Author: Alex Evans Page 16 of 21

How to get young people volunteering at heritage sites…

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On 6th October 2021

In Community, Volunteer Management

The HistoricScot Youth Forum was established to understand how to get young people volunteering and involved in the heritage sector. Historic Environment Scotland (HES) have been involved with Young Scot, in a 24 month partnership to help expand the engagement, participation and involvement of younger generations from different backgrounds to influence their activity and decision-making processes.

In previous conversations, there has been a multi-generational issue, especially regarding younger generations. Over the past 18 months, Young Scot have been tackling this problem of the lack of young generation involvement. Their results are presented in this report and contribute towards the Historic Environment Scotland 2019-22 corporate plan.

The report is spilt into three key themes: Community and Schools, Volunteering and Work, and HES sites all with a focus on future engagement of young people within the heritage sector. These recommendations are based off results from surveys.

Community and Schools Responses

For many, school is the first time people will engage with the historic environment. It’s highly likely that those who engage with historic environments as an adult have had experiences as a child, so ensuring sites are engaged with schools is crucial. 

The majority of young people nowadays find their information through online social media platforms, so if they aren’t connected to HES platforms, they aren’t going to be engaged with it. For 32% of respondents, they didn’t have a connection to historical places around Scotland, despite 47% expressing interest. 

Through their research, Young Scot have created these recommendations for the future: 

  • Start discussions with marginalised communities about how their heritage can be represented. 
  • Create history resources that are widely accessible for young people to learn and connect with. 
  • Develop relationships with schools and spread awareness of HES in classroom settings. 
  • Facilitate and engage with schools who have decided to visit sites and keep them engaged afterwards. 

Volunteering and Work Responses

Volunteering can be an important factor for individuals entering employment into the sector. Survey results show that 3/4 of respondents hadn’t considered a career in the historic environment but 60% of people wanted to know the ways work opportunities can engage them. Currently, the heritage sector attracts volunteers that are male around the age of 35 (according to Young Scot research). 

Lack of awareness towards employment, partnered with minimal advertisements are just two of the barriers which stopped people volunteering. If no one can see the opportunities, your pool of volunteers are significantly reduced.

In regards to young people, offering roles in areas they’re passionate about provides them with purpose and will help younger generations gain interpersonal skills they need. It’s especially vital now that these generations have lost time for social encounters due to the Covid-19 pandemic.

For Volunteering and Work, Young Scot had the following recommendations:

  • Create an online space for young people to showcase who they are and their skills for quicker sign up or applying opportunities. 
  • It’s imperative that those with or without the internet have equal access to opportunities. 
  • Start promoting your volunteering opportunities on the platforms where young people are, such as Instagram and Twitter.
  • For new volunteering roles, tailor the opportunity’s advertisement to a diverse group of young people through language, tone and imagery.

HES Site Responses

Currently, heritage sites host a number of opportunities for specific demographics and it’s mainly families. Due to this, there is still work to be done in engaging young people. For many heritage sites, this age range is forgotten, when they should be included.

In Young Scots’ survey, they found that if sites became more technology based, or held more events, then visits would be more enjoyable for younger generations. In a separate matter, over a quarter of respondents cannot access all parts of heritage sites due to the lack of accessibility provided.

Based on the information from the survey, Young Scot highlighted gamification as a way to engage young people within heritage sites. Gamification is applying elements of games to other activities, normally completed as an online technique to keep people engaged. Heritage sites can use this as a technique to interest young people into engaging with their content.

The report created a number of recommendations for heritage sites: 

  • Make sure that all facilities are accessible to everyone, without this, there is a barrier against those with disabilities from accessing the heritage environment. 
  • Design new events, exhibitions and educate young people of the cultural changes within society.
  • Host events to celebrate minority groups and their heritage in Scotland’s history. 
  • Make improvements to the website and the types of content it provides: specifically where people can go to learn more. One way to do this is to create hubs for different age groups. This, along with the introduction of gamification, creates an online community where young people can meet other, like-minded people.

Conclusions…

From Young Scot’s experience with engaging in the sector, there is a disproportionate underrepresentation of those from a variety of backgrounds. Heritage sites don’t reflect the diversity of the sector, the organisation, or Scotland as a whole. This barrier in particular needs to be overcome to make HES as accessible as possible for all young people.

The introduction of the latest technology can engage audiences at a younger age; paired with a strong relationship with schools, the historic environment can recharge younger generations of their love for Scotland’s culture, past and present.

Young Scot is hoping the recommendations made throughout the report can start conversations within HES on the future of younger generations in the sector. They encourage HES to continue involving young people in future plans to make a real impact. 

Want to start engaging with your volunteers more? 

Calling all heritage sites! We’ve worked with Volunteer Organisers Network and Historic Environment Scotland to create the Make Your Mark Portal, which can promote your heritage opportunities to new audiences and helps you with your volunteer management. You can find out more about Make Your Mark here. 

