{"id":11674,"date":"2023-02-01T09:54:45","date_gmt":"2023-02-01T09:54:45","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/teamkinetic.co.uk\/blog\/?p=11674"},"modified":"2023-02-01T09:54:49","modified_gmt":"2023-02-01T09:54:49","slug":"retail-volunteer-recruitment","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/teamkinetic.co.uk\/blog\/2023\/02\/retail-volunteer-recruitment\/","title":{"rendered":"Retail Volunteer Recruitment"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

New data from Charity Finance Magazine’s<\/a> ‘Charity shop survey for 2022’ reveals that there has been a decrease in charity shop volunteers since the Covid-19 pandemic. The number of volunteers at charity shops in the UK has fallen by 24% since 2019. People who took part in the survey said that they have struggled to operate as usual due to volunteers not returning to their roles once the restrictions lifted. How can retail volunteers be successfully recruited in 2023?<\/p>\n

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Successful Retail Volunteer Recruitment<\/h2>\n

An example of successful and efficient volunteer retail recruitment is an idea which came from Dorothy House<\/a>. Dorothy House provides compassionate care and support for people in our community with life-limiting illnesses. They have 25 high street shops that sell pre-loved items which provide a large part of their income. Dorothy House have shared its success in recruiting volunteers for retail.\u00a0<\/p>\n

After the pandemic, Dorothy House found that many of their volunteers decided not to return or felt they were no longer able to continue volunteering. At the end of 2019, they had 674 volunteers however in 2022 this decreased to just 470 volunteers. Dorothy House started by reorganising its volunteer team in 2022 and engaging with its retail team to see what they felt was needed. They ended up recruiting a deputy shop manager from one of their shops to be their Retail Volunteering Support Officer. As the shop manager already worked in a Dorothy House shop they were able to understand the challenges and how crucial retail volunteers are to ensure their shops are running efficiently.<\/span><\/p>\n

Their approach was to visit all 25 of their shops to access their needs for volunteer recruitment. They supported them with in-store recruitment such as putting up posters in the local community and identifying potential sources of volunteers. The managers for each shop were worked with closely so they could create their own ongoing plan for recruitment. The outcome of this is that Dorothy House has now achieved a net gain of a hundred extra volunteers since March this year.<\/span><\/p>\n

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Other Strategies To Successfully Recruit Retail Volunteers:<\/h2>\n