There was a walking away from these [administrative and other] activities that the volunteers did not necessary want to perform

Season 3, Episode 5

Some organizations encourage volunteers to supplement its mission or activities. One may see volunteers working in schools, hospitals, just about anywhere providing additional services, care, administrative support, and so on. Or, members of the organization develop a new initiative that creates a significant time demand that crowds out the members’ ordinary duties. Occasionally, the organization finds that the voluntary efforts are so essential to its purpose that it decides to create a new permanent position to perform it, effectively in-sourcing the role. On the good side, this demonstrates a tacit acknowledgement that the volunteer work is important and appreciated.

But it is not always easy or smooth, and could actually create problems where they did not exist. In this episode, I explore two examples from my experiences — one where a permanent position replaced a role held by on a volunteer basis and an outsider was hired, and one where an internal initiative created high demand collateral duties, such that the organization created a permanent position and chose one of the members for it. Both cases resulted in changed relationships among the organization, the permanent hire, and the other volunteers — one turned out well, the other experienced a rockier start. So what should managers do to make this transition work more smoothly?