Credit: iStock.com/Pixelfit
Results of a survey of CIBSE volunteers, conducted at the end of 2020, showed that most volunteers would encourage colleagues to get involved.
The volunteer engagement survey aimed to gain insight into people’s motivations for volunteering; how much time they spent doing it; what they got out of it; and what rewards they may like to get from it.
After being sent to 800 volunteers, the survey received 234 responses, with respondents covering a fairly even spread of ages, from mainly qualified membership grades.
The reasons people gave for volunteering were wide ranging, but the highest-scoring responses were: personal satisfaction, giving back to the industry, and professional development.
Being encouraged to volunteer by employers rated low. This is an area CIBSE would like to work on to help employers see the benefits of encouraging staff to volunteer, both in terms of value to their business and upskilling of employees.
Very positively, 91% of the volunteers responding to the survey would encourage colleagues to get involved in volunteering.
In terms of recognition for their time, most respondents simply asked for private acknowledgement and thanks. CIBSE is looking at ways to more formally acknowledge volunteers for their time, hard work and dedication.
Feedback around the support volunteers had received from CIBSE was mixed; customer services scored highly, with 91% of respondents rating it good or excellent, but volunteers felt their suggestions and ideas has not been given fair consideration and response from CIBSE.
CIBSE acknowledges there is more to be done to support our network of volunteers, and it will be working through the Engagement Steering Group to address it.
This will be an iterative improvement process, so the group will be asking for further and more specific feedback as needed over the year.
Respondents’ best experiences of being a CIBSE volunteer included: ‘watching initiatives come to fruition within a profession I am deeply passionate about’ and ‘listening to a candidate that you know will be a credit to CIBSE in the future’.
CIBSE would like to thank those who responded to the survey, and all our volunteers who help CIBSE achieve all we do.
If you are interested in giving some of your time and knowledge to CIBSE, email rsweeney@cibse.org