Management of Volunteers – NSW State Emergency Service

Audited Entities

• NSW State Emergency Service (SES)

Audit Scope and Objectives

• The audit examines whether SES has a sustainable volunteer workforce, with effective strategies to attract, retain and train volunteers. ('Sustainable' means a workforce that is reliable, replenishable, responsive and sufficient to meet expected demand).

Audit Criteria

• SES has the workforce it needs to prepare for, and respond to emergencies and disasters
• SES has an efficient and effective framework for managing its volunteer workforce

Main Audit Findings

• SES cannot be assured that it has sufficient volunteers to respond to future demands. It does not have strategies to establish what volunteers it needs and how to recruit, retain and train them effectively and efficiently.
• SES has been able to respond to over 25,000 incidents per year using its own volunteers and calling upon the assistance of other emergency services. This level of operational response and coordination has been a significant achievement, but may not be sustainable. SES cannot quantify how much it relies on other services when it lacks volunteers. SES also deploys administrative and managerial staff to respond to emergencies to the detriment of business continuity across the organization.
• SES regions recently restarted capability planning to estimate the volunteer workforce needed to manage the threats faced by each locality. Preliminary results show significant gaps between what some regions need and have. SES has yet to determine how these regional plans will be distilled into an SES-wide workforce plan to inform recruitment and training priorities.
• The number of active volunteers has fallen in recent years. Twenty-six per cent of SES volunteers leave each year, many soon after joining. The high turnover imposes extra demands on SES and its volunteers for little benefit. This is a major challenge which SES has not addressed effectively and indicates problems with both recruitment and retention.
• Leadership, recognition, communication and training are the most important issues that SES needs to address to improve the management of volunteers and reduce turnover.

Selected Audit Recommendations

• NSW State Emergency Service should establish clear priorities, integrate initiatives and improve monitoring to better manage and support volunteers. To do this, SES should:
  • By December 2014, improve analysis and reporting on management information about volunteers, including:
    • numbers, contribution, skills, profile, availability and turnover
    • reasons for joining and leaving
    • gaps in data completeness and quality
  • By December 2014, develop a volunteer workforce plan to focus resources for recruitment and retention on areas of greatest need. The plan should be based on regional capability plans that assess in a consistent way:
    • how many volunteers they have and need
    • the gaps and risks around volunteer numbers, skills and training.
  • By April 2015, update its recruitment guidelines and resources, and support units in better targeting recruitment.
  • By April 2015, develop strategies and resources to improve volunteer retention, including:
    • induction and development of leaders
    • health checks for units to identify and address areas for improvement
    • pathways for volunteers to take on greater responsibility
    • consultation and communication
    • recognition for volunteers and their employers.
  • By April 2015, develop a training strategy that identifies volunteer training priorities and provides for ongoing review to ensure operational currency, flexibility of delivery and evaluation.

• PreviousHuman Resource Capacity – Government of Nunavut
• NextScotland’s Public Sector Workforce