Episode 101: Firing a Volunteer - How to Avoid if Possible and Execute if Necessary

Welcome to another edition of "Around with Randall", your weekly podcast making your non-profit more effective for your community. And here is your host, the CEO and founder of Hallett Philanthropy, Randall Hallett.

It's a beautiful day here on "Around with Randall" and I thank you for joining me, and of course I'm Randall. We're going to discuss today a really difficult issue, topic, something to keep in mind when you're working with volunteers and that's the idea of whether or not we can fire them. And we'll talk about the process that goes into it before we get to that point, hopefully to alleviate it and also what that meeting sounds like. This is an incredibly difficult situation because in many ways, if run correctly, our nonprofit organizations are run by or led by, at the top, volunteers, boards, and sometimes we have to have difficult conversations. I've got a couple clients where there's some consternation amongst the staff, who I believe as the consultant, are doing the right things and they're not, isn't the traction. the support the activity, that is necessary to reach the end goal that everybody wants. And we're going through a great deal of counseling.

The challenge becomes, based on power, there are those that might say well how do you fire a volunteer or make a decision when they actually are the ultimate governing authority? It's legitimate question. In the end what I'm hopeful for today is that you have a little more knowledge about what it means and how to maybe move someone off your board or a committee or a key volunteer and allow them to go do something else. So let's start with the highest level. There's a lot of tactical here today.

The first thing is, what I'm not going to be talking about is anything related to criminal or a mass violation of social norms, sexual harassment. those things are not on the conversation piece today because if they happen it's a very easy process. They receive a formalized correspondence that says get out, don't ever come back. So we can eliminate that issue. What we're talking about is really where the volunteer is affirmatively doing something that might be construed as detrimental to the organization, or they're not fulfilling their board responsibilities or their volunteer responsibilities. We've talked about this in earlier podcasts. Kind of the the three duties: obedience, care, and of allegiance. And those are the essence, but we have written job descriptions. The evolution of volunteer responsibility has gotten to the point where most boards in particular, but development committees or other committees, Finance committees, you certainly could have a major gift committee, there's usually a written description, job description, what are they supposed to be doing. And the issue becomes either they're doing something they shouldn't or they're not doing what's being asked.

So let's maybe take apart those a couple of examples real quickly. Recently I had a client who had a board member who liked using their social media account and was saying and indicating things that were not aligned with the mission of the organization. It's an example. I've had situations and scenarios where board members have certain requirements in their job description about making referrals, making a gift, attendance, and they're not fulfilling those. Either way it's a hard conversation, and the question becomes how do you do it. So the first thing is that it's your responsibility, if you're a board chair and you are responsible for obviously the board, or you're a key staff member. I always advocate that it's your responsibility to make sure you do everything possible to get them help. That includes things like communication. Maybe that's bringing in someone from the outside, a consultant like myself, to have communication, say look this is what best practice is and here's what we're trying to accomplish. But communication is quintessential. Do they understand where the deficit is?

Number two is training and education, providing them resources either online or in reading, or writing, or a person, consultant to lay out what's best practice. The worst thing that can be said is that someone gets in a scenario and they go well I didn't understand why this was important. Now if they didn't ever show up to a meeting that's on them, but what I never want to have happen is that someone says well I didn't know that was important and it was. The organization, a board chair, an executive committee, a key staff member, or president, executive director, CEO who didn't clarify in communication and education what the responsibilities were and why those were important, which leads me to my second thing that's really critical. Ensuring clear expectations during the interview or the onboarding process annually and in writing. Can the board member find or have they been given clear, in writing, expectations of what those things are, and it may require multiple people to be expressing those important expectations. It may need to be done a couple of times, even if you think well this is pretty clear, why are we having to keep repeating this educating and making sure we do everything possible at the top. Number two is making sure that the expectations of a volunteer are in writing, and they're very clear, and that they're presented in different forms and fashions to make sure that everyone's given a chance to understand what's being asked of them.

Number three is kind of the thought process of can they be moved? Maybe the role that the volunteer is in doesn't match up with their interests or their skills and so they're spinning their tires. Can they be moved to a different part of the organization and serve in a different manner that would be highly effective. Maybe some thoughts about capacity, meaning we need introductions. That's not their skill set, or that they are more hands-on and, think about a hospital and volunteers delivering newspapers, movies, and those kind of things are more up their alley, and governance, and and the big picture, board isn't. Can they be moved into a spot that makes more sense to them and to you to utilize their gifts?

