Ms Simone O'Dea1
1SA Ambulance Service, Australia
Biography:
Simone O’Dea leads strategic research and project delivery for SA Ambulance Service's Country Operations, with nearly 20 years supporting SAAS’s volunteer sector. Passionate about volunteer support, Simone focuses on enhancing retention, value, and appreciation strategies, ensuring volunteers feel recognised and empowered in their ambulance volunteering roles.
Abstract:
1,300 volunteers provide regional SA Ambulance Service (SAAS) service delivery at 80 locations. Understanding our volunteers' experiences is crucial for retention and engagement. While we seek volunteer input in decision-making, traditional engagement methods have often failed to capture honest and meaningful feedback.
To address this, we developed the Volunteer Insights Survey, a tool to encourage participation and elicit in-depth, high-quality feedback. Our goal was to create a survey volunteers genuinely wanted to complete while ensuring valuable insights to inform future improvements.
A collaborative and strategic approach was taken. Engagement, support, culture, and overall experience were identified as priority topics. Our volunteer advisory committee was involved in the survey design, ensure it reflected volunteer concerns.
The survey was developed in-house, tailored specifically to our volunteer experience, addressing gaps left by previous engagement methods. A mix of question types included, multiple-choice, Likert scale ratings, and open-ended responses, allowing for both quantitative trend analysis and qualitative insights.
A comprehensive communication strategy increased it’s reach, and engagement. This resulted in a 40% response rate, with demographic data showing a well-rounded representation of volunteers across all, clinical levels, and years of service and regions. Volunteers provided over 1,900 qualitative responses, offering rich insights.
The design and communication strategy for the SAAS Volunteer Insights Survey highlights the importance of designing volunteer surveys with careful attention to wording and delivery.
By asking the right way, organisations can unlock valuable insights that drive meaningful improvements in volunteer programs.