Volunteer policy

If you use volunteers to help out occasionally, you still have health and safety responsibilities towards them. So to avoid any doubt, put a policy in place that describes how you will manage these volunteers.

Managing volunteers

A growing number of businesses use volunteers to provide assistance on a part-time basis. A Volunteer Policy may reduce any exposure to liability; should clearly state that risks to volunteers will be managed in the same way as for an employee. It can also be used to set out the insurance position regarding volunteers and what training they will receive.

Volunteer policy content

The first three sections focus on introducing the policy, defining a volunteer and outlining the relevant legislation. Section four covers the most important part of this policy which is the risk assessment process. It simply states that an assessment of the proposed activities will be undertaken and any health or mobility problems taken into account. The fifth section briefly covers insurance and can be amended as necessary, whilst the last section concentrates on training.