If you’d like to know more about us here at TeamKinetic, and how we can help you manage your volunteers, you can access our website here.

TeamKinetic is officially the first partner of the Association of Volunteer Managers.

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On 23rd September 2021

In News & Views, Press Releases

TeamKinetic are excited to announce that they will be the first official corporate partner of the Association of Volunteer Managers (AVM.) Since discovering their work 5 years ago, they have been a passionate advocate for the importance of the AVM. TeamKinetic welcomes this formal partnership. 

Both organisations share the same passion and desire to progress the professionalism of those who involve volunteers. AVM’s goal as an independent membership body is one that supports, represents and champions people in volunteer management in the UK regardless of field, discipline or sector. As an organisation primarily run by volunteers TeamKinetic is proud to be able to directly support their work as a partner as they offer training, campaign on key issues and provide peer to peer support to volunteer managers. 

The partnership is hoping to offer the membership added value and over the next few months will be looking to announce a number of special offers only available to AVM members and supporters. TeamKinetic have spent the last 13 years on the edge of customer-led innovation surrounding digital volunteering and will be continuing to support the campaigns undertaken by AVM. They are looking forward to sharing their experience and knowledge with the AVM members. 

Sales Director, Chris Martin has expressed his gratitude towards Jo Gibney and Ruth Leonard “for all their hard work in helping to make this a reality and I sincerely hope we can continue to support the wonderful work and development of AVM for a long time to come.” 

Chair of AVM, Ruth Leonard says “this is a really exciting next step for the organisation and will enable us to think about how we can offer more to volunteer managers. AVM is proud of our heritage of being run by and for our members and want to be able to remain relevant into the future. TeamKinetic’s enthusiasm and support for AVM has been clear throughout our shared working and I’m looking forward to develop this further.”  

For any organisations or individuals who work with Volunteers, that are not already aware of the AVM and their work, you can visit their site to learn more on becoming a member. 

Get in Touch…

If you’d like to know more about AVM, you can access their website here. 

You can contact the team here at TeamKinetic through our website, or call on 0161 914 5757. 

Volunteer Passports: Is this the future?

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On 8th September 2021

In COVID-19, News & Views

The following round-up blog post comes from a research report commissioned by the Department for Digital, Culture, Media and Sport (DCMS), on Volunteer Passports that TeamKinetic helped to support. 

During the COVID-19 pandemic, we were reminded of just how important volunteering is to communities. It’s suggested that around 12.4 million adults volunteered during the pandemic, 4.6 million of those for the first time! The pandemic has made waves within volunteering and with more and more organisations coming together to find a collaborative approach to recruitment and onboarding; there have been movements to introduce volunteer passports into organisations. 

What is a Volunteer Passport?

If you aren’t familiar, a volunteer passport can hold all the verified credentials a volunteer might need in order to volunteer, which can serve as credentials to a pool of organisations. This can be called volunteer portability; this concept refers to the easing of movement across different organisations and roles. Volunteer passports can be a quicker way to apply as a volunteer as any references or training needed has already been completed and verified! 

Passporting Aims…

The initiative aims to address key issues regarding volunteer recruitment, management and development…

In certain contexts, such as emergency response volunteering, volunteer passports can be a mechanism to recruit and onboard large numbers of volunteers to opportunities locally and at speed. With passporting, the aim is also to improve the effectiveness of matching volunteers to opportunities tailored to what they’re interested in, or want to take part in. It also means that volunteers can be ‘re-deployed’ onto different tasks where they may be needed. This also ensures that micro, ad hoc and event-based volunteering opportunities are supported, also known as volunteer portability. 

Reducing volunteer vetting can save time and money for all parties, through the standardisation of volunteer training and management. In the past, there have been previous initiatives that have explored this locally or within a particular sector, improving the consistency of trained volunteers. 

What about alternative practices?

Here’s a quick run-through of the practices that could be integrated into volunteer passports: 

A number of volunteering organisations already match volunteers with volunteering opportunities they find may be a good fit, based on previous opportunities or through a skill-based match. Many volunteers started volunteering through word of mouth therefore, online volunteer passports may be deemed unnecessary. Any passporting system would have to consider how the offline side could be integrated successfully. 

Volunteer profiles have also been in previous initiatives, numerous management platforms have offered volunteers a facility where they can develop and build their ‘profile.’ This can be used as an alternative to CVs or LinkedIn, which volunteers involved in the report have emphasised. Volunteer passporting could mean it addresses an aim that has already been met.  

Other related schemes have been surrounding rewarding volunteers. Just like within the TeamKinetic system, schemes can provide rewards through ‘time banks’ or ‘time credits’, where a volunteer’s time is recorded, which they can then use to redeem a reward of some sort. The reward would depend on the organisation they are working with. We know how important recognising and rewarding volunteers are, so volunteer passporting has to include this, or something similar. 

