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We all think about hard risks…

What is soft risk?

Soft risks stem from attitudes and culture• Lack of leadership around ethos and culture• Groupthink and lack of self-perception• Little or no upward communication, poor internal

communication• Top down decision making, little or no decision making

or control from non-leadership roles

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What about soft risk?

And, why should we talk about it?

These stories illustrate how easy it is for soft risk to affect an organization’s reputation or its ability to run effectively.• We work to minimize hard risks: training processes,

orientations, policies, liability insurance• We need to bring the same thought and evaluation to

the soft risks that occur when volunteers are engaged in work or with clients

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While many of the things we do to minimize hard risk also help minimize soft risk – screening, training, policies – when we review these activities through the lens of soft risk we realize we may be exposing our reputation to more risk than we’re comfortable with!

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Determine Soft RiskAn organization's culture determines what types of actions and behaviors are okay…

But, sometimes our culture allows, or even rewards, actions that have negative outcomes for: • our programs• respect for the work volunteers do• the community• the organization’s reputation

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Determine Soft RiskSoft risk can happen when:• Internal perception isn’t tempered by outside perspective• Culture prevents correcting or disciplining bad behavior• Policies are on paper only• Culture depends on unwritten rules or things “everyone

knows”• Volunteers don’t have the tools or resources to find the

right answer or there’s more than one right answer

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Where is the soft risk?

Take a minute to share where you think your organization might be exposing itself to soft risk.

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Minimize Soft Risk• Ensure that policies have buy-in and are

enforceable– Enforce them!

• Address training and orientation outcomes– Talk about them early and often

• Outline and define each role’s authority continuum– Where does the decision making start and stop?

• Provide resources and support – What is the right answer?

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Minimize Soft Risk• Talk about it!

– Model difficult situations or conversations– Role play or have volunteers and paid staff switch

roles• Know who’s the right person for the role

– Implement screening practices to ensure that you’re making the right match

– Qualifications based on skills & experience

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Help others understand soft risk

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This isn’t something that will go away if you don’t think about it – We need to talk about the ramifications of soft risk in the same way we do hard risk.

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• Tell your stories– What if…– How would this look on the front page of the paper?

• Identify negative outcomes– Link to the use of resource - time, money - and

reputation– The more the work matters, the more soft risk can

damage your reputation• Create buy-in around soft risk as an issue

– Story telling with morals

Help others understand soft risk

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• Identify the ramifications of the status quo– Culture held hostage– No accountability– Failure to discipline or dismiss

• Changing roles for volunteers require new attitudes– There isn’t a lot of soft risk in stuffing envelopes

Help others understand soft risk

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• Tap into your ethics “backpack”– Where is your gut telling you there’s a problem?– http://cvacert.org/resources-and-media/profes

sional-ethics/

• Prioritize your soft risk issues– What are your priorities, where is the greatest

impact?– Use the work sheet to evaluate the risks

Resources and Getting Started

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• Work with leadership to start the soft risk conversation – What are your stories? What stories with morals can

you tell?• Evaluate your foundation components

– Position descriptions, screening practices, training and orientation activities.

– Where are you opening your organization up to soft risk?

Resources and Getting Started

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Follow us on Twitter: @VolunteerMatch

Visit Engaging Volunteers, our nonprofit blog: blogs.volunteermatch.org/engagingvolunteers/

For any questions contact:Jennifer Bennett@JenBennettCVA

jbennett@volunteermatch.org

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