Here is a brief overview of our process for recruiting and screening leaders. If you'd like a bit more information on this topic, feel free to let me know, and I'll be happy to make time for you.
1) Make contact with potential volunteer. There are several ways to find potential volunteers. I've always found that a personal touch is best. The vast majority of our volunteers are recruited by current volunteers or by me personally.
2) Potential volunteer fills out an application. We have an application we ask every volunteer to fill out. It asks questions regarding their background, why they want to work with students, and how they feel like God has gifted them to serve. It includes a background screening form in which they give us permission to check their background and contact references. In addition, we have each volunteer affirm our church's statement of faith and agree to the guidelines of adult volunteers.
3) Check background and references. We use SecureSearch at our church. They are a great company that does fairly comprehensive online checks for a good price. When you choose a company to conduct your checks, make sure there are no holes. For instance, do they check nationally or only within your state? Do you check driving records of leaders who will be driving students? This can be a time-intensive step that requires a lot of diligence, and I'm sorry to say that most churches do not really include this step in their process. And yes, we do check references on volunteers in our ministry.
4) Personal interview with the potential volunteer. This step can come at any time in the process. Sometimes, it's the first step; sometimes, I'm not able to meet with a potential volunteer until after he or she turns in the application. This isn't a lengthy interview. I simply share the vision of high school ministry at Washington Heights, lay out the expectations of leaders in our ministry, and get to know the potential volunteer better. The idea is to connect more on a personal level and to discern how this new leader is best suited to
5) Ease the new leader into serving. Depending on where this new leader is serving in our ministry, I do my best to prepare them for the adventure. If he or she will be a small group leader, this involves a formal class. If the new volunteer will simply be hanging out with us at one of our large group gatherings, then it's more of an informal process (although I hope to include a bit more formal training in the near future for all leaders). The idea is that we don't throw new leaders into situations that they are not ready for.
Note: Sometimes this process ends with the potential leader deciding that the high school ministry is not a good fit for him or her. That's okay, and that's why the process is set up the way it is. It's better to realize this up front than after two frustrating months of working with high school students.
That's pretty much it. What process do you have for getting new volunteers on board? What suggestions do you have for our process?