Key Areas of Demand

In order for volunteering-involved organisations to support volunteer passports there are some key areas of demand. The report consistently highlights that portable IDs, and DBS checks are deemed to be a core element of potential volunteer passports. This is because they benefit volunteers, organisations and stakeholders from different voluntary sectors. The introduction of portable IDs and DBS checks is welcomed by organisations as a way to reduce the admin burden that comes with mass onboarding. For volunteers, it reduces the barriers they may find when wanting to volunteer in a different sector. 

Allowing organisations to have a shared pool of volunteers would help particular types of volunteering such as emergency, event-based, and micro-volunteering. This element is a way of always having volunteers on hand to offer opportunities to.

From the suggestion for portable IDs, the standardisation of volunteer training is also of interest. Standardising training will be beneficial through local volunteer portability and regarding specialist skills with individual sectors. Not only can volunteers help across different organisations in their local area, those volunteers with specialist skills, are enabled to complete certain tasks for a number of organisations within the sector. 

Another element was found that there needs to be some sort of validation of volunteers’ experiences and skills. For some volunteer groups, this would be incredibly beneficial, where volunteering could become a potential route to employment, the validation of skills can be added to a CV etc. This aspect was also thought to offer benefits in terms of supporting social integration and the well-being of different marginalised groups. 

What Does Each Sector Think?

The research for the report presented some experiences and views from each sector regarding the introduction of volunteer passports and how they might be used. 

The health sector has seen a rise in volunteer passporting over the past couple of months, and the expectation is for the demand to grow. The sector has found that passporting ensures agile and efficient emergency responses along with the integration of statutory and non-statutory services. The demand has also increased in the community action sector; portability at local level of training and skills has already been introduced, so there is potential to build on existing initiatives to deliver a comprehensive passporting system in local areas.  

Regarding the culture sector, museums and heritage sites perceived passporting as beneficial. Specifically highlighting the portability.

Portability allows for volunteer learning and skill exchange, reducing administrative burden. There has been interest in developing a shared volunteer training standard within the sector.

In some areas, the sector has found they have been oversubscribed with volunteers. Therefore, standardising training and easy portability means volunteers can be moved into new routes while staying in the sector they’re interested in. 

While there is strong demand in certain sectors, the sporting sector has seen very little demand for a passporting system, with the exception of portable DBS checks. The report shows that demand is low as volunteer recruitment is mostly organic, so there’s little interest in the digital brokerage of volunteer passports. Along with this, for individual sports, qualifications are already there in terms of training, and therefore the standardisation of training has been met and recognised. 

So How Will it Work?

How might volunteer passports work moving forward?

  • Commonality: Volunteer portability is more likely to work when there is a common denominator between organisations whether this be locally or sector-based. This commonality between organisations may be essential to building a ‘federation of trust’ aligning volunteer standards and processes. 
  • Sustainable? Stakeholders have concerns that passport initiatives may not be sustainable. This is due to the temporary nature of funding, and a lack of resources. To overcome these issues, volunteer-involved organisations have stressed the need for passporting initiatives to be developed in a realistic way, building this into a long-term strategy for volunteering. 
  • Credibility: The Credibility of passport schemes is incredibly important for volunteer engagement and organisations. Some examples of the ways individual volunteer passporting schemes have been credible have included: endorsements from national councils of volunteer organisations and local authority and government institutions. 
  • Data Standards: This is a strong requirement from digital platform providers and organisations who explain that any volunteer passport system would only work if it was developed with open data standards. 
  • Control? Various organisations have emphasised how important it is for volunteers to be the ones controlling their data. For example, in previous initiatives, there have been options for volunteers to pause notifications at times when they were busy or wanted to stop volunteering for the moment.
  • Access: There is an element of exclusion and barriers for small organisations due to a lack of digital infrastructure and skills to join in on volunteer passporting for those who work for their organisation. Where are smaller organisations going to find and retain their volunteers? 

Expectations of Government Support…

There are areas where central and local governments can support volunteering in the context of volunteer passporting, including: 

  • Raising awareness of current possibilities to make DBS checks portable and improving their portability. 
  • Providing legal clarity over certain issues curtailing volunteer portability or any other elements of passporting. 
  • Working with the voluntary sector to support greater standardisation where appropriate through funding for resources and infrastructure. 
  • Encouraging volunteering by making sure other government policies do not pose barriers to volunteering. 

Where Does TeamKinetic Fit In? 

As mentioned at the beginning of this blog post, TeamKinetic helped support this report we’d like to thank the DMCS for inviting us to help! We’re intrigued to see how volunteer passports and passporting develop in the next couple of years. We’re currently looking at ways we could introduce volunteer passporting, or elements of passporting, into our system. 

