Human Resources and Volunteer Management
Core concepts
HR management spans the employee life cycle: workforce planning, recruitment, selection, onboarding, development, performance management, retention, and separation. Know job analysis → job description → job specification as the sequence.
Legal exposure centers on equal employment opportunity, anti-discrimination, harassment prevention, reasonable accommodation, wage and hour rules, and leave entitlements. Understand at-will employment and its limits (cannot violate law or public policy). Know exempt vs non-exempt classification and the risk of misclassification. Understand progressive discipline and due process in termination decisions.
Performance management: distinguish formative (ongoing coaching) from summative (annual review), and know behaviorally anchored rating scales reduce rater bias. Recognize common rater errors: halo, horn, central tendency, recency, leniency/severity.
Volunteers are not employees: they require role descriptions, orientation, supervision, recognition, and risk management (liability, confidentiality, background screening where appropriate), but not wages. Retention of volunteers depends on meaningful work, recognition, and clear expectations.
Traps
- Assuming volunteers can be disciplined like employees - they are managed through role agreements, not employment law.
- Confusing coaching (improve performance) with discipline (address conduct).
- Questions implying a single positive review cures a documented pattern of underperformance.
- Ignoring documentation - the file, not memory, is the evidence.
Rule of thumb
Document contemporaneously, consistently, and specifically: what happened, when, the standard, the impact, and the corrective step. If it isn't documented, it didn't happen.
Worked example
A staff member is repeatedly late. Correct sequence: private conversation, restate the standard, document, set a review date, escalate through progressive steps only if the pattern continues.