Volunteer Coordinator, Hertfordshire

Contract: Permanent, part time

Salary: £11,918 - £13,858 per annum (FTE £23,835 - £27,715)

Location: Hitchin SG4 8EU

Closing date: Sunday 3 November 2024

Interview date: Week commencing 11 November 2024

We re recruiting a Volunteer Coordinator for our Rehoming & Fostering team in Hertfordshire!

At Blue Cross, we're dedicated to providing the best care possible to pets in need. As a Volunteer Coordinator, you'll be instrumental in fostering a supportive and engaging environment for our volunteers, ensuring they play a crucial role in our mission of providing love, attention, and support to pets in our care.

More about the role

Our Volunteer Coordinators recruit and support our amazing volunteers in the local area, promote the benefits of volunteering and raise the awareness of our centre and Blue Cross.

Our fostering service is an integral part of the rehoming process, supporting the delivery of our strategy by increasing the service so that Blue Cross can help more pets.

As a Volunteer Coordinator you will be responsible for recruiting and supporting a diverse team of volunteers. Working closely with the Centre Managers and Assistant Managers, you will ensure that our volunteers are fully integrated into the team, ensuring that the team welcome and collaborate with these wonderful people.

In addition to this, you will be building relationships with local communities and partners, promoting the benefits of volunteering to provide more targeted support.

This role is working 18.75 hours per week over 2.5 days on the following fixed working pattern:

Week 1: Monday, Tuesday and Wednesday

Week 2: Tuesday, Thursday

If you excel in an environment where you can see the difference you make every day, then this is the role for you. Interested? Then apply and let s work together to see if this is the role for you.

About you

You will be an excellent communicator with strong interpersonal skills and the ability to actively promote to a range of external stakeholders the work of Blue Cross and the benefits of volunteering. You will be a self-motivated individual with a focused, creative, and forward-thinking approach to volunteering and will enjoy the opportunity to be involved in a range of local volunteering events and national initiatives.

With the ability to work collaboratively and effectively with people at all levels, you will have a passion for ensuring that volunteers have the right opportunities to thrive in their roles.

You will be organised, flexible and analytical in the way you work, and you will enjoy working to targets and managing a diverse team of volunteers. With an approachable and supportive manner, you will be able to offer guidance and advice, and will have the confidence to deal with volunteer situations should they arise and be able to offer pragmatic solutions.

You will know what it is like to work in an emotionally charged environment and have excellent bounce back ability and resilience. In addition, you will be emotionally intelligent, showing empathy and knowing how to support volunteers and your colleagues.

Knowledge, skills, and experience

• Demonstrable experience of supervision or management of volunteers.
• Good experience of running recruitment campaigns
• Experience of working with local communities
• Good experience of actively managing a bank of clients or volunteers
• High standards of verbal and written communication.
• Previous experience in working in a client focused environment where delivering a high level of customer satisfaction is the norm.
• IT literate with MS Office and web-based databases and platforms
• An awareness of health and safety legislation.
• Current full driving licence.
• Ability to demonstrate, understanding and apply our Blue Cross values

It would also be great (but not essential) if you had:

• Training or coaching skills.
• Presentation skills.
• Working with animals, and knowledge of animal welfare.
• Organising events.

Want to know more detail? Great! We have attached the job description which hopefully gives you everything you need.

How to apply

Please visit our website, click the apply button and complete the online application process before the closing date on Sunday 3 November 2024 .

We reserve the right to close this vacancy early should we receive an overwhelming response.

Blue Cross benefits

Our people are the most important part of delivering our purpose. If it were not for their amazing efforts and commitment, we would not be able to make the difference that we do today.

In return, Blue Cross wants to ensure we provide you with the best working environment we can. We want you to be happy working for us and will do everything we can to make sure you are.

Our generous benefits package includes:

• Enhanced annual leave entitlement: 30 days plus bank holidays
• Pension scheme with enhanced employer contribution
• Health cash plan
• Life assurance
• Unlimited access to an employee assistance programme
• Programmes for physical and mental wellbeing support
• Free access to GP via MetLife
• Recognition scheme Annual volunteer days
• Claim for professional fees

To read more about the benefits Blue Cross has to offer, please visit the 'why work for us' page on our website.

About Blue Cross

Blue Cross is a national charity that has been helping sick, injured and homeless pets since 1897.

Every month we help thousands of pets and their people by providing veterinary care, expert behaviour advice and find homeless pets loving families. We also offer education for future generations plus pet bereavement support for those who have lost their beloved pet companion.

We love the ways that pets can make such an amazing difference to the people they live with and we offer lifelong support and advice to help that unique relationship thrive. With your support we can give back to more pets and their families who need our help.

Pets change lives. We change theirs.

Our commitment to diversity and inclusion

We believe that every pet should enjoy a healthy life in a happy home, and we always seek to recruit the best people who share our values and commitment so we can continue to help and support pet owners across the UK to achieve this.

At Blue Cross, we want you to feel that you belong, without the need to hide any part of who you are.

Diversity and inclusion at Blue Cross means creating a workplace where all people, regardless of gender, race, sexual orientation, religion, nation or country of origin, disability, age, and socioeconomic backgrounds are welcome, respected, supported, and have access to equal opportunities.

We are working hard to reflect the world we live in and the communities we serve at every level of our organisation. As much as we have made positive advances, we consider diversity and inclusion to be a work in progress a continual commitment that remains a priority for all of us.

If you would like to talk to us about any reasonable adjustments or changes to our recruitment process to support you to be your best, then please get in touch.

Our values

Our values define the way we do things. We use them every day to guide us, and to make sure we put people and pets at the heart of everything we do.

Compassionate: We listen, we are non-judgmental, we are kind and caring to the pets and people we encounter, and we offer support in difficult times

Courageous: We make brave decisions, embrace change, and encourage innovation, ensuring we always act with integrity doing the right thing even when no one is looking

Inclusive: We value all our relationships and work in an open and positive culture where we celebrate our diverse talents and empower you to be you