If you’d like to know more about us here at TeamKinetic, you can start a free trial of TeamKinetic on our website. This will let you check out all our features for 30 days. If you like what you see, contact us to book a demo and see how we can help your organisation manage your volunteers!

You can find TeamKinetic on social media and listen to our podcast:

Twitter       Facebook       LinkedIn       YouTube       Instagram       Podcast

 

Have you enjoyed using TeamKinetic? If you could leave us a review on Capterra, we’d really appreciate it! We’ll even send you a little thank you.

Will Volunteering Come Out Stronger After Covid?

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On 2nd September 2021

In COVID-19, News & Views

Coronavirus has introduced so many new challenges for communities over the past 18 months, but it’s also presented foundations to build a stronger community. Moving out of the pandemic means the focus is now on building the relationships between volunteers and organisations; along with renewing that drive to volunteer in the first place. This could mean we have to rethink the roles within volunteering moving forward.

Remote Volunteering? 

The use of remote volunteering over the pandemic has been phenomenal in helping those who’ve really needed it. Due to this, there is a larger market for this kind of volunteering, as so many people have volunteered in this way lately. In order for virtual volunteering to continue, volunteers must be attracted to your organisation’s missions as the social aspect towards volunteering has been stripped back. Communicating that their small contribution will make a difference will keep them involved and feeling positive for helping the community.

The pandemic has also increased the amount of online recruitment. So how have organisations found and kept in touch with their volunteers? It feels inevitable that recruiting volunteers online is something that will carry on far into the future. For organisations, their next steps may be to solidify their presence online. This is where a volunteer management system would come in handy; with TeamKinetic you can recruit more volunteers than ever before, and have constant contact to keep them informed. 

Flexibility…

To create a more accessible volunteering route, there needs to be flexibility. For those who cannot commit to certain dates and times: flexibility allows for no obligation to return. It also means that volunteers can now access the risks beforehand (because they haven’t committed to a continuous role). Despite saying we’re coming out of the pandemic, people still have to assess the risks before going out (coronavirus included)! While it becomes more of a challenge for organisations to be flexible, breaking down roles into smaller opportunities is a way to include more flexibility.

Looking towards the future

There is a feeling that volunteering has taken a strong leap forward over the past 18 months. There is a renewed purpose to help those who really need it: we’re more aware of our communities’ vulnerabilities. Volunteering has increased massively over the pandemic and as a result we have to focus on preserving the positive changes that we have seen.

Interested in TeamKinetic? 

Why not come and try our system for free! You can start a free trial of TeamKinetic on our website. This will let you check out all our features for 30 days. If you like what you see, contact us to book a demo and see how we can help your organisation manage your volunteers.

You can also follow our social media pages: Twitter, Facebook, LinkedIn and YouTube.

Volunteering made safe with TeamKinetic

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On 25th August 2021

In TeamKinetic Features

TeamKinetic are always here to make sure their clients and any volunteers are protected. We ensure the highest security as we know many organisations may work with young and vulnerable people. TeamKinetic have created a system which allows for safe volunteering and volunteer management. Take a look for yourself below.

Criminal Checks

TeamKinetic understand that many organisations work with young and vulnerable people, so we know that criminal checks need to be completed before volunteers are accepted. With our system you can fully customise volunteer registrations by allowing criminal checks before they can be accepted. 

If you only have specific opportunities which need these criminal checks you can customise the opportunity to do these checks when a volunteer joins. This makes the process easier for you when criminal checks need to be done on your volunteers. 

Roles

Roles have been created to allow organisations to enable a prescribed on-boarding process for volunteers. Roles are a great feature for organisations that have regular opportunities that are undertaken under the same set of compliance, training, or on-boarding rules.

Community Tasks

Community tasks were set up in response to the COVID-19 crisis. They are small tasks designed to provide community support to people who are unable to leave their homes. These tasks differ from the usual volunteer opportunities where the opportunities might have set hours etc… With community tasks it is usually one volunteer helping someone in the community who cannot go shopping, or pick up their medication and so on.

These tasks are secure that whenever a volunteer signs up for a task they must be full approved before they can get any personal details of the task. Any personal information will be hidden and only available to the task manager until a volunteer is approved for the task.

Community tasks have been able to help many during the pandemic and have allowed communities to provide support for one another in a safe environment. Don’t believe us, read our case study from COVID-19 Kenilworth Support who have been using our community tasks since the beginning of the pandemic. 

Accreditation System

TeamKinetic created an accreditation system for the Rugby Super League Grand Final in 2019 and more recently have set up the same system again for the Rugby League this year.

Mainly this is used for major events and sporting events and will allow for the safe management of any person at the venue on the day. The system records the identity and health checks of every personnel. They can then be given badges which include the zones they can and cannot enter to ensure security in each zone. 

It is a great piece of software which helps to keep venues secure and personnel who arrive will have to show there ID to ensure entry. 

Want to Try for FREE?

