Team Development Pilot Update

From AFSWiki

TDS Pilot Project Update

The six Team Development Specialist (TDS) staff began work in their respective teams at the end of February 2011. In June a “TDS Pilot Evaluation Task Force” was convened. The members of that task force are: Damian Pisanelli, Board member and Chair Elect, Greater Puget Sound Team; Karen Nelson, Chair, Milwaukee Team; Gerry Bair, Former Board member and Co-Chair, Carolinas Team; Troy Henri, Outbound Programs Manager; Andy Smith, Director of Participant Support, and Rich Dollery, Senior Hosting Manager. It was determined that progress in the TDS teams should be tracked on multiple fronts including hosting and sending performance, volunteer demographics and development, team leadership, communications, training, quality and compliance in each team. In addition Task Force members agreed to conduct periodic interviews with lead volunteers and the TDS staff over the course of the first year to gather opinions and input on the progress / success of the pilot.

The first evaluation task force interviews were held in July 2011. Overall both volunteers and staff engaged in the pilot expressed very positive comments. Volunteers were seeing the benefits of having one key staff contact rather than multiple coordinators for different functions. They articulated a number of achievements in their teams which they credited to their work with the Team Development Specialist in just a few short months including new volunteer leadership, new volunteers recruited to help with hosting, better host family paperwork collection, better team communications and meetings, and in one team the ability to assist two new chapters get off the ground. Some of the benefits described by volunteers interviewed included:

• TDS is responsive and easy to talk too. Having face to face contact with her TDS has been very positive.

• TDS voice in team discourse brings in new ideas and perspectives. New volunteers the TDS brings in also add new voices and new ideas.
• TDS has made volunteers feel more appreciated.
• TDSer is the web that connects the team. TDSer is not a crutch, but a helper.
• TDS is able to visit places volunteers haven’t been able to visit, fills holes and find others to follow up. Team likes that TDS can do AFS things during the day when most of the volunteers are working at their jobs.
• Team likes the accessibility and knowing that TDS is on top of things.

A second round of interviews conducted during the month of October 2011 produced similar results and more specifics in regards the work of the Team Development Specialists. Volunteers overall found their TDS staff highly accessible. Some teams found response times faster. Some found they had more contact with their TDS staff person than they had had with previous staff. Volunteers felt that since the TDS staff focus on only one large team or one group of small teams, they were better able to understand the needs, realities and background of the team(s) making for quicker discussions and better solutions. Volunteers expressed that working with their TDS was perceived as a mutual and cooperative effort. One team felt more accountable working with their TDS. Several quotes from those interviews which illustrate these points were :

“She motivated us, but offered more concrete solutions and plans of action on calls than hosting staff had ever done. Therefore, phone calls felt more productive and less frustrating. The stress level on the team was higher than in previous hosting cycles. If it had not been for her, more of us would have just sat back and let things fall by the wayside. Because she knew us so well, she was better able to not push individuals too hard or to push unrealistic solutions, but she knew when and how to push.”

“She “led the band wagon” when it came to ensuring that the Team reached its goal. Team would not have reached its Hosting goal without her.”

“I could not have pulled this year’s success off solo. I’m sure of it. In the final analysis, it also helped my morale by having someone else really understand what challenges were being addressed day to day. So in the end, you ended the season with a much healthier hosting coordinator. The info she gathered while serving as co-coordinator has helped her grow other parts of the AT in sending, volunteer development and schools.”

All of the TDS staff participated in team events this year including pre-departure orientations, end-of-stay, arrival orientations, and volunteer outreach events as well. Teams found this participation of their TDS in local activities to be very positive. It allowed the TDS to get to know the volunteers and again to better understand the realities of the team and the work they do. Another area of TDS work that teams felt was helpful was in compliance. Most teams felt having a TDS helped them substantially improve their compliance this past summer.

“Having a TDS push compliance caused less volunteer exasperation than if remote, disconnected staff would have been doing the pushing. “

“She modeled how to track and outreach and follow up errant volunteers, and helped our morale by pitching in to help chase people down.”

“It has helped to have reports pulled and timeline reminders. She keeps the team ahead of the timeline for due dates. The bigger picture is helpful.”

“Letting volunteers know what was still required and getting info and links to interviewers, liaisons and hosting vols. Her follow up on host family app progress was also helpful. “We never would have met the compliance standards without her help”

“The Team was much more compliant this year, in large part to TDS’ involvement. Specifically, she developed a paperwork collection plan with Team which involved shared responsibility. She has also helped hold the Team accountable to meeting deadlines by providing constant “friendly reminders”

In regards to volunteer development all teams were able to identify positive steps forward. In some cases, while they had not yet seen large numbers of new volunteers actually integrated at this point, they did feel their team either had a more concrete plan to move forward or felt they were having more success engaging volunteers who although previously registered had not really been active. In at least two teams, the presence of the TDS was credited with helping to strengthen the team leadership and therefore better distribute the workload more evenly onto more shoulders. In two other cases the TDS was credited with either starting new chapters or strengthening existing chapters to be more responsible and accountable. All of the TDS staff themselves felt strongly that after completing this first hosting cycle working alongside their team(s) they had a much greater understanding of the volunteer development needs and felt confident they would be able to assist the team to be in a stronger position to meeting both their hosting and sending goals in the coming year. On a scale of 1-10 overall, both volunteers and staff interviewed rated their satisfaction to date with the TDS pilot at an “8”.

As this is a pilot and we are still learning how best to integrate this new staff position, it is important to also note some potentially challenging aspects of the position observed by volunteers and staff participating in the pilot include:

• In teams with high sending and hosting volumes and a lot of volunteer development needs, the TDS will need to excel at juggling competing priorities especially during peak seasons. Time management and ability to multi-task are key competencies.
• TDS positions will require intensive training. The position has a steep learning curve in that the TDS must have a solid basic understanding of hosting, sending, orientations, volunteer development, etc. in order to be able to best assist their team.
• It will be critically important to plan for and carefully manage transition when one TDS staff person leaves and another is hired to take his or her place.
• With one staff person as the key contact for the team for all functions (except support), coverage for the team when their TDS is on vacation needs to be clear.
• It is critical that the TDS staff person remains focused on volunteer development and does not begin to take on the work that volunteers have normally accomplished. The TDS staff person should work with the team to ensure there are enough volunteers so that workloads can be better shared.

In terms of actual performance during this hosting cycle, the TDS teams did very well especially considering that this was the first time many of the TDS staff had directly worked in hosting. Overall the TDS teams all exceeded their hosting goals. The total goal for the six teams combined was 281 placements and in the end these six teams placed 301 students. They had fewer welcome families and fewer double placements than all other teams did on average nationally. They also had more placements complete by the three week out international placement deadline and by the first arrivals deadline than other teams did nationally.

Next Steps The TDS staff will be turning much of their attention in the next two months to sending recruitment to ensure that the lead generation and follow up in their teams is sufficient to guarantee the team can meet its 2012 sending goal. The TDS teams combined are responsible for 30% of the national sending goal for 2012. That said, TDS must also continue to monitor compliance of their team in regards to documented monthly contact and the schedule of in-person and in-home visits now required for hosted participants and host families per the new regulations. A key component of the TDS role is the ability to handle multiple team priorities at once. The need to meet SH sending and hosting goals all during the same few months in the fall will be a challenge for the TDS teams and a key test of this model.