Evaluating
We evaluate volunteers and ministry programs to ensure that the church is doing the right things to promote, manage, and further the Kingdom of God. When you exercise an evaluation process, you systematically determine a program’s needs and the effectiveness of each volunteer’s contributions. Your evaluations also assist in setting new goals, recognizing developing needs, and finding ways to empower and equip your team of volunteers.
Purpose: To help you understand and increase the impact of programs and volunteers and/or determine whether to dissolve the ministry service of a volunteer or a program.
Step 1: Create an Evaluation Form
You should create an evaluation form based on the job description and personal program experience. All elements of the program are open for assessment, including the quality of leader and volunteer contribution, teamwork, training, whole programs, etc.
You should consider the following key questions when you design a program/volunteer evaluation:
- For what purpose is the evaluation being done? What knowledge do you hope to gain?
- Who is the intended audience? Who/what will glean the most benefit from the evaluation?
- What kind of information is needed to make decisions regarding the future of the ministry and/or the volunteer(s)?
- How should the information be collected? Individually or in a group format?
Step 2: Administering the Evaluation
You should determine a set time for team leaders and/or volunteers to fill out the evaluation form. Make sure they are aware of an evaluation before distributing it. It may be administered via email, regular mail, following a program event, during a meeting, etc. DO NOT, however, discuss the evaluation at the time of distribution; instead, schedule a follow-up meeting to discuss the results.
Step 3: Discuss the Evaluation Results
Whether you discuss the evaluation results as a team or individually, allot enough time for significant discussion to develop. You should keep the following tips in mind when leading an evaluation discussion:
- Avoid doing all the talking.
- Be sure to highlight the positive results from the evaluation. Do not focus only on the negative results.
- Allow the evaluation results to lead the discussion; use the results to help establish new goals and any necessary plans for improvement.
- Use the evaluation meeting to determine whether a volunteer should continue to serve. The evaluation meeting is not the time for critiquing a volunteer’s work.
- If you plan to dissolve a volunteer’s service via the information gleaned from the evaluation, then a one-on-one meeting is a must; never dissolve a volunteer’s service during a team meeting.
- You can use the evaluation meeting as a time to critique a program if no previous feedback meetings were held.
- Thank all participants for sharing their thoughts and for their gift of service!