Why not come and try our system for free! You can try out all of the above and so much more which will help safely organise and manage volunteers. You can also get in touch with us via our website or call on 0161 914 5757. 

Visit our social media pages to find out more information about TeamKinetic and some tips on how to use the software. You can find us on: Twitter, Facebook, LinkedIn and YouTube. 

We’re Sorry 😓

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On 9th August 2021

In News & Views, Technical Updates

You may be aware that the newest TeamKinetic update was due to go live at the beginning of the month. However, we ran into some issues and we have taken the difficult decision to delay the release until next Sunday (15th). We know this is a little bit disappointing but it was important to us that this new version met your high expectations and we were not confident we could achieve that this weekend.

Although our testing was complete and everything appeared to be in order, we discovered some instability in the changes we had made. Although infrequent, it could lead to issues with accounts being logged out and other frustrating random issues. 

The team have been working non-stop on getting this update ready for launch and share your disappointment in it not being released, but we would much rather take longer to put out an update that is completely stable and satisfactory than rush one out that has issues and could cause our users any inconvenience. 

We would like to thank everyone for their continued patience. We hope you love TeamKinetic version 2.0 once you get chance to use it. We’d love to hear your thoughts.

We also aim to have the new mobile app released around late September/October. 

In the meantime, you can read about some of the key new features in the update here. 
We also held some masterclasses going through some key v2 features. You can watch all of those here.

How to get your volunteers to log hours

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On 19th July 2021

In News & Views, TeamKinetic Features, Volunteer Management

Volunteering at its core is an entirely selfless activity completed by people with no expectation of acknowledgement. Despite this, we believe volunteers deserve to be rewarded for their hard work. But how do you do this without them logging hours? 

Why is logging hours so important?

In short, data. This data is key to your organisation to:

  • Measure success. Logged hours can represent the amount of work your volunteers are doing for their community or particular cause. 
  • Track your audience. Knowing which volunteers are continually volunteering and which ones aren’t could be incredibly insightful. Is there a particular demographic volunteering more than others? Is there a demographic that is hard to retain? This data could uncover aspects that need to change, leading onto our next point…
  • Make improvements. No volunteering programmes are perfect, but the best ones regularly review and make changes to improve. If there’s a particular demographic that isn’t returning, why?

So how do I persuade volunteers to log their hours?

  • Show them how easy it is. Showing volunteers how quickly they can log hours might help them 
  • Incentivise! Offering rewards can be a great way to get volunteers logging their hours. However, the best way to do this is to offer low-value rewards as often as possible. 
  • Intrinsic vs extrinsic motivation. Imagine this: you offer one big prize (e.g. a hoodie), after a volunteer has logged 100 hours. They log hours as a way of reaching that prize, but once they reach those 100 hours they lose motivation to log future hours – or worse, return at all. (Extrinsic motivation)
    However, if you offer small rewards such as thank you messages they will be consistently motivated by the positive way the act makes them feel. (Intrinsic motivation)

Intrinsic motivation is all about making your volunteers continually feel good about the work they’re doing and the difference they’re making, rather than working towards one particular reward. 

So how do you keep up this motivation? Giving them nice feedback is a great place to start! This will show how much you value them and will mean more to them than you may think. 

Utilising TeamKinetic to Incentivise Volunteers

Leaving Feedback

TeamKinetic allows you to leave feedback when logging a volunteer’s hours. If you forget or don’t have time to personally thank your volunteer at the end of their session, this section gives you the chance to do so. It also lets the volunteer log their own hours and leave feedback about the opportunity they joined.

Ask anyone who has volunteered – receiving feedback is a great feeling and can push volunteers to return and continue volunteering for you.

Achievement Badges

This incentive is a great way to push your volunteers to log more hours. Once a volunteer logs their hours, they will add together to create their total volunteer hours. A small way to help increase volunteers’ hours is to have achievement badges when they reach certain hour milestones.

TeamKinetic has achievement badges automatically built into the system. The achievement badge pictures and names can be customised. These badges are a great way to incentivise volunteers and get them to keep on volunteering so they can reach the next milestone.

Custom Badges

Have you ever thought about starting a ‘volunteer of the month’ award? To give your volunteers an extra incentive to volunteer more or make them feel appreciated? Yes? Keep reading, you may like what you see…

TeamKinetic allows you to create custom award badges for your volunteers. These could be ‘volunteer of the month’ or ‘volunteer of the year’. They can be absolutely anything you want and look however you want, with the fully customisable option! Once you have assigned the award to a volunteer, they will receive an email with the award in it to congratulate them. Again, this recognises the efforts your volunteers put in, helping you to retain more volunteers and hopefully gain more.

Logging hours with TeamKinetic

Logging hours with TeamKinetic is easy – as it should be on any volunteer management system. See below for the full process laid out in less than 25 seconds!

And if that’s not clear enough you can check out our full tutorial videos on logging hours as an opportunity provider and logging hours as a volunteer! 

