Criteria ranking based on volunteer selection using fuzzy delphi method

Abstract

Volunteers are individuals who give their time, skills, and expertise in helping to bring measurable benefits to beneficiaries. These beneficiaries may include orphans, flood victims, the homeless, the poor, or people with disabilities. Word is spread through social media about the needs of beneficiaries. There would be a surge of volunteers who are willing to assist without expectation of payment or being rewarded. Therefore, it is important for an organization that deals in volunteer management to act fast and efficiently so that time and resource wastage can be prevented. However, it is difficult to find and recruit candidates suitable for volunteer organizations, as the volunteers may have too many criteria to be matched against the tasks being offered. Hence, the purpose of this study is to identify the important criteria for selecting the appropriate volunteers for specific tasks. This paper had identified seven aspects with 17 criteria based on the literature and from interviews conducted with experts from the non-government organizations (NGOs). The fuzzy Delphi method had been applied in choosing the essential criteria of volunteer selection. This method had been used to derive the value of fuzzy numbers as well as assigning ranks to the seven aspects along with their 17 criteria. The results show “Teamwork” and “Commitment” were top two main aspects.