Shelter’s Edge

Do you supervise staff or volunteers? How do you show appreciation to them for a job well done? Check out these ideas for staff recognition shared by your colleagues in the sheltering field during our recent webinar, “Hiring, Firing and Supporting Your Staff,” presented by the ASPCA’s Kate Pullen. (And P.S., if you’re not in a supervisory role, there are some great suggestions for letting your coworkers know you are thankful for their hard work.)

- “We have a thank-you box, and at each staff meeting we read all of the thank-yous for specific staff members.”

- “Each month I get a card going around to celebrate the work anniversaries and get that person a gift certificate. It honors their time with our agency.”

- “We have a Victory Wall—a large bulletin board where staff from other departments can see on their way to the kitchen. My team posts thank you emails and photos from people we’ve helped.”

- “Send thank you emails to the staff for small things, and be sure to copy their managers on it.”

- “We write notes and post them on the windows of cubes for all to see.”

- “It may be juvenile, but I love to give the staff ‘high fives’ when they’ve done something well. It is a very visual thing that makes everyone happy.”

- “We have a ‘Things That Make You Happy at Work’ board”

-  “We have a Bonus Bones program—employees and managers compliment one another by putting a ‘bone’ on a bulletin board.”

- “We have a whiteboard in the kitchen that’s updated daily for all to note who we are appreciating that day and why.”

- “Use the 10-4 rule… always acknowledge staff and volunteers when passing in the hall.” [Note: Amy Mills references this in her webinar, Customer Service for Social Change.”]

Which of these have you tried? How do you show appreciation for a job well done at your agency?

Missed the “Hiring, Firing and Supporting Your Staff” webinar or would like a refresher on interviewing, orientation and training? Listen to the recording and download the slides here.

Join Kate for part 2 in her Personnel Basics webinar series next Tuesday, May 14, from 3-4pm ET. She’ll provide you with “A Road Map to New Hire Orientation”—register here!

Related links:
Free Webinar Series: Personnel Basics
“Tip of the Week: Pay Your Colleagues a Compliment—Literally”

Do you have an overabundance of animals? Do you sometimes have empty cages that need filling? Would you like a more diverse selection of animals on your adoption floor? Welcome to MAP, a free, searchable database that lets you connect with both source and destination shelters.

The ASPCA Animal Relocation and Transport Team is debuting this cool new tool at HSUS Expo today through Friday. Make sure to stop by our booth in the Exhibit Hall for a ten-minute demo of the MAP. Times and locations are listed here:

P.S. Not at EXPO this year? No worries! Check out our FAQ for all the deets on this cool new online tool.

Related links:
Animal Relocation and Transport
FAQ about MAP—Moving Animals Places

Providence Animal Rescue League (PARL) uses a simple form to communicate need-to-know info before a dog walker heads out the door:

The icons indicate which toys, treats and activities the dog prefers, as well as his skill level on leash, creating an easy-to-digest visual that minimizes confusion for staff and volunteers. And by laminating the chart, the Rhode Island agency makes it simple to reuse – they just use a marker to write over the plastic.

PARL hangs each dog’s harness alongside his form, which reminds folks to check the dog’s latest info as they grab the leash for their walk. As you can see, there’s a handy calendar at the bottom of page for staff and volunteers to initial when a dog has been out.

Got a way to amp up the communication amongst your staff and volunteers? We’d love to hear, so shout at us in the comment box.

P.S. Guess where PARL got the inspiration for their form? We hate to brag, but what the heck – they told us it was right here: Tip of the Week: (Dry Erase) Boarding School. Thanks for reading, guys!

Related Links:
Tip of the Week: (Dry Erase) Boarding School
Sample Enrichment Schedule

If you celebrated National Volunteer Week at your agency, we bet you said those wonderful words at least once last week. Take a look at what some of your colleagues in the field did to show their appreciation for their volunteers, in person and online.

(And to the agencies whose materials are featured here—thank YOU for the great ideas we’re passing on as inspiration for next year!)

- In honor of National Volunteer Week, Maryland SPCA introduced their Facebook fans to individual volunteers by posting photos and stories all week long. Here’s half of the mother-daughter puppy fostering team:

- Many agencies tallied the total number of hours their volunteers donate in a year and shared it via social media channels. Asheville Humane Society created this wonderful shareable graphic for their Facebook page.