Think it’s time to invest in volunteer management software?

You can start a free trial of TeamKinetic on our website. This will let you check out all our features for 30 days. If you like what you see, contact us to book a demo and see how we can help your organisation manage your volunteers!

You can find TeamKinetic on social media and listen to our podcast:

Twitter       Facebook       LinkedIn       YouTube       Instagram       Podcast

 

Have you enjoyed using TeamKinetic? If you could leave us a review on Capterra, we’d really appreciate it! We’ll even send you a little thank you.

Steering Group Recap: 22/06/2021

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On 8th July 2021

In TeamKinetic Features

We’d like to thank everyone who joined the steering group session- it’s been really helpful to us to hear your comments and feedback on the areas we discussed. 

The group was able to talk through the main areas of our system answering polls we’d set up to get a basic feel of how you, as users, felt using our system and its features. We also got to listen to any ideas you had, which we could explore deeper into for the future. This process has been really insightful for us, and something we aim to complete multiple times a year: we’re here to help, so any and all feedback is welcome.

Based on some of the feedback, we’re starting the process of creating helpful ‘how to’ videos/blog posts on our features and how you can use them effectively, so keep an eye out for those, coming soon!

We’ll be recapping the poll questions and the responses from the Steering Group held on 22/06/2021 below. If you find that you’d like to make any comments regarding changes or new features to add- feel free to open up a support ticket on the system.

To start the session off we delved into the system regarding ‘Setup.’ We wanted to know if our system suited your needs for configuration and whether the training provided was everything you needed to be!

Poll 1: How did you find configuring your system to suit your needs?  We wanted to understand if there were any areas in particular that you struggled with, or that the settings were clear enough for you.  During the session, we found that sometimes our system updates or some things change slightly and you aren’t aware. This is something we should be letting you all know about, no matter how small it might be. We’ll be making sure everyone receives updates so you never miss a change. 

Poll 2: How did you find the training? The second question focused on the training we provide, and whether or not you felt that you could move forward using the system once training was completed. A number of those on the call gave feedback about having to give extra training themselves to their providers; we pride ourselves on giving you the best quality training, so incorporating more training aimed at providers is something we’ll be having discussions about.  

After setup we looked at ‘General.’ This was about the general use of the system and the type of language we use there.

Poll 3: How did you find the user interface? This poll focused on the running of the system, do you find that everything is where you thought it should be? We received feedback that some found the process hard and would like some more guidance, we have videos that can help you out with our system on our YouTube channel which you can have a look at over here. We are in the early stages of getting more of these videos out to all to explain some of the features that you may not know about so watch this space! 

Poll 4: Do you understand the language used on the system? Focusing on the way aspects of the system might be labelled, do you think that we’re being clear enough, or is there anything do you think we could change to be clearer? After discussions we found that the term ‘Flexible’ was confusing for some. We were given some suggestions such as ‘Long-Term’ or ‘On-going’ opportunities which we’ve taken onboard to talk about whether a change like this is needed. 

Poll 5: How did you find setting up your onboarding process? This single poll regarded whether or not you were able to understand how to use the setup settings to replicate your requirements for your onboarding process for your volunteers. Some have expressed that they have had recruitment processes with providers outside of us here at Team Kinetic: this again may link to our training sessions we currently hold, and focusing in on a more clearer way to show what providers can do is something we’re now looking to include. 

Next up we spoke about communications within the system.

Poll 6: How do you find communication with volunteers and providers? We wanted to grasp how you felt using the emailing system, and how easy and effectively you could email recipients. On the session, more customisation was an idea floated through- which makes sense, allowing you access to a wider range of fonts/colours/branding. It’s something that we’ll be looking into and seeing what the best routes are for getting these types of features into the system. 

Poll 7: Do you use notifications?  It is interesting for us to know whether you use the notifications and the news features. We have had talks about combining together news and notifications so this Steering Group was useful to know if that was something you might want. The terms news and notifications are similar but they do have differences, we found that some might not know these differences. In response, we’re getting a blog post written to show the differences and let you know how to use these features efficiently and effectively. 

Polls 8 & 9 were on the subject of ‘Users.’ We wanted to know:

 Poll 8: Should we allow admins to alter privilege of what a provider can do? This could mean that you can customise the elements that providers can and can’t do on the system. There was a suggestion of a possible phasing in of providers, so that they may be restricted at the beginning and grow into the system- this is something we’ll definitely explore in the future and other customisation options on privileging providers. 

Poll 9: Should we differentiate internal and external providers? Internal providers are those who work for you, so we would be differentiating between providers that work for you and providers who have come from other organisations. While on the discussion of providers, there was a suggestion of letting providers know when their opportunities are about to end, so that they can promote them if there are still available spaces for volunteers. It will be something we’ll spend time looking into if there is an effective way to do this! 

