?– http://cvacert.org/resources-and-media/professional-ethic

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• Prioritize your soft risk issues– What are your organizational priorities, where is

the greatest impact?– Use the work sheet to evaluate the risks

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Resources and Getting Started

• Work with leadership to start the soft risk conversation – What are your stories? What stories with morals

can you tell?• Evaluate your foundation components

– Position descriptions, screening practices, training and orientation activities.

– Where are you opening your organization up to soft risk?

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Thank you!

Jennifer BennettSenior Manager, Education & Training

VolunteerMatchjbennett@volunteermatch.org