Volunteer recruitment is a shared challenge among many grassroots clubs and is crucial for ensuring too much work does not fall on the hands of too few.

The following tips and resources have been designed to support clubs to recruit, onboard, and retain volunteers.

1. Assess your needs

Before you begin recruiting new volunteers, it is important to consider why you are recruiting, what skills you need, and how you can offer a great volunteer experience. 

Think about your club's goals and why or how new volunteers will help you achieve them. 

This volunteer skills audit template can be used to map out the areas of strength within your club and identify where skill gaps lie.  

Once you have identified your skills gaps, consider the best ways to fill them. Before turning to recruitment, consider if the gap can be filled with one of the following strategies: 

• Moving existing volunteers to new roles better suited to their skills / interests 
• Providing internal mentorship / training / guidance 
• External training / CPD courses  

For more information, visit Undertaking a skills audit for a detailed breakdown of conducting a volunteer skills audit. 

2. Be clear on roles

Once you understand what skills and support your club needs, the next step is to write a description for each role you plan to recruit.  

When creating role descriptions, it is important to clearly outline the duties involved, time commitment, and benefits of undertaking the role. This will help you attract the right person for the job.

If a role can be completed partly or entirely remotely, be sure to mention that!  

Also consider if your role can be broken down into bite-sized, one-off tasks. Task-based volunteering allows for people to share the workload and creates more flexible offers. 

The below role description templates can be used to advertise volunteer positions at your club. The templates can be edited to suit your club's needs.

3. Actively promote

Make it obvious your club is looking for volunteers! 

Utilise all your clubs channels when recruiting new volunteers. Include volunteer opportunities in your club newsletter, social media posts, and club website, mention it in conversations with parents, players, members, and sponsors.  

19% of people who haven’t volunteered in the last 12 months was due to not being asked!  

This volunteer sign-up sheet can be displayed in your clubhouse to show people passing through the variety of ways they can get involved and that you don’t need to commit a lot of time to help. 

Volunteer Centres - can connect your club with potential volunteers and provide guidance around recruitment, retention, and management. You can search for your closest centre here.

Buddle (formerly Club Matters) - has a range of resources to support with promoting volunteer roles which can be found here.  

RFL Volunteer Portal 

• The volunteer portal is a central recruitment platform that can be used to recruit volunteers for ad-hoc tasks and ongoing roles.
• The portal allows volunteers to get involved in Rugby League volunteering without having to make a long-term commitment.
• If you are interested in advertising opportunities on the portal, you can sign-up here.
• Newly registered organisations will be sent a how to use guide to get you started.