How to Avoid Scheduling Headaches with Volunteer Shifts

4 min readAug 14, 2021

Putting together a Volunteer schedule comes with all the stress of a normal employee schedule plus the added risk that your volunteer never shows up — because nobody is requiring them to.

Fortunately, in today’s day and age, there are enough tools meant specifically for work schedules that you should never have to stress about Volunteer shifts ever again.

Today, we will go over a few tips that could go a long way in helping you stay organized in your scheduling.

How to Deal with Volunteer Schedules

We know, we know. . . creating volunteer schedules can sometimes resemble a managerial Tetris board. There are cancellations, late-comers, and high-pressure, time-sensitive events.

But really, can we speak candidly about how much time is wasted just putting together a simple volunteer schedule every week only to be flipped on its head in the ensuing days? It’s a mess! And, at times, it causes rage to rush through our veins. If only the volunteers knew how much we went through just to get their name on the schedule, perhaps the too-often ‘no call-no show’ would feel more pressure to be present.

This is not the point of this article, though. Of course, we appreciate each and every person that walks through our organization’s door. We recognize their willingness to help us in our mission and their dedication to the cause. However, there has to be a way to avoid all the stresses of complicated volunteer scheduling.

After all, when we create an unpredictable volunteer schedule, it’s not only stressful for us, but for our volunteers too. And that’s the last thing we want.

So here are a few tips to help you out. . .