Recognition and appreciation programme

Ensuring our volunteers, their whānau and employers are recognised and appreciated helps us to create a positive culture, strengthen performance, support wellbeing, increase loyalty and attract new volunteers. If we get this right for volunteers and their enablers, the benefits will flow throughout the entire organisation.

Programme background

A recent review of many years of volunteer input (including the 2021 Volunteer Reward and Recognition Survey) and research identified that Fire and Emergency needs to develop a more meaningful approach to how we value our volunteers, their whānau and employers.

One of the key findings from the review was that the organisation had a ‘lack of clarity about where recognition ends, and other supports begin’. The reviewed Recognition and Appreciation Programme has been designed to address this by implementing clear and matured boundaries and definitions.  

Definitions

We have developed four clear definitions that outline the services that the organisation provides to our volunteers. These definitions will be used to guide ongoing development and implementation of the programme:

• Recognition – the positive feedback given for what someone has done
• Appreciation – an acknowledgement of someone’s qualities
• Reward – tokenistic gestures such as gifts or medals to indicate recognition or appreciation
• Fundamental enablers – basic services required for a volunteer to undertake their role such as training and reimbursement of costs

The programme will focus on awareness and education of what recognition and appreciation is, and how it should be delivered throughout the organisation.

Volunteer recognition and appreciation guidelines

A first step in this direction is the release of our Volunteer Recognition and Appreciation Guidelines – aimed at volunteer leaders (e.g. brigade leaders) and volunteer managers (employees that manage volunteers, e.g. Group Managers). There are many great examples of good practice out there, and we will be highlighting those through this programme. A thank you delivered at the right time, in the right way, can go a long way!

Next steps

Volunteers have also told us that recognition and appreciation is most meaningful when it comes directly from their community. We are working to explore how Fire and Emergency can best support communities to understand the contribution our volunteers make, leading to those genuine and unprompted displays of recognition and appreciation that we know mean so much to volunteers. More on this in 2023…

Get involved

The Volunteer Resilience team is engaging with a range of volunteer leaders and managers, as well as teams across Fire and Emergency, to support the development of this programme. Please contact Ryley Webster if you would like to be involved. We look forward to working alongside you all to ensure our volunteers, their whānau and employers feel valued for the incredible work they do!