Community Outreach Coordinator
The community outreach coordinator supports the activities of the Lake Troubled Shallows Health Department, by coordinating the activities of the health department. The chosen candidate reports directly to the human resource director in the organization
Essential Job Duties
The main aim of the community outreach coordinator is to build strategic partnerships and nurture existing and new relationships with internal and external stakeholders. The community outreach coordinator should also conduct outreach activities and retain volunteers for the Lake Troubled Shallows Health Department program. A detailed outline of the duties appears below:
- Formulate the annual outreach program
- Collaborate with the public relations department and other relevant stakeholders in creating a recruitment plan for attracting volunteers and aligning their duties with the organization’s mission and goals
- Recruit, place and retain new and existing volunteers
- Attend community and stakeholder meetings
- Provide monthly status performance reports through scheduled presentations
- Develop and compile satisfaction surveys for new and existing volunteers
- Nurture existing partner relationships and forge new relationships with community partners
- Coordinate “special day” activities, including holiday retreats and community volunteering events
- Formulate volunteer recognition activities, which may include annual volunteer appreciation events and quarterly volunteer newsletters
- Secure volunteer awards for extraordinary events
Essential Qualifications
- Bachelor’s degree in a community-based discipline with a work experience of two years (or more) in a volunteer position
- Excellence in public speaking, communication and presentation skills
- Ability to create professional partnerships and forge strong relationships with stakeholders
- Commitment to helping senior citizens and people with disabilities
- Excellent communication and analytical skills, with a special focus on IT skills (Microsoft office skills and volunteer tracking databases)
- Possess multitasking, time management and organizational skills
- Have excellent networking and motivational skills, with a focus on supporting volunteers and clients
- Ability to protect confidential information about volunteers, organizations, and community stakeholders
- Proper record keeping skills with the ability to meet tight deadlines
Salary Range
Starting Salary: $45,000-$50,000, annually
Recruitment and Hiring Strategies
Internal Recruitment: Internal recruitment exists when there is an internal advertisement for the community coordinator position. Here, employees of Lake Troubled Shallows Health Department get the first consideration for the advertised position. The main reason for pursuing this strategy is to exploit the familiarity that existing employees have with organizational practices. Since, they already know the mission and vision of the department, the organization is likely to spend minimal resources in training (Minnesota Department of Health, 2012). Furthermore, this recruitment strategy is cheaper and more effective for attracting reliable talent because the human resource manager could evaluate the performance of potential candidates by referring to their performance in the organization.
External Recruitment: A secondary strategy for recruitment would be open advertisement. This strategy involves advertising the vacant post in local dailies and other communication media. The reason for pursuing the strategy is to exploit available talented professionals from a wide pool of potential candidates.
Related Employment Laws
Different employment laws govern recruitment processes. In the context of this paper, Equal Employment Opportunity Laws forbid discrimination in every aspect of employment (U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission, n.d.). Laws governing the employment of foreign workers also apply here because the open advertisement strategy does not discriminate on the kind of candidates that could apply for the advertised position. Here, the law states that all workers should have proper documentation to work in the country (U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission, n.d.). Lastly, minimum wage laws also apply to the compensation requirements that characterize the vacant position. Here, the law prohibits organizations from paying salaries, or wages that are below the minimum wage (U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission, n.d.).
How Job Descriptions may differ from the Past
Job descriptions evolve with time. Therefore, job roles that existed five years ago would not apply today. For example, the academic qualifications of potential candidates would increase because more people are getting high education qualifications and flooding the market with them, thereby increasing labor supply and demand for higher academic qualifications (Manning, Borton, & Rumovitz, 2012). Environmental conditions also contribute to the evolving job descriptions because new environmental hazards and disease prevention techniques require new partnerships and new levels of education requirements for health practitioners (Public Health Foundation, n.d.).
Best Practices followed when formulating the Job Description
Human resource managers should follow best practices when carrying out various HR functions (Grumbach & Mendoza, 2008). Key HR best practices include employee retention, equal opportunity, performance management, and employer of choice (Mayhew, 2014). When formulating the job description for the community outreach position, this paper adhered to employee retention and equal opportunity practices.
Why were they Best Practices?
This paper followed employee retention and equal opportunity practices when developing the job description because it chose an open advertisement strategy for attracting new talent. This strategy made sure that all types of candidates could apply for the position (Public Health Foundation, n.d.). This paper also observed employee retention (best practice) through the job description process because it required potential candidates to make sure that existing employees were comfortable in their work positions. It also required them to nurture existing relationships with volunteers. Furthermore, the recruitment strategy gives existing employees the first priority to apply for the vacant post. This strategy values existing employees. In this regard, this paper observed best practices in HR.
References
Grumbach, K., & Mendoza, R. (2008). Disparities in human resources: Addressing the lack of diversity in the health professions. Health Affairs (Project Hope), 27(2), 413–422.
Manning, M. L., Borton, D. L., &Rumovitz, D. M. (2012). Infection preventionists’ job descriptions: Do they reflect expanded roles and responsibilities? American Journal of Infection Control, 40(9), 888–890.
Mayhew, R. (2014). The Best Practices for Human Resources. Web.
Minnesota Department of Health. (2012). Healthy Minnesota 2020: Statewide Health Improvement Framework. Web.
Public Health Foundation. (n.d.). Competency-based job descriptions. Web.
U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission. (n.d.). Laws & Guidance. Web.