Effective people: Swings and Roundabouts

There is much evidence pointing to the positive effects of volunteering. The good outcomes of investing hours in voluntary work are widely known and include: Increased self-esteem, producing an increased sense of well-being*, Remaining active and socially engaged in old age helps identity and well-being**, Volunteering enables feeling good about one's situation in life*** and Volunteers have a greater sense of satisfaction in feeling that they are making a contribution to wider society.#

So it was a bit of a shock for some that a study conducted by Dr Tim Windsor (The Gerontologist Feb 2008) suggested that high levels of volunteering may actually be unhealthy! The authors concluded that those who volunteered for more than 15 hours a week reported lower life satisfaction than those who volunteered for less.

Not as prominent in the media reporting on this article was that life satisfaction was higher for those who volunteered moderately than it was for those who did not volunteer at all. So the study is far from suggesting we should stop volunteering! For organisations who rely on volunteer involvement, there are some implications, however.

The first is that for the health of all, policy limits need to be placed on the hours people volunteer for. Many organisations refuse to curb volunteer hours. This creates all sorts of problems for the organisation and for the volunteer.

Secondly, our volunteer reward programs need to be less focused on hours and years served and more on results.

Thirdly, volunteers need to be assisted to create work-life balance with a range of interests.

Finally, in our marketing of volunteering we need to ensure that people understand that they can volunteer for any number of hours. Too much volunteering marketing suggests you must volunteer for many hours over many years. A change in focus will attract new volunteers into organisations.

These things will help more people in society to enjoy a higher quality of life, as well as spreading the workload over many more volunteers.

*Wuthnow, 1991 cited in Musick and Wilson, 2003
**Lemon, Bengtson and Peterson, 1972, Kart and Longino, 1982 cited in Luoh and Herzog, 2002
***Atchley 1989 cited in Luoh and Herzog, 2002
# Piliavin and Siegl (2007)

For full references and further information, contact People First -Total Solutions.