Number four is, or number, number excuse, me number four in this process is eventually you're going to have to address the issue, and it's gonna have to be direct the real question becomes who does that? I think of it as a two-step process. I think you start with a staff member, in a very respectful and appropriate way, sitting down with that board member and saying we have a series of responsibilities on the board which you were given and we're halfway through the year and we've noticed there isn't a gift they have made, the referrals, you're missing meetings, and we just want to make sure you understand how important you are to our organization, and that your involvement follows that process. That comes better from a staff member and here's why. The heavy in this situation is, I always like to talk about the concept of that a staff member, is not one of them, meaning not a volunteer. And when I say volunteer, I'm not talking about a volunteer in volunteer office, we're now elevating into a board. Other board members have to eventually get involved if that's continues to be a challenge or an issue. So it starts with a staff member. It's a soft conversation, hey here's where we've got you, and here's the responsibilities, and it's my job to make sure that you are, you know, are aware of of what we're looking for and what you've agreed to because if you've given them a job responsibility and they've signed it at the beginning, they should be somewhat aware of that.

Hopefully the second piece of this is the heavy. And normally that's going to be the board chair, might be the chair of a governance committee. I've actually had to have this conversation. I've been the chair of governance several different boards. Governance committee's where I've had to call the board member up and say this is kind of the last warning. You're missing too many meetings, you have a major gift you're not making, referrals, these are the responsibilities I'm going to have as a fellow board member. More power, more on their level conversation than the staff member. So my recommendation is always start with a staff member and build into the board member, kind of that last warning, hey we're not getting this done. As a part of that, and this can be done at the staff but probably more importantly if it's a board-to-board member conversation, asking them, giving them, showing them that there may be a way out, maybe this isn't the right fit. Ask if this is what they really want to do. You've gotten into this, is this what you thought it would be? Is there another role that you think would fit you better? Are you comfortable with these responsibilities now that you've gotten into this? Maybe they've been on the board a long time. You know we're building or have an emeritus group for people like you who have been so generous and so dedicated, is that something that we could consider? It's like you're showing them your humanity, giving them the grace to find a way out because maybe it's not a fit, and that's important.

I was in a scenario as a board member where we had a board member serving and they were a critical board member on our nonprofit, but they served in a critical staff role of a another organization that was partnered with this nonprofit and there was a conflict of interest and it was a a challenging situation, and I ended up having to have a hard conversation. Like when you walk into this room you put your your nonprofit hat on, and then when you leave you can have your other business hat on, but at the end of the day if you can't do that then this isn't the right fit. So there's a lot of different ways of of allowing them the grace to make a decision on their own. Maybe it's Emeritus. Maybe it's a resignation. Maybe if they're going to change their behavior you want to give them every opportunity so you're educating them. It's your responsibility to make sure they're clearly aware of it, that you're going to do it in writing. Is there a way to move them somewhere, to another role that you're going to address the issue directly, and that eventually you're going to give them a way to get out if all those things fail? Then there's the tough moment to say it's time that we separate. That's a hard conversation. I don't have another way to put it. It's one that I've done before, both as a leader in, as practitioner in philanthropy, as well as a board member telling another board member you know we need to separate.

So let's walk through what that sounds like. In many ways it's a lot like unfortunately when you have to terminate employment. There's some similar concepts in this. Number one, I advise you never to do it alone. It should be maybe the chief staff member, CEO, executive director, whomever, and the chair of the board, and or the the governance committee, chair of the ticket committee, depending you know how you are set up but it's someone with some authority. You don't do it alone because you want this to be witnessed, for lack of a better term. If we think about terminating people we have HR who's partnering with us. Part of that is to make sure we do it correctly, we do it within the balance of law.

The second is it's a witness to make sure that something isn't said later on that actually didn't happen. So align yourself, if you're the staff, with a key board member. And if you're the the board member, align yourself with the staff member. Get together, pre-plan the conversation in these kind of seven steps, and make sure everyone knows what's to be said. So the process is, number one is obviously a private meeting. We're not looking to embarrass anybody and you're going to do it in person, if at all possible. Covid distance sometimes can make that more challenging and so we use zoom to our advantage, but it should be done in person if at all possible. There's arguments on both sides of where to do it in person. Do you do it at their office so you can leave? To do it at the organization but then you have to walk them out. I think either's appropriate, depending on the circumstances. I think the other thing is to realize that privacy - we're not here to embarrass anybody - it's not about us. And in some ways if this is happening it's really not about them, it's about the organization needing to make it a change and that this is the change that we're going to be looking at. So private setting.