Love how they converted those hours into staff time—really helps to show how valuable volunteers are.

- Hankie alert: Animal Humane Society shared a thank-you video each day during National Volunteer Week, with individual staffers hosting each segment. All videos share the same crisp, compelling format, starting off with a thoughtful quote before the staff person introduces the volunteer and lists the different ways in which he or she brings value to the Minnesota agency. So touching and personal:

- Sacramento County Animal Care gave a shout-out for a special volunteer on their Facebook page.

Senior Officer Libby Simmons presented a bicycle to volunteer David Verdugo, who cleans, feeds, socializes animals and helps customers in the shelter 5 days a week. David had been walking 4 miles to and from the shelter—but now he’s got wheels! Check the original post for the complete story—and to read the funny and sweet comments it received. What’s so great: This post spreads such good vibes about the agency, and shows how caring both volunteers AND staff are.

- Wisconsin Humane Society takes the week so seriously they give it a theme every year. For 2013, it was “We treasure our volunteers.” Staff from each campus went all out with the decorations and put out a spread like this one:

WHS also created a thank-you video that they shared to wrap up the week:

Bonus tip for next year if you’re thinking about creating a video for volunteer appreciation week: See the charming cast of characters that WHS featured at the end?! You probably have some at your agency you can recruit!

Related links:
“Volunteer Programs: What We’re Learning From You”
“3 Secrets to Volunteer Success”

A sad run this morning… for weeks, I have passed a pair of sand hill cranes on my running route. They would turn and watch as Que, Sea and I ran by, a nice way to say good morning. Yesterday I only saw one of the pair, and I hoped that the partner was simply out of view. But this morning still only just one crane…

Where I live, cranes stick around most of the year, and are well loved and protected by the community. On my run this morning I thought about why the crane holds a place in the hearts of so many, while so many other animals do not receive the same level of empathy. As an example, I stood cringing through a story shared on a grocery store line, during which there was celebration over running over a native snake in the road. Why the empathy for one?

Cranes pair bond… and so do we. We tend to be empathetic, patient and kind to those who are more like us. The fact that cranes pair bond is known by most everyone where I live. We stop traffic to ensure a family stays together…

When it comes to empathy and understanding, we tend to have the same inclusion/exclusion process for the human animal as we do for others – the more “like me” they are, the more likely we are to apply empathy and kindness. The more “them” as opposed to “us,” the less likely we are to feel an emotion involving empathy. We all have these tendencies, with some of us having a larger lens for inclusion than others.

I am a huge fan of the HSUS Pets for Life program – the philosophy of this program is to serve the pet needs of clients in underserved communities. By starting with respect, we learn that these clients too love their pets and eagerly take advantage of services to improve their quality of life (from vaccines and food to spay/neuter).

Sometimes the best way to get to “We Are Them” is to simply spend some time (with an open mind) with “them.” I recently heard the experiences of some shelter professionals who had the opportunity to ramp up a Pets for Life program in their community. The shift from “Those people don’t believe in spay/neuter” and “It’s not safe to go there…” to “They just needed the access to the resources” and “All it took was going directly to them” was profound. Now… Pets for Life is much different from putting up fliers, setting up a table at a community event or speaking at a local church. It is connecting one on one.

The inclusion/exclusion behavior happens right within the shelter doors, too – I have shared my experiences as “them,” in which I was considered an inappropriate candidate for pet parenthood by the shelter I had interacted with. Being dumped into the “them” pool in this case was due not to how I looked, but because of assumptions based on characteristics such as age, home ownership, etc.

“They” can look just like “us,” and we make assumptions that put them into the “them” pool. At a recent shelter visit I listened as a staff person noted that “those people” told her they would keep their dog outside for 8 hours a day, and completely discounted them as appropriate adopters for the shelter.

In a situation like that, how do we begin to open up to the possibility that “they” are “us”—that “We Are Them?” “Us” respects that while the dog may not live in that potential adopter’s home the way they would when in your home, they will care for their pet and provide humane care. “Us” understands they came to the shelter because they care… because they want to add that gift of a dog or cat to their lives.

“Us” also understands that not everyone has the same access to services and support, and that does not mean they do not want their animals in their lives… “Us” is kind not just to cranes and “Us,” but to “Them” as well.

Related links:
“I Was Them”
“Forget ‘Them’”
HSUS: Pets for Life Program