1. Introduction
The purpose of this report Is to analyse or assess the target population, barriers to participation, overcoming the barriers to participation and national game strategy of our live group project for football development. Our live group project is the HFA recruitment and retention of volunteers, the following report will also include the influencing factors a volunteer chooses to volunteer and studies methods put in place to recruit and retain volunteers. Volunteers are vital within football leagues, they essentially help to keep clubs running and clubs will struggle to function without them, many roles filled by volunteers within clubs are as follows; team managers, coaches, canteen officers, committee members, ground and facility keepers, scoreboard operators, ground announcers and many more. So why do volunteers volunteer in the first place? There are many aspects as to why a volunteer would choose to volunteer, especially within football, some may do it to increase their health, other volunteers may choose to do so to give their career a potential boost or help them to learn new skills within a specific area to which they choose to volunteer, some volunteers choose to do so just to make a difference, there are many reason as to why we need volunteers and why they essentially need football clubs but retaining them can also be a hard process which will also be within the following report.
2. Target population
Having introduced the report and stated why volunteers choose to volunteer I shall now move on to the first topic needed to be analysed which is the target population of volunteers within the football league, firstly the target population for football volunteers can be very specific as there is a variety of roles that need to be filled in within clubs as stated within the introduction, the first factor that I wish to cover is motivation, volunteers within football leagues and clubs need to be highly motivated, motivation Is key to recruiting a volunteer as they must be able to or be willing to do what is required to the best of their ability, especially within a high demand industry (Anon, 2017). It is vital volunteers within football leagues are motivated and ready to learn as the employer also must consider that they are giving up their free time. If a volunteer is motivated and ready to learn it makes the process of both recruiting and retaining volunteers a lot more free-flowing and easier. The second area I perceive as being vital within football volunteering is the fact that within football leagues and clubs although many roles may be generic there Is also a lot of roles that need to be filled that can be very role specific, these specific roles may not be so easily filled by volunteers due to their requirements and it can make recruitment and retention a lot harder due to the potential lack of role specific volunteers, a way of overcoming the issue is to advertise the role specific position separately and there are also many more ways. Having now spoke about role specific volunteers it now leads me on to the next factor within football league retention and volunteering which is development, even though a volunteer is merely ‘volunteering’ and doing so for their own reasons it is important to also implement development within the volunteering structure of football, a volunteer needs to be able to develop and learn to be able to work at their best ability, if a volunteer is not motivated or as the capacity to want to be developed in role specific jobs then this can also make recruitment and retention harder (Websites.sportstg.com, 2017). The last factor of the target population for volunteers within football leagues and clubs I wish to cover is age, although age can be very generic within volunteering it is also highly important in any environment to consider whether a volunteers age is suitable for the role they are applying for, ages within volunteering can be very sporadic but essential to all the factors above. A volunteers age can also influence both recruitment and retention of volunteers. Although there are many factors as to what essentially is required of a volunteer, the factors I have described can decide and influence what type of target population is required within football.
3. Barriers to participation
Having introduced the report and described and somewhat analysed the target population of volunteers within the football league and clubs, I am now going to turn my focus on to the barriers to participation for volunteers, why they may not be able to volunteer and the factors surrounding the barriers to participation. The first barrier and the highest reason as to why volunteers can’t or will not volunteer is due to work commitments, work commitments is currently the highest reason volunteers although they may want to volunteer and make a difference they can’t due to work, it is important for the employer to recognise and understand that most volunteers not all do work and it is up to the employer and recruitment area of the football league to be flexible around volunteering for those with work commitments (Data.ncvo.org.uk, 2017). The second most common barrier to participation for volunteers is the issue of the potential volunteer doing other things with their spare time, this most of the time especially within the younger generation may include their hobbies, helping other people or it could be due to their private life, they may also lack the motivation to volunteer and choose to do other things with their spare time instead, although at times they may want to volunteer however the recruitment side of football leagues must take into consideration peoples private lives and respect and accept this is a huge barrier for most volunteers. The third most common barrier to participation for volunteers I found was having to look after their home or children, although many volunteers within the football sector are of the younger generation there are also volunteers that can either be parents or they may live with a relative/friend that requires assistance at home, with this statistically being the third highest barrier to volunteering in the UK, it must be taken into consideration within the football leagues when it comes to the recruitment and retention of volunteers. the last and most common barrier I wish to highlight Is potential volunteers that are studying, due to most volunteers within football being of the younger generation even though they are hugely motivated to volunteer due to it be able to influence their career, they’ll more than likely want to do it due to it being their passion, they may not be able to participate in volunteering as they may be students within schools or universities and will have to prioritise their study over volunteering which needs to be accepted as a barrier. The factors mentioned above all have one thing in common and that is time, most volunteers cannot volunteer due to the amount of time they have available in their day to day lives, although different factors influence the barrier to participation for volunteers the main and most common issue for the recruitment and retention for volunteers within football leagues is effectively time management and availability for volunteers.
