Volunteering seems like a straightforward way to get some work experience under your belt and find out more about jobs that you are interested in. But it’s not necessarily straightforward for companies that take on volunteers.

In many countries, like the UK and Australia, companies need to provide volunteers with a formal Volunteer Agreement and Code of Conduct. Failure to do so could result in messy lawsuits and legal penalties (worst case scenarios) or bitter disillusionment on both sides (best case scenario).

Volunteer agreements are important for volunteers as they generally outline what is expected of them – their roles and responsibilities that they will have to carry out every day that they volunteer. They also outline important company policies that should not be transgressed. These include confidentiality, internal and external communications, access to social media and prohibited actions.

Prohibitions are particularly important in medical volunteering and dangerous industries, such as anything to do with chemicals or animals. Volunteers must not be allowed to operate dangerous or sensitive machinery and they definitely should not be allowed to administer drugs.

The agreements also protect the company concerned against liability if the volunteer is hurt while on company premises, on company time or while doing company business. Furthermore, they outline the responsibilities of the company with regard to training and management of volunteers.

It’s necessary for volunteers to be presented with and sign the agreement before they begin so that they understand that company may conduct certain background checks. Again, this is particularly important in industries that require a high degree of responsibility like medicine, education and those that deal with sensitive information.

The duration of the volunteer period needs to be stipulated in the agreement but companies should always add a proviso to the effect that they reserve the right to terminate the situation before the stipulated date. They may also want to include a section that states they have the option to extend the volunteer period depending on the performance of the volunteer.

With great power comes great responsibility

Companies should not view taking on volunteers as a cheap and convenient way to get the grunt work done. They have a responsibility to ensure that that volunteers find the experience rewarding. That is why companies need to be sure that they have the time and resources to train and manage volunteers, especially if the intention is to have volunteers in several different departments. This means that, initially, key staff members will be occupied with training activities and they will have to regularly provide feedback and guidance.

Companies also have to provide volunteers with a safe environment in which to work. This means that they are not to be used as pseudo-slaves and shouldn’t have to do anything that would be asked of a normal employee.

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Sandy writes for a number of different blogs, on a number of different topics, including job board software, advertising, travel, technology and the environment.