Designing Volunteer Roles: The Ethics of Paid and Unpaid Work

In March of 2020, much of the in-person and organization-based formal volunteering came to a halt in Europe and North America. While informal volunteering and spontaneous people-helping movements forged on, the  organizations where many of us contribute our professional skills made drastic changes to volunteering and made them very fast. Organizations were forced to come up with solutions to provide or not provide services that were needed but had not previously been designated as paid positions.

Two full years of functioning in an ever-changing pandemic environment have had an ongoing impact on the boundaries around paid and unpaid roles. In fact, the boundaries around paid work and unpaid volunteer contributions have never been fuzzier. But one question in particular has never been clearer: How do ethical considerations impact the ability of the volunteer engagement professional to design and reintroduce volunteer roles?

With this question in mind, this Ethics column examines the following: 

1. Why the determination of paid vs unpaid roles is an ethical dilemma; 
2. The ethical values of our profession that come into conflict when confronted with this dilemma; 
3. The variables that guide decisions on whether work should be paid or unpaid; and 
4. A fictitious example using a suggested process on ethical decision making from the Council for Certification in Volunteer Administration (CCVA).
    

Why is this issue so pressing right now?

Let's start with three 'What if’ scenarios that actually came true over the last two years, creating situations where volunteer engagement professionals needed to look at the ethics of volunteer roles:

• What if . . . there was a worldwide pandemic and organizations had to start paying people to do volunteers' tasks because volunteers were not allowed to be in the building or the car or anywhere!?
• What if . . . that pandemic went on and on and on as volunteers returned and the nature of what they were doing and the way they were doing it dramatically changed, and kept changing? 
• What if . . . during this time of great change, volunteer engagement professionals became leaders who embraced the opportunity to guide their organizations in the ethical considerations that impact the rebuilding and re-introduction of volunteer energy?

A quick online search will bring up many articles and templates for designing a volunteer role. Less often will you find a section that considers the ethics of the existence of these volunteer roles in the first place. Pre-pandemic, many volunteer positions were encased in cement; they had been around from the beginning of time and their existence was not in question. Today, nothing is cast in stone as we adapt to the new ways of living, supporting clients and doing business.

This pause has provided leaders of volunteers with the freedom to break the mold of how things have been done and reimagine volunteer engagement. Now is the time to go back and determine if we have compromised our ethical values with the tasks that have been created for our unpaid mission partners. In the following paragraphs, we suggest some considerations around defining and advocating for paid versus unpaid roles in the post pandemic world.

Paid vs unpaid: An ethical issue?

As defined by the CCVA, the ethical values that represent our profession include citizenship, respect, accountability, fairness and trust. When the focus is on role creation, the potential for paid and unpaid confusion emerges and two values come into direct conflict. Namely, citizenship and fairness. 

Citizenship is the overarching value that allows us to provide services and achieve better communities by creating opportunities for engagement that enhance and augment the ability of the organization to achieve the mission. The value of citizenship states that volunteerism is a foundation of civil societies that guides organizations toward active community participation. Volunteer professionals are to facilitate a compassionate and caring culture, furthering volunteer engagement and meeting community needs. Fairness is the expectation that this will be done in the context of a fair and just organizational culture. The ethic of fairness requires that the volunteer professional commits to individual and collective efforts that build a just organizational culture.⁽¹⁾  Maximizing impact and service would seem to call for all individuals contributing to their fullest without regard for compensation. Fairness requires that roles are explicit and there is a just recompense for individuals who work side by side.

One approach to differentiate between a paid employee and a volunteer is outlined by Melanie Lockwood Herman, Executive Director of the Nonprofit Risk Management Center: ⁽²⁾  “A true volunteer works toward public service, religious or humanitarian objectives; does not expect or receive compensation for services; and does not displace any genuine employees.”

“A true volunteer does not displace any genuine employees”. . . them sounds like fighting words! The question of displacement is problematic. If there is someone willing to provide service in a volunteer role which appears identical to a paid role, is the volunteer in the role displacing a potential paid employee? Is the employer allowing an unjust culture by selecting who will be compensated for equal work?

