Work for free? : Motivation of voluntary workers in the Red Cross

Background: Non-profit voluntary organisations are becoming increasingly important and many people are dependent on them in today’s society. These organisations could not work as well as they do or might not even survive without its volunteers, therefore the motivation of volunteers is of great importance. The Red Cross is the largest voluntary organisation in Sweden and also highly valued internationally. We wanted to find out what the employees at the Red Cross do to motivate its volunteers, if they use any guidelines for motivation and if they know what motivates volunteers. Purpose: The purpose of this study is to investigate how the employees and the management of the Red Cross motivates its voluntary workers, as well as examine what actions can be taken to improve this. Method: To investigate human behaviour, such as motivation, a qualitative study is suitable. We have therefore chosen to perform such a study and have made ten personal interviews. In order to get the full picture we decided to do five interviews with volunteers and five with employees at the Red Cross. Some of the interviews were performed at the headquarter in Stockholm, a few at the local office in Jönköping and a couple over the phone. Conclusions: The employees at the Red Cross motivate its volunteers by letting them set goals, by offering education, acknowledge contributions among other things. No outspoken guidelines for motivating volunteers are used and we think it should be implemented into the organisation. It has come forth during the study that the voluntary leaders are given large responsibility and we suggest that these responsibilities should be divided and delegated to a larger amount of people. We have also found that there is a difference in motivation between the older and younger generations. To attract younger volunteers it is important to adhere to the differences and be aware of the shift of values in society