We followed this up with a question surrounding searching.

Poll 10: Is there any group of volunteers which you find it hard to identify? We wanted to understand whether or not our filters work, are they in the right place for you? and whether or not we were missing any filters that you feel are important. There were some mixed reactions to moving all of the filters into one list, with some in favour and others not. Despite the mix we will still have a look around, just to see if the system will be cleaner to navigate if filters are all on one list. 

We then moved onto ‘Logging Hours and Feedback.’

Poll 11: How do you find logging hours and feedback? We found that clients were struggling at times to get volunteers to log their hours; we suggest giving them an incentive to get them logging hours, this could be through our achievement badges or adding your own customisable ones! We currently have a blog post being written that goes into more detail about how you can get your volunteers logging hours. 

Poll 12: Should users be able to update or add new feedback on an opportunity? It was a nice discussion to have on whether this would be a beneficial feature, it’s something we have thought of before, so it was interesting to see how you would feel about it. We did get some suggestions for bulk feedback to become a feature. This sounds like something that would be beneficial to those who have a lot of volunteers that need hours and feedback logging, so we’ll have a talk with our developers to see if this is a feature we can add in future updates! 

From logging hours to Criminal Record Checks (CRC), we wanted to gather some more feedback when it comes to our system and CRCs.

 Poll 13: Would it be useful to allow admins to submit a DBS/PVG directly through the system? When we were discussing this on the group we concluded that this would be a way to save time and duplication for all parties, we’ll be looking more into this over the next few updates. 

Poll 14: Should we allow providers to add criminal checks to volunteers? How would this work? For this poll we wanted to understand whether or not allowing providers to do this was a feature that was wanted and if we would have to look at implementing something in order for that to work smoothly. As you can see by the poll the answers were a little mixed!  If this is something that you think might be beneficial- let us know. 

Carrying on with features, Polls 15&16 spoke about Creating/Managing Opportunities.

Poll 15: How do you find creating opportunities? We want to make it as clear and simple as possible for you to create an opportunity for your volunteers, so this question was to see if there was anything we could possibly add to aid that experience. Again the concept of ‘Flexible’ opportunities came up. To make sure that everyone can understand flexible and session based opportunities, and the differences between them, we’ll write up a blog post or explain on one of our YouTube videos so you can better understand them. 

Poll 16 broke this down a little further by asking: How do you find managing opportunities using the controls? From the polls you can see that those on the session found that managing opportunities easy. If you do find that there is anything that could be made clearer, then you can send us a support ticket on our system or get in touch through our email! 

We also wanted some feedback on Events and setting those up.

 Poll 17 asked: How do you find setting up an Event? We found that when we spoke in a little more detail,  some of you needed reminding on exactly how to do this, in response, we’re currently in the process of setting up some videos and blog posts on how to use our features effectively.  

Poll 18 & 19 focused on CSVs (Comma-Separated Values.) 

Poll 18: Does the use of CSV confuse anyone? We found during the session some weren’t aware of what CSV is or stands for, simply, CSVs are where you can download a spreadsheet text file of information from our system.

Poll 19 simply asks: Is there anything which you can’t currently download which you would like to? If you believe there’s something, please raise it on a support ticket and we’ll get onto exploring that for you. 

Poll 20 focused on our courses feature. Currently the course feature is just to promote any courses you may want to introduce your volunteers to. 

Poll 20: How do you find promoting courses? In the session an idea was to allow them to book onto those courses through the system and whether this was possible: It’ll be something we’ll have a look into for future updates.

Poll 21 homed in on the help here at TeamKinetic and how do you find accessing help on TeamKinetic? If you ever find yourself stuck somewhere on our system there are a number of ways to get help, you can open up a support ticket, click the help option along the top in the right corner.

Our polls then moved onto the super admin settings.

Poll 22: Do you understand the wording used in the super admin settings? The group found that it does take some time to remember where everything is, and under what heading, but it does become routine once they’ve been using the system frequently. We are on hand to support you, so if you do find you need some helping finding out where certain features are, and how to use them, have a look on our YouTube and blog pages, we should have the answers over there. 

Poll 23 expanded on this, asking: Do you find the way options are grouped together to be logical? This is essentially asking if you think everything is where it’s supposed to be. We found by the poll that most people thought our system was logical, which is good! We’d like to think everyone can move around the system easily and freely. 

Our final 2 polls were questions on referencing and references.

Poll 24: How do you find adding referencing? With this poll, we did get some feedback expressing the need for a preview option. This is something we will be having a look at and exploring as an option for the system. This would mean you would be able to see the referencing form beforehand to check everything is how you want it. 

The final poll of the session centred around providers setting up their own reference forms. Poll 25: Should providers be able to set up reference forms for themselves? Again this poll had a range of answers, so it may be something that we try and get some more wider opinions and information on before we take a look at getting this into the system. 

