Over the last 15 months the Union has been working towards completing one of our strategic aims which was to achieve Investors in Volunteers (IiV) status. IiV is the UK quality standard for all organisations involving volunteers.
In February of this year, several of our volunteers and Union staff took the time to meet with an IiV assessor. Volunteers discussed their experiences at the Union, the support they receive, their motivations for holding these positions, and staff reflected on our work to ensure volunteers get the mows from their experiences and the huge contribution they make.
Following feedback from 110 volunteers, Officer Trustees and Staff, the recommendation that the Union is awarded the IiV standard, which was recently ratified by the IiV Board.
We can now proudly announce that Imperial College Union now officially holds IiV Quality Standard.
Lucinda Sandon-Allum, Union President, and Ben Howitt, Deputy President (Clubs & Societies) were both involved in our application for IiV. Lucinda said, “I’m delighted that the hard work put into the application by Union staff and students has resulted in the awarding of IiV. The Union would struggle to function without the contributions of all the fantastic student volunteers, which is why we are always striving to provide the best possible experience and development opportunities for our volunteers. It is brilliant to see this being recognised through our IiV Quality Standard”.
The Union has taken a number of steps to ensure we are adopting best practice in the management of volunteers and developing a culture where all staff, no matter their level of engagement with volunteers, acknowledge and value the contribution our volunteers make to the organisation. These include:
Using staff from across the organisation to deliver more personalised induction training to our volunteers, providing them with a member of staff who could answer questions and provide advice throughout the year
Undertaking training needs analysis with volunteers has enabled us to deliver specific training to directly support them to fulfil their responsibilities and develop personally.
Publishing guidance for volunteers around expenses, their responsibilities in regard to data protection, what to do if they want to change or adapt their role and the progression routes open to them within the Union.
As a volunteer based organisation, the volunteer experience is essential to our continued success as a students’ union. IiV is a fantastic tool to help us benchmark against other organisation, but more importantly test that what we are putting in place is truly resulting in a better experience for our army of 2,500+ volunteers.
Work towards gaining IiV status has been lead by Nick Snow, our Student Development Manager. A massive thanks and congratulations goes to him and all the staff members, elected officers and volunteers at large for helping us achieve this fantastic award!