4. Overcoming barriers to participation
Having previously mentioned the barriers to participation for volunteer’s I am now going to turn my attention to how these barriers are overcome in both a generic and specific way, the first factor and influence for a volunteer to be able to overcome a barrier whether it be finance or needing general support is the schemes put out by both the FA and Sport England to entice volunteers and help them on their way (Footballfoundation.org.uk, 2017), many of the schematics provided often have funds to help the volunteer fulfil the role they wish to do when it would seem financially impossible, these schemes are available for both groups and individuals and provide support not only with finance but support for learning, the FA football Workforce and Sport England volunteering in an active nation are examples of strategies put in place to both advertise and help volunteers to overcome a variety of barriers to participate in a volunteering area of their choice. Another way of overcoming barriers to participation for volunteers is to have the employer within any industry provide detailed and exclusive advertisement for specific roles, this can often happen within smaller leagues, clubs and communities and can help a volunteer overcome a barrier of not being able to find a role specific work placement of their choice, proper advertising is essential within any volunteering sector (LSE Careers blog, 2017). There are many ways a club can support and help overcome barriers to participation, they can let them know what’s in it for them, ability to add to their CV, ability to provide shorter commitments so volunteers don’t feel tied down and add flexibility with time management, clubs and leagues may also need to make volunteers understand what the benefits are and why it is worthwhile however this can range from a variety of things such as funding to invitations to club events. Young volunteers may also overcome any potential barrier to volunteer and help improve their social capital (Tandfonline.com, 2017). It is also important that when a volunteer is recruited within a role that are welcomed as a member, this can be done in a variety of ways such as welcome packs or rewards provided as an incentive for doing well. As mentioned before there is a variety of schemes and support in place both at a high and low level of the football spectrum which are put in place to help recruit and more importantly retain volunteers within the football industry.
5. National game strategy focus
Within the final part of this report I am going to focus on how the national game strategy integrates with our life project; HFA recruitment and retention of volunteers, the main way that the HFA recruitment and retention of volunteers integrates within the national game strategy is through the FA Football workforce, the football workforce is set to; support and develop existing volunteers, recruit more volunteers into football, recognise and reward volunteers. The football workforce states and understands that volunteers willingly give up their free time to volunteer and have provided different ways of volunteering to the extent some people don’t have to leave their house, The FA football workforce scheme within the national strategy puts a huge focus on recruiting as many volunteers as possible, it provides funding, states the benefits of volunteering and develops existing volunteers and rewards new ones (Sportengland.org, 2017). It is also important to highlight the increase of volunteering through participation of women’s football, the national game strategy also states its desire to maintain the “119,000 affiliated male, female and disability teams” for this to be achievable it is vital the volunteering becomes the glue in helping these clubs maintain and run, making the retention of volunteers even more important, the link between participation and volunteering within the national game strategy shows that one requires the other to function and operate to its maximum potential.
In conclusion of this report on our live group project of the HFA recruitment and retention of volunteers, I have been able to research, learn and identify the; Barriers to participation, overcoming the barriers to participation of which there are an extensive number of schemes made available for volunteers and highlighted how volunteering integrates within the national game strategy (Association, 2017).