TeamKinetic recently visited our friends in Scotland, Volunteer Glasgow. With over 45 years’ experience of supporting charities and 3rd sector organisations to recruit and support volunteers, Volunteer Glasgow has managed to be one of the most successful third sector organisations in Scotland.

Over the years the many volunteer-dependent organisations Volunteer Glasgow supports have faced various challenges in the recruitment, retention and management of volunteers. Upon acknowledging the need for a new digital volunteering platform better able to meet the city’s volunteering needs, the search for a more efficient solution began.

For the last year, Volunteer Glasgow have been using TeamKinetic’s volunteer management software.  Nick Brown, Volunteering Services Manager at Volunteer Glasgow shared his experience leading to and using TeamKinetic. He explains the importance of having an online presence for opportunities, the fundamental problems concerning the previous methods of opportunity advertising and how TeamKinetic has provided the solutions to overcome these issues.

The importance of advertising volunteer opportunities online:

“Many of the organisations we work, look to advertise roles with a relatively short turn around so speed is of the essence when it comes to getting opportunities online.

With previous methods of advertising opportunities online, it usually took between three to five days to appear online but it’s crucial that you get your opportunity out there quicker than that, with the right message to the appropriate people.

This is because organisations are unsure of the resources available to them far in advance or they may be overwhelmed with work and maybe a bit rushed. This means the process for advertising opportunities, at times, needs to be quick and easy.”

The problems with the previous systems:

Previously, Volunteer Glasgow used the Scottish Council for Voluntary Organisation’s (SCVO) MILO2, but this had several challenges, with a major issue around the processing time to advertise opportunities.

Commenting on the system: “One of our biggest issues was the long time period for an opportunity to be advertised online. For example, organisations had to fill out a form, then we input the form onto a system which then took around three days to be published online. This issue was further made challenging as opportunities were sometimes uploaded with the wrong details or none at all. This had a real impact on the ability of our partner organisations to recruit volunteers and obviously also carried a reputational risk for ourselves.

Exploring our options, we had a trial with another volunteer management software provider, but experienced issues in the reliability and functionality. The importance of effectively recruiting volunteers is crucial to the running of charities and 3rd sector organisations”.

The biggest struggle for Volunteer Glasgow was getting the systems to work and appear properly. As Nick explained “having a presence online with opportunities advertised is essential if you want to ensure high levels of recruitment of volunteers in an organisation.

Previously if you had an issue it could take quite a long time to resolve. TeamKinetic changed that. If we need support or help they were always responsive to our calls and queries.”

How TeamKinetic helped Volunteer Glasgow:

TeamKinetic was introduced to Volunteer Glasgow by Glasgow Life, who had already been using the software to manage volunteers for the needs of sport and leisure purposes. Having been impressed by the functionality and simplicity of the system, with the benefit of being able to interconnect platforms, TeamKinetic was deemed suitable for Volunteer Glasgow’s needs.

Introducing TeamKinetic to organisations we deal with:

“We told the 250 organisation we deal with that they should get started on using the  TeamKinetic’s software and see how they get on. If they felt they were struggling or needed help they should get in touch. Out of them all, only eight got in touch to ask for some support and guidance using the more advanced functionality. Consequently, they have all given feedback on how simple to the software is to use”.

Controlling advertised opportunities:

“TeamKinetic’s software provided the ability to manage and control opportunities posted in real time. It enables us to have a level of authorisation and control which we had not had before.

Something we have to remember is that although we are advertising opportunities for other organisations, it is our website, with our branding and reputation on the line. TeamKinetic’s software notifies us immediately once an organisation has submitted an opportunity, allowing us to approve it; check to make sure it is appropriate and has sufficient detail.  Once we have done this, we can approve the opportunity and straight away it goes live on our website.”

What Volunteers thought of TeamKinetic’s system:

“From the volunteers’ perspective there was a positive feedback; it is much easier for them to create their own profile which is something that has never done before. Volunteers can log hours, leave feedback on opportunities and are able to earn themselves HourTrade vouchers.”

Commenting on the ease of use of TeamKinetic’s software:

“If you have ever, for example, set up an online shopping account or uploaded your CV onto a recruitment website, then you will find TeamKinetic just as simple to use.

Using TeamKinetic’s volunteer management software has enabled us to reduce the amount of time we spend inputting and writing copy content.

This has directly resulted in staff having more time available to spend on the things that matter, such as directly approaching and offering our services to other charities in Glasgow.”

Summary of experience using TeamKinetic:

“It is the responsiveness, ease of use and functionality of TeamKinetic that makes it so great. Since as we started using TeamKinetic’s volunteer management software we have seen a positive impact. In the last six months, everything has been made easier for all those involved.  TeamKinetic addresses the issue of limited time, by reducing the time it demands to create and advertise opportunities. This has alleviated much of the stress and difficulties previously experienced. Volunteer Glasgow is now able to spend time more effectively and we are able to achieve so much more.”

To learn more about TeamKinetic’s volunteer management software and how it could help your organisation or any other voluntary workforce needs please contact one of our team.

email on james@teamkinetic.co.uk  | Call us on 0161 914 5757 | Book a free demo: teamkinetic.co.uk