"Unclear instructions", "lack of recognition": why volunteers quit (and how to prevent it)
You spend months recruiting, training and equipping hundreds of volunteers. The event is a success, but the next year a large part of your team no longer answers the call. Does this scenario sound familiar?
To understand the reasons behind this disengagement, we ran a large-scale study among our community of 200,000 volunteers on Qoezion.com. We asked them directly: "What demotivates you the most?" The answer is unequivocal.
The diagnosis: poor communication is the main culprit
The leading demotivating factor, cited by 58% of volunteers, is a "lack of communication and unclear instructions". Coming from such a broad panel, this figure shows that the biggest irritant is purely organisational.
Volunteers, who come to give their time, feel that their time isn't being respected. They feel unnecessary and not fully occupied, which runs counter to their primary motivation: contributing to a project's success.
Recognition, collateral damage of disorganisation
The second demotivating factor, a "lack of recognition" (45%), is often a direct consequence of the first. Stressed organisers who spend their time firefighting because of poor information flow have neither the time nor the energy to properly thank and value their teams.
👉 The solution: centralise to communicate better
The solution isn't to send more emails, but to structure the information. To avoid chaos, communication with your volunteers should be:
- Centralised: a single source of truth for schedules, role sheets, contacts and important documents.
- Targeted: the right information, sent to the right team, at the right moment.
- Accessible: every volunteer should be able to find their personal information easily on their smartphone.
It's precisely to address this major challenge that we built Qoezion, our volunteer management platform. By centralising all the information and automating much of the communication, our tool removes the fog and the stress.
Don't let poor communication sabotage your teams' engagement any longer. By equipping yourself with the right tools, you free up time to focus on what matters: recognising and valuing the people who make your event possible.
Manage your volunteers without spreadsheets. Qoezion helps you recruit, schedule, communicate with and retain your teams from a single tool. Start for free — no commitment.
More in « Recruiting and retaining »
The hidden cost of poor volunteer management
In an event budget, volunteer management is often seen as a cost centre — or even a simple "miscellaneous" line. But have you ever calculated the real cost of haphazard management based on…
Read the articleVolunteer management software: the 5 features that make the difference
The days when a simple registration form and an Excel spreadsheet were enough to run a volunteer programme are over. Modern event volunteering demands more complete tools, designed to…
Read the articleHow to recruit volunteers for your event: a practical guide
Every year, the same nagging question comes back to every organiser: "How are we going to find enough motivated volunteers?" This is where everything starts, the foundation your event's…
Read the article