The Steering Group has helped us understand more about how you use our system and where we can start to build a clearer path towards the future. 

We once again want to thank everyone who attended and took part in the session. We’ve received some really good feedback and ideas about our system and its features which we can explore further.

(Re)Introducing TeamKinetic: Alex Evans – Another Chapter

By

On 28th June 2021

In News & Views

If you read my goodbye blog last year, you’ll have to pretend you didn’t. I just can’t stay away!

I’m back again and excited to get (re)started – this time as TeamKinetic’s Marketing Manager. It’s a role that I’m excited to get stuck into and continue to grow in. 

My Journey

Back in 2017 I started university with no idea where it would take me. My biggest concerns were making friends, exploring Manchester (aka finding the best cheapest pubs), playing football, and whether I’d enjoy my course or not. 

In my second year it was time to start looking for a work placement – as someone who lacked confidence, this was a daunting task! One day the Social Media and Marketing intern role at TeamKinetic popped up and the rest is history. 

My placement year was full of personal and professional development. It gave me good quality real-world experience of marketing and helped me build confidence amongst other important life skills. 

I went into my final year of university ready to finish those assignments and get back into the world of work. What I didn’t expect was to be offered a full-time position at TeamKinetic. But what I was certain of was that I had to grab the opportunity with both hands.

From passing my responsibilities over to Sammy and Chloe in 2020 to taking over from them in 2021 – the circle of Marketing!

So who am I?

In short:

Hi, I’m Alex, I’m 22 and I’m from Sheffield!

But if you want something deeper I could tell you that Taylor Swift has been my Spotify top artist for three years in a row. Or that I’ve been a Sheffield United season ticket holder for as long as I can remember. But if that isn’t enough, you can read my original introductory blog here.

All you really need to know is that I’m incredibly happy to work for TeamKinetic, a team full of good people doing great work. It’s time to put all the things I learned at university into practice and help this company grow! 

New Faces and Farewells

I’d like to take this opportunity to thank Chloe and Sammy for all their hard work over the past year. They’ve done some great stuff and have been a real asset to the team.

However, now it’s time to welcome the newest member of the TeamKinetic family – Katie. She’ll be completing her placement year with us and I hope she gets as much out of it as I did. You join us in welcoming her by reading her introductory blog here.

You Can Join The Family Too

If your organisation is in need of a quick, easy, and reliable way to manage your volunteers look no further! No matter how big or small, we can help you. We’ll work around your budget to get you building better volunteer communities with our volunteer management software. 

Best of all, you can go to our website to set up your very own demo site free of cost to see how our system can work for you!

Introducing TeamKinetic: Katie – The Start of Something

By

On 22nd June 2021

In News & Views

Ginger Roots:

My marketing journey started in a life-sized cardboard smart car. 11 year old me presented a hover board advert at school, and between the transport creations and the chariots of fire theme tune, I think I sold the hoverboard 6000 rather well. I fell in love with marketing before I even knew what it was. 

Fast forward 6 years and I’m completing a creative media degree at my local college when the history of adverts is assigned to me. A 12,000 word document later, I decided that my passion lay in some form of marketing – photography and film now were hobbies. As a pledged university student studying Public Relations and Marketing, I’ve never felt more determined to set myself going on a career path, and succeed. 

A Helping Hand:

When I think back to when I was younger, I realise just how much volunteering my family took part in. During school summer fairs, my mum manned the sweets stall and my dad fired up the BBQ, all because they wanted to help. It’s members of my family who taught me the importance of volunteering and started me on my journey. 

For the past couple of years I have been part of ‘Save The Streets’, a university charity focused on helping end homelessness in Manchester. Through volunteering, fundraising and spreading awareness we try and do our bit where we can: last Christmas we raised £1,235 for A Bed Every Night. I’m honoured to have been their Social Media Secretary over the past 12 months and I’m looking forward to working with them closely in the future. 

In The Mean Time: 

As mentioned above, what I studied in college, I now like to do in my free time. I’m passionate in capturing moments from angles others might not see – from holidays to birthdays I’ve taken over the mantle as resident cameraman from my Grandad. When I’m not capturing my Nan’s famous birthday cakes, I am an avid true crime fan – having watched nearly every documentary and docuseries on Netflix. I’m not quite sure what intrigues me about it, but somehow every time a new one pops onto the platform I’m ready and waiting to click play. 

One Final Note: 

Looking at the next 12 months, I’m excited to put what theory I’ve learnt over the past 2 years into practice and see how my skills develop. My Dad always told me that if you find a job you love, you’ll never work a day in your life. I try to live by my Dad’s nuggets of wisdom, so I’m grateful that TeamKinetic have given me a chance to put my knowledge and skills together in a motivated, practical environment for the next year. 

Katie Brindle 

katie@teamkinetic.co.uk

For more information on volunteer management software visit our website or call 01619145747

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