Over the past two years, some organizations have pivoted volunteer roles to paid roles because of the need for services during the pandemic. In 2022, will volunteers not displace employees if there is an attempt to pivot these essential roles back to volunteers? In her recent article, "What is a volunteer? The difference between supporters & employees", well-known Volunteer Engagement trainer Tobi Johnson, MA, CVA, states that “because of the transient and part-time nature of volunteer work, volunteer activity should augment the work of paid staff, not replace it. Although volunteers can build program capacity, they should never be used to substitute for adequate program staffing levels.” ⁽³⁾ As volunteer engagement professionals we recognize that the distinct value of a volunteer goes beyond substituting for paid labour and something is lost if volunteers are ‘used’ as free staff.

Conversely, if there is a national labour shortage (as indicated by Stats Canada, June 21),⁽⁴⁾ is there a place for volunteers to step up and fill roles in nonprofit and charitable organizations that are having difficulty fulfilling their mission due to the lack of paid staff? Does the ethic of citizenship require that the community have the opportunity as volunteers to meet a shortfall in paid labour in order to meet needs and improve the culture of the community, regardless of payment?

In her 2019 article, "When ‘Just’ a Volunteer is Better than a Paid Employee," internationally-recognized trainer, researcher and consultant Jayne Cravens writes, “If you want to explore the idea of some roles at your organization being best filled by volunteers, the place to start is creating a written statement that explains explicitly why that organization involves volunteers”. ⁽⁵⁾ It is very difficult to determine which roles should be volunteer-based if there is not a common understanding as to why you are engaging volunteers. This is not something we usually have the opportunity to talk about. The pandemic, however, has opened up the opportunity to go back and ask all the ‘why’ questions. In some cases organizations had drifted into ‘using’ volunteer roles as a way to save money or to off board tasks that no one wanted to do. The return of volunteers provides the platform to reevaluate why you engage volunteers and maybe write that statement. The current crisis has changed our norms and thrown our position descriptions into a COVID-sized cocktail shaker. This may be our best opportunity to advocate for the nature and ethics of volunteer involvement and to create distinct lines between paid and unpaid work.

Components of ethical impact to consider in role design

Ethical issues, by definition, have no one right answer suitable for all situations. Therefore, what are the variables that help you determine whether work should be paid or unpaid? There are at last five areas for consideration:

1) Is it legal? The specifics may differ, but every area has some legislation that speaks to employment expectations. When designing a volunteer role that has aspects of paid work, position descriptions should be explicit about what is different from a paid job description. Consideration should be given to what expectations are not included in the volunteer role and what a volunteer brings to the role that a paid person will not. If these distinctions are not visible, then you may have strayed away from the ethical to the legal arena of concern.

2) The growth stage of the organization. The growth stage of the organization impacts what roles may be designed as volunteer roles. Consider these five growth stages of a nonprofit: ⁽⁶⁾

• Stage One: Idea stage
• Stage Two: Start-up stage
• Stage Three: Growth stage
• Stage Four: Maturity
• Stage Five: Turnaround stage or review and renew

Each growth stage has financial and human resource implications. There is a time when all hands are on deck, there may not be paid staff or only one paid employee. Typically during start up, everyone pitches in and does what has to be done with very little focus on who is paid and how roles differ between paid and unpaid. However, once the growth stage of the organization includes a full complement of full- and part-time staffing, the complexities of differentiating between paid and unpaid volunteer roles can become more challenging – particularly if the idea that the purpose of volunteers is to save money has slipped into the organizational consciousness. Volunteer roles should not remain static as an organization grows.

3) Relevance to the mission. Volunteer engagement professionals are the keepers of the mission. We link the people in the community who are passionate about the mission with the opportunity to have an impact. We also serve as a reminder that the mission is the reason people engage. When asked to create a volunteer role it is appropriate to ask, “Can you help me understand how that task is going to impact our mission so that I can help volunteers get excited about it?” An unpaid volunteer role needs to have a have a clear link to mission. The priority of mission is what situates the volunteer to have an impact that is often outside of the scope of a paid employee.

