Volunteer Manager

Hackney Foodbank is looking for a Volunteer Manager to join their team 2 days per week (14 hours).

Purpose and Key Responsibilities:

The Volunteer Manager role is responsible for recruiting, engaging and deploying volunteers into a wide variety of roles across the charity.

• Work with the Warehouse Manager and Food Distribution teams to support the recruitment journey and retention of volunteers. Encourage people to volunteer through a variety of marketing and promotion approaches, including social media and working with our Communications and Fundraising team to develop a strategy for volunteers. Develop, coordinate, and engage a network of around 150 active volunteers. Book and signpost volunteers to relevant and engaging volunteer training sessions. Work with the Warehouse Manager and Head of Food Distribution and Volunteering to resolve any volunteering related issues or complaints. Proactively liaise with the staff team to determine volunteer requirements, select volunteers for the right roles and match them to the right people, considering preferences and restrictions on both sides. Provide advice and guidance to volunteers about their matched relationship (with support from the wider team) and highlight safeguarding concerns as appropriate. Work effectively to ensure volunteers feel part of Hackney Foodbank. Support the ongoing monitoring and evaluation of our services.
• Gathering volunteer feedback and take appropriate steps for improvement.
• Manage the Assemble platform and implement the annual Peakon volunteer survey, and implement the recommendations resulting from the survey.
• Ensure the wellbeing of the volunteers, including good communication and arranging a minimum of two volunteer events a year.

Skills and Experience

Essential:

• A minimum of three years’ experience of coordinating, managing or supervising a team of volunteers, to deliver a range of service delivery tasks.
• Experience working within the voluntary community and/or charity sector.
• Experience or aptitude to manage and deliver induction and training courses.
• Committed to building an inclusive culture in which all volunteers are valued.
• Ability to work under own initiative with minimal supervision, accuracy and attention to detail and to prioritise workload to meet all agreed deadlines.
• Reliable and adaptable, able to respond to changing priorities
• Ability to deal with information in a confidential manner, respond with sensitivity to the opinions of others and address any issues raised in a fair and consistent manner
• Good standard of written and spoken English, including the ability to write materials without errors in grammar, spelling, or punctuation
• Strong organisational skills; ability to identify all key steps and resources needed to complete a task and to manage a wide range of tasks concurrently
• Ability to work effectively as a member of a small team and maintain communications where members of that team are working different flexible days and hours
• A proactive approach to work with a ‘can do’ attitude
• Calm, professional, pragmatic, reliable and resilient personal attributes
• Computer literacy including ability to use online tools and learn new software with minimal ongoing support, create/edit documents in Word, Excel and PowerPoint, maintain records and produce clear written and oral reports.
• Commitment to the ethos and values of Hackney Foodbank including the extensive provision of services to high professional standards by volunteers, minimising the food bank’s impact on the environment, and the unfailing delivery of advertised services to all visitors equitably, with dignity and compassion.
• Flexibility in terms of working hours according to volunteers’ and Hackney Foodbank’s needs.
• A keen attention to detail and a commitment to achieving high standards in every aspect of Hackney Foodbank’s work.

Desirable:

• Relevant professional qualification
• Experience of using a CRM or equivalent database