Number two, this conversation should be simple, straightforward, honest, and most importantly, short. This is not a long discussion. If you've done all the things we talked about in the first six, seven minutes of this podcast then this doesn't have to take long, but you start first and foremost by sticking to the facts. Number three here were the responsibilities, here are the communications we had with you, here's where the holes are. We have a challenge that we are needing to address today, and this is an emotional and it's not a commentary, you are announcing that a decision has been made, we need to separate from you on the board. Now there may be some protocols that need to happen behind the scenes like a board voting to remove based on the bylaws, based on the needs, but that's done ahead of time, and that you're announcing that this has already been decided. You may get someone, like in a job scenario, who says well oh my gosh I didn't realize so anything I can do? If you go back on this then any credibility you have in the future is gone. It's a decision and we're going to move forward from this decision, but it is not to embarrass and not, it's short, not emotional, not commentary, not going to argue. We are just, it's not a counseling session. This is the decision and we're ready to move forward. Here's what it means for us. Here's what it means for you. I would recommend having a letter of resignation, a last moment where they say okay I'll resign, and they leave. But if they don't, or they aren't willing to resign in that moment, the last ditch effort they either are going to resign or you're going to say we need to remove you, then you also have a letter indicating that the organization is asking them to leave the board or leave the volunteer position. You want it in writing so they can sign the resignation or if they don't you have one ready to go that says we're blessing, releasing you for lack of a better term and you give them a copy of letter. Make sure they get one so that it's a formal formally declared that this is the issue.

Make sure you get any material back. many volunteers have identifications which are are important in our organizations for security and tracking who's where and things of that nature - keys, passwords, whatever. Need to ask for them back right there and then. It depends on where you are. If you're at the nonprofit, let's say you're going to walk them to the door it's a short meeting. We want to thank you for everything you've done. We're going to separate, but you begin to lead them out of the the facility, you're polite. Once you're kind of in a public space obviously you're not talking about it, go to some short short conversations or just social conversations and it may be the volunteer that needs to walk them out because they're maybe the chair of the board, they're the highest ranking person.

After you're done, write a short report of what happened and make sure you sign it. And if there was another person there, which we hope like the volunteer board chair, they sign it say this is what happened, and just put it in a file. You never want there to be a lack of documentation. If somebody claims something that actually didn't occur, so private meeting, it's very short straightforward and honest. Stick to the facts. Here's what we asked, here's what actually happened. We need to make a change. We're not going to argue this. You're not making commentary. Their decision's made. It's not a counseling session, this is what we're going to do to move forward. Have a letter ready if they would prefer to resign in that last moment. I'm okay with that. That makes it a lot easier. But if not, I've got a secondary letter signed by the chair of the board with a copy for them that says the board has decided, the organization's decided to have you go do something different. We're going to get any material back, we're going to get, walk them to the door and let them go on their way, and we're going to write a short report. Just a couple of language options for you to consider, something like you know we're looking to build capacity with some newer board members, or we want to free up your time so you can concentrate on what's really important to you because you're not attending our meetings, our mission and your goals just don't align, just some language that might be helpful in that hard conversation.

Two things left. Number one is don't be too hard on yourself. I remember when I had to terminate employment the first time early on in my career. I called my dad and said this sucks, the night before, and he told me two things. He said good, we raised you well. It should hurt. It's not fun. Number two, if you can't do it they'll get rid of you because this is part of the job. Unfortunately didn't happen on, fortunately it doesn't happen often. Unfortunately it still has to happen sometimes with volunteers, so don't be too hard on yourself. Give yourself a moment be ready to move on. The second thing is just, I'm hopeful others don't run into this but I've seen it where the staff member is moving more quickly than the volunteer board and the question becomes at what point actually should the staff member leave. Where there's immense frustration, challenges. If you can't align yourself, if you're the board with staff, or the staff with the board, then unfortunately it's sometimes necessary for the staff member to leave because it's easier for that than to get try to get rid of 15 board members. I'm not saying it's right but that's something that comes with the territory. So if you're in the stat position, you're incredibly frustrated because I got a lot of board members not doing something, then the question becomes how long should you stay and the answer to that might not be all that long. But make sure you're doing it for the right reasons. If you're going to leave, make sure it's done for all, and we've talked about this in the podcast during the employment how to resign, some of those key factors, make sure you do it the right way. If that's the case tough issue, firing volunteer board members or key volunteers, it's appropriate. Thank goodness it doesn't happen often, but when it does it's usually necessary and some thing we have to take up in that process.

Don't forget, check out the blogs hallettphilanthropy.com - two a week, 90 second reads, www.hallettphilanthropy.com. And if you want to get a hold of me it's podcast@hallettphilanthropy.com. Also, leave me a review or forward this on to someone if you think it could be helpful to them, any one of the subjects we deal with here on around with Randall. You do something important. It's challenged sometimes, like today's conversation, but it's critical for the things in our community that need the most amount of help. Don't forget some people make things happen, some people watch things happen, then there are those who wondered what happened. Our goal is to be people who make things happen for the people and the things in our community that are wondering what happened, and that's a great way to spend a professional career because it means you're changing lives, and that's worthy getting up every day and going to work. For that I can promise you. I'll look forward to seeing you next time right back here on "Around with Randall". Don't forget make it a great day.