4) Risk.The pandemic added additional risk considerations that aren’t typically taken into account like the risk to the volunteer and community. Formal in-person volunteering disappeared in March 2020 because there was an understanding that being together came with a new level of risk for the volunteer. At the same time, risk to the community increased based on the number of in-person interactions that occurred. Historically volunteers serve for a short period of time, for example, four hours on Tuesday morning. It suddenly became safer to create paid positions that would encompass 40 work hours but bring in only one set of germs into a space rather than involve 10 different individuals to complete the same public facing task. Thus, the pivot, particularly in the medical community, to creating paid positions that had previously been staffed by volunteers. This new aspect of risk will continue to be a volatile consideration when determining if a role should be paid or unpaid. How do we assess risk while the specter of one more variant lurking around the corner is still in our collective psyche? 

5) Expectation of service and consistency. This has always been an element that impacts the determination of paid vs unpaid roles. “In any organization, the paid workforce is a known quantity, predictable and measurable in a number of key ways. In contrast, no organization can confidently predict what it’s volunteer corps will look like at any point in time – it is not predictable but it is also potentially unlimited”. ⁽⁷⁾ At the point that a service is required to be predictable, the line between paid staff and volunteer becomes distinct. One example: hospital gift shops originated as volunteer-only functions, but over time became supported and led by paid staff as patrons developed an expectation of consistent service. We need to be the leaders of change management as roles evolve in response to societal or consumer pressures. To complicate matters, if government mandates around screening and testing continue there will be an ongoing impact on the ability of a volunteer to show up for a scheduled task.

It is up to us to point out when a role has crossed the threshold from unpaid to paid. With the unlimited potential of volunteerism, the expectation remains that the volunteer will enhance and augment the services provided by paid staff.

When seeking the balance between citizenship and fairness, giving consideration to these five areas may provide additional insights for decision making and communicating upwards.

CCVA 2020 Example: Ethical decision-making process

Let's now examine a fictitious example of ethical decision making, using a suggested process from the CCVA. 

______

As the volunteer engagement professional, you have been requested to recruit volunteers who will complete rapid antigen testing on individuals entering a facility for an event.

Step 1: Gather information

Gathering information requires us to ask questions. In relation to this scenario, it would be pertinent to ask the following:

• Are there paid people who do this job now? What are they paid?
• What will volunteers bring to the role that the paid person will not?
• Will there be paid testers working at this event as well?
• What differences will there be between the paid and unpaid roles?
• What are the risks associated with testing? Is there proper PPE/training available? 
• What are the mission implications if additional unpaid testers are not engaged?

Step 2: Identify the conflict 

This is a large event and without more testers, people will have to wait for extended times to enter. The event is important to promote the mission of the organization and volunteers are eager to provide support. The value of citizenship will be fulfilled as this event contributes to the community. Paid testers and unpaid testers will have similar roles but very different compensation. The value of fairness is challenged by the differing treatment around compensation.

Step 3: Explore options and consequences

1. Option One: Roles could be similar as paid and unpaid complete testing but distinctions could be created. For example, volunteers receive perks and do not do less desirable tasks. The commitment of time could differ. Volunteers receive free admission to the event. Articulate how having a volunteer in this role adds to the mission impact and create written descriptions.
2. Option Two: Pay all testers. Is being a volunteer bringing any added value to the role? If not,  should all testers be paid roles? 
3. Option Three: Can the role be split so that volunteers handle the people portion, screening in, providing direction, the warm welcome? Split the task into volunteer and non-volunteer components so that the paid role involves the higher-risk, testing activity but is supported by a volunteer presence. Consider risk to the volunteer interacting with untested public.
4. Option Four: Don’t do testing. This may increase the level of risk for all stakeholders. However, it does eliminate this ethical question. But is there a new ethical question around the threshold of risk to your attendees?

