References

When a volunteer registers to help at your event they will be asked to provide the details of one, or more, person to provide a reference for them.  This person is known as a referee.  You will need to set how many references you will ask your volunteers to provide.  Whilst it can be tempting to ask for lots, as this will mean you get more information back about your volunteer, it can sometimes be difficult to get all of these completed or the volunteer may provide the details of people who do not know them very well.  

You will also need to set how long your organisation will consider an accepted reference to be valid for.  It is recommended that references are re-requested every couple of years.  This allows the information to remain current without the volunteer having to provide a reference every time they offer to help.

Why is it important to ask for references?

Referencing is an important part of determining the suitability of your volunteers.  It provides some basic information on the volunteer from people who know them well.  A DBS check can also play an important part of determining suitability but cannot be relied on as not all volunteers will be eligible for a check (they may be too young or not doing a role which entitles a check to be carried out on them).

What makes an acceptable reference?

Within the registration form volunteers will be asked for the details of their chosen referees.  They will be instructed to provide the details of people who; know them well (ideally for more than 2 years), are over the age of 18 and are not members of their family.  If the surname of the volunteer and the referee match SignMeUp will remind them that their referees should not be in their family, but it will not prevent them from continuing as many people share the same surname and are not related.

When setting up your organisation, you can edit the instructions the volunteer will see before they complete their referee details.  If your organisation has certain requirements about the people who can be listed as referees make sure the instructions state these clearly.

Questions a referee will be asked

Once the volunteer has submitted their application their referees will automatically be emailed to ask them to provide a reference.  The referee will be prompted to get in contact with your organisation if they feel they do not know the named person well enough to provide a reference.  They will be asked the following questions:

• In what capacity do you know the volunteer?

• How long have you known them for?

• In your view, is the volunteer responsible, reliable and able to work as part of a team? (if they answer ‘no’ they will be asked for further information)

• To the best of your knowledge, has the volunteer ever caused harm to a child or young person? (if they answer ‘yes’ they will be asked for further information)

• In your view, is the volunteer suitably qualified to volunteer in this role? (if they answer ‘no’ they will be asked for further information)

Automated emails

SignMeUp will automatically send out an initial reference request email to each of the named referees.  A further two reminder emails will be sent, each a week apart from the initial reference request email.  

For more information on processing references please see the article about references in Managing Volunteer Applications within Event Management.