Horticulture Volunteer Retention in Public Gardens
Date
1998
Authors
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Publisher
University of Delaware
Abstract
In times of budget constraints, public gardens explore ways to maintain existing
services without increasing expenditures. Therefore, volunteer programs are an
important component of the human resources at many organizations and should be
managed to optimize their efficiency. A volunteer program model to help manage and
decrease volunteer turnover was created based on current literature and interviews with
coordinators of volunteers at selected public gardens. This model was compared to the
horticulture volunteer programs at three case study sites: Chicago Botanic Garden,
Dallas Arboretum and Botanical Garden, and Holden Arboretum. The volunteer program
model includes: a philosophy statement, policy for operation of the program, a volunteer
manual, needs assessment for volunteers at the organization, work descriptions,
recruitment, interviewing and inviting volunteers to the program, orientation and training,
evaluation, dismissal of problematic volunteers, record keeping, recognition, and
maintenance of healthy relationships between paid staff and volunteers. Coordinators of
volunteers were interviewed regarding the management of their horticulture volunteer
programs and retention at their gardens. The results indicate the case study gardens are
not actively managing horticulture volunteer turnover. However, the selected public
gardens are currently implementing some of the components in the volunteer model. The
results of this study will provide coordinators of volunteers, public garden directors, and human resource personnel with the necessary information to understand volunteer
retention and should help decrease the volunteer turnover rate at their public gardens.
Description
Keywords
Human resources, Volunteer management, Retention, Turnover