Step 4: Decide and test

Choose what appears to be the most ethical course of action. Give consideration to the mission and the desired outcome of the event. Consider which of the above will create the least harm to the organization, volunteers and recipients of service.

Review the descriptions and decisions with other staff. Ethical dilemmas always benefit from another set of eyes.

Step 5: Act

Whatever you decide, put it in writing. “A written job description for the paid staff includes employee’s classification, status, specific requirements and job duties. The volunteer role should be defined in a position description that outlines requirements and duties and makes it clear that no compensation will be provided.” ⁽²⁾

^____________

There is obviously more than one reasonable course of action that you could choose after going through this process. According to CCVA, at this point you need to take action with courage, confidence and professionalism!

Conclusion

We must respond to the needs of clients, the organization and volunteers. But we are not obligated to fill every request for volunteer support without first putting it through the lens of ethics to help determine if the organization has the moral right to ask people to engage in the role requested.

A lack of money does not automatically create a clear ethical path to engaging volunteers. “The greatest value of volunteers is not to ‘assist staff’, but to expand and diversify the expertise available to clientele.” ⁽⁸⁾ Those roles that were able to pivot to paid roles at the start of COVID in March 2020 require some close examination. If you cannot defend and define what volunteers were bringing to the task above and beyond the free labour component, then some hard decisions may need to be made. At the same time the pivot may have brought to light what the missing volunteers were bringing to your organization. The very first volunteer that returned at my workplace put a flower on the tray for a resident’s meal. Her commitment of a regular four hour a week shift allowed her the time, energy, and insight to bring the added value of a flower to the task. The flower reminded me, as the volunteer engagement professional, that volunteers have the capacity to contribute to the mission in a different way than a paid employee. The uniqueness of the volunteer contribution is lost when volunteers merely substitute for paid staff.

“If we wish to see volunteerism take its rightful place in the non-profit world, we must reframe organizational culture.” ⁽⁸⁾

While we embrace the value of citizenship and are keen to see organizations resume the level of service available prior to the pandemic, the value of fairness has been brought to the forefront. The ethical dilemma of paid vs unpaid roles was highlighted when volunteers left the building and the ability to provide essential services was lost. Winston Churchill is credited with saying that you should never let a good crisis go to waste. We believe that the crisis of the past two years has provided the opportunity to advocate for the role of ethics in the structure and design of volunteer roles. We are living in a moment where the true value volunteerism is ready to be recognized. Let’s not waste it.

____________

Resources:

1. Council for Certification in Volunteer Administration. (2016). "Professional ethics in Volunteer Administration Core." CCVA Core Values and Principles. Retrieved March 8, 2022, from https://cvacert.org/wp-content/uploads/2021/04/CCVA-Core-Values-and-Pri….
2. Lockwood Herman, M. (2018, February). "Employee or volunteer: What's the difference?" Nonprofit Risk Management Center, Retrieved Feb.18 2022 from https://nonprofitrisk.org/resources/articles/employee-or-volunteer-what….
3. Johnson, T. (2022, March 4). "What is a volunteer? The difference between supporters & employees." Tobi Johnson & Associates. Retrieved March 7, 2022, from https://tobijohnson.com/what-is-a-volunteer/.
4. Lee, M. (2021, December 21). Labour shortages continue as quarterly job vacancies reach ‘all-time high’. CTV News.
5. Cravens, J. (2019, August). "When 'Just' a Volunteer is Better than a Paid Employee." Energize.
6. Barnes-Smith, N. (2017, September 21). "Understanding the life cycle, stages of non-profit organizations." Sun-News.
7. Ellis, S., (2016, September). "The Limitations of Seeing Volunteers Only as Unpaid Staff." Energize
8. Swift, M. (2021). "The Pre-Step: Rethinking Ourselves." From The disruptive volunteer manager: A step-by-step guide to reframing, redefining, reshaping and re-imagining volunteer management (pp. 10).