August 5, 2019

PhD student helping Australian emergency services to retain volunteers

UOW Three Minute Thesis-winner focused on improving leadership, boosting morale

Volunteers are the heart and soul of Australia’s emergency services. 

With a huge land mass and a great vulnerability to natural disasters, the country has little choice but to rely on those men and women – close to 260,000 - who give their time to help out in times of crisis. 

Yet, emergency services organisations have been unable to hold on to their volunteers, who have been driven out by negative experiences with their leaders and managers.

It is a huge problem that Vivien Forner has been working to address. For the past six years, the University of Wollongong PhD student has been researching how Australia’s emergency services – organisations such as the Rural Fire Service and State Emergency Service – can create a better environment for their volunteers.

Late last month, Ms Forner won UOW’s Three Minute Thesis finals, a national competition in which higher degree research students are challenged to sum up their thesis in front of an audience in three minutes or less.

Ms Forner, from the Faculty of Business, studied an undergraduate degree in psychology and said she was drawn to the PhD, which grew out of a research project that focused on the same area, because of its examination of the complexity of human behavior in the workplace.

She said volunteers were giving up their time to help out in disasters, so it was vital to ensure that they felt valued by these organisations.

“Everyone knows what it’s like to have a bad manager, and how awful that can make you feel,” Ms Forner said. “When you are in a paid role, you have more motivation to stay. Often you stick it out because you need to pay the bills. But when you’re a volunteer, there’s no reason  put up with working for a bad manager.

“Emergency services spend a lot of time and money training volunteers, but they were experiencing a significant increase in volunteer turnover. At the same time, there are less Australians volunteering each year and a greater demand for volunteers now.

“I found that there had been no research into what leadership styles are effective with volunteers, which differs from leadership in paid organisations.”

Ms Forner focused on addressing leadership issues within the emergency services organisations, conducting workshops that focused on shifting away from an autocratic, controlling style of management. She also worked to identify how a volunteers’ experience with their leader comes to influence their decision to stay or leave.

Volunteers, she found, were more compelled to stay when they had autonomy, felt like they belonged, and felt competent or effective in their volunteer roles. 

At the same time, leaders who had strong interpersonal skills – good communication, the ability to listen and empathise, supportive of staff – had the most success in retaining volunteers. 

Ms Forner said the changes that had taken place on the organisational level since taking part in the research were incredibly positive, with volunteers reporting a better experience overall. She said the model she developed could be scaled to any organisation or workplace, paid or unpaid, and would also be applicable to emergency services around the world. 

“It’s been great to see the impact that the research is having. Volunteers have reported that they’re now more likely to be happy in the organisation and are less likely to want to leave.” 

Passionate about research and teaching, Ms Forner took part in the Three Minute Thesis in the hopes of sharing an insight into her research, now that she was nearing the end of her PhD. She is on the verge of submitting her thesis, the culmination of more than six years of study.

“I was shocked to win. The calibre of the students presenting was amazing and I loved hearing about what other people are researching.”

Ms Forner will compete for UOW at the Three Minute Thesis AsiaPacific Finals in Brisbane on October 2.