Category: TeamKinetic Features Page 4 of 10

There are a wide array of TeamKinetic features, that’s why we try to explain what each area of the system does, why you use it, and how to use it most effectively.

If there’s something we haven’t covered, let us know!

How to bring your non-digital volunteers, digital!

It’s not unknown anymore that going digital is the future. We’ve seen first-hand the digital shift within the volunteering sector and the effect it has had on volunteers. Now, not everyone has adapted to the digital side of volunteer management. But don’t worry, we’re here to help you bring them into your digital plans.

When organisations move over to a digital platform, sometimes we find that their volunteers may be a little hesitant to indulge or be uncomfortable using a new system.

You’ve probably found yourself in a situation like this at some point. This is why at TeamKinetic, we make sure that volunteers can go at their own pace. That doesn’t mean you can’t give them a little push forward though…

Introducing digital to the reluctant…

Introducing a digital volunteer management system to reluctant volunteers works best when you focus on how it can make their lives easier. Talk about the benefits they’ll care about, like quick session sign-ups, easy communication, and less paperwork. Share examples of how other volunteers have found it helpful to show it’s a tool for them, not just for admin.

Keep the training simple and hands-on, offering guides and support to help everyone feel comfortable. Most importantly, listen to their concerns and take their feedback seriously. Showing how the system saves time and reduces hassle will help them see it as a win for everyone.

Developing a plan for action

To introduce a digital volunteer management system successfully, you could start by holding a casual meeting or drop-in session where you can demonstrate the system in action. Show volunteers how easy it is to use and focus on features they’ll find most helpful, like how to sign up for shifts in just a few clicks or receive instant updates. Keep the tone friendly and invite questions to ease any initial hesitation.

Offer personalised support by setting up one-on-one or small group tutorials for those who need extra guidance. Create simple, step-by-step guides or video walkthroughs they can refer to at any time. If possible, designate a “digital buddy”. This could be another volunteer or team member who’s confident with the system and can provide peer support.

During the rollout, ask for feedback regularly. Use surveys, informal check-ins, or suggestion boxes to understand what’s working and what isn’t. Adjust your approach based on their input, and celebrate their wins when they successfully engage with the system. For instance, share stories of how someone saved time or avoided mix-ups using the platform.

Finally, be patient. Not everyone will adapt at the same pace, so offer ongoing support and reassurance. By making the process collaborative and supportive, you’ll help even the most reluctant volunteers feel confident and included.

How can TeamKinetic help with this process?

Once started on TeamKinetic, admin users can invite volunteers to sign up via email or create volunteer accounts themselves. By emailing volunteers, they’ll instantly get to the sign-up page and can complete their registration in just a few short steps. Volunteers who complete the registration themselves are already one step into the digital journey – a small easy win!

Even though it’s a quick and easy registration process, there may be volunteers who refuse to, or can’t, engage digitally. For those cases, we’ve made it possible to create and manage volunteer profiles on their behalf. No email? No problem. Admins can create volunteer accounts without an email address.

When acting on behalf of a volunteer, you can update/change their personal information if/when needed. This includes uploading a photo and any relevant documents, joining opportunities and logging their hours.

You’ll also be able to signify whether the volunteer in question has completed any required induction and training.

Digitally inviting your volunteers

Once a volunteer is signed up, they may find themselves feeling like a deer in headlights. Lots to do but they might not be sure where to start.

At this point, we give them a welcome message, with clear instructions on how to get started. The best part is that it’s fully customisable so you can tell your volunteers exactly what they need to know.

At the beginning of their journey, it can be good to invite them to join an opportunity immediately. With TeamKinetic, you’ll be able to invite volunteers directly onto sessions that interest them so they can start their volunteering journey right away.

When volunteers are comfortable using the system, they can search for the opportunities they want themselves. Once they find an opportunity they like, they can join or apply depending on restrictions.
(For some opportunities, organisations may ask for volunteers to apply, and jump through some hoops before getting onto a session.)

You’ll be able to keep volunteers in the loop through emails and texts – you can even set up calls with volunteers to keep in touch. Any changes on an opportunity are emailed to each volunteer so they’re always kept up-to-date on the latest changes. 

Want to see more of our Digital Functions? 

We’ve seen how our functions have helped hesitant volunteers embrace the digital side of volunteering and its benefits. TeamKinetic, like any good VMS, is straightforward to use once you’ve had a look around.

Why not get in touch over on our website to see how we can benefit your organisation? 


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

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Have you enjoyed using TeamKinetic? If you could leave us a review on Capterra, we’d really appreciate it!

Are you getting the best from your opportunity descriptions?

Opportunity descriptions can make or break whether someone decides to volunteer for you. If a potential volunteer can’t find an opportunity that excites them, then they probably aren’t going to join you on your organisations journey.

With your descriptions you can describe to your volunteers, and potential volunteers what’s possible for them within your organisation- let them know how they can use their skills, talents and drive to add to something bigger than themselves.

Descriptions can sometimes be a little boring, and packed full of information and language that can make a volunteer confused or disengaged with the opportunity within the first few seconds or so… When written correctly, you can inspire and motivate volunteers to sign up and jump onto the opportunity there and then. Your description also helps you find the right volunteer for the role.

Descriptions can also help when volunteers have joined an opportunity; it can give you a checklist of sorts when supervising volunteers on an opportunity- if a volunteer isn’t meeting expectations- has your description been too vague on what you’re looking for? An opportunity description should have done the leg work to get you in touch with a volunteer (or volunteers) who are the best fit.

Opportunity descriptions can be such an important communication tool towards your organisation. So how can you make sure your description is well-crafted?

What to include in your descriptions…

We’ve collated together a list of 10 sections to include on your opportunity description that can help your volunteers find the right role for them, and your organisation gets the best out of each and every volunteer.

  • Opportunity Title. Think about whittling down your entire description, in just a few words- that’s what your title should be. The title is one of the most important aspects of your opportunity, you want to entice your volunteer to know more.
  • Responsibilities. For a quick snapshot of the roles and responsibilities within the opportunity- include a quick bullet point round up. This will help give a volunteer a concrete process of what they’ll be doing day-to-day.
  • Time Requirements. Let volunteers know how much time would be required from them- a quick way to cut those volunteers out who may be looking for less hours (or have more hours to give!) Many opportunities will have a beginning and end date, so including that can help a volunteer decide too.
  • Location. This is pretty simple and self-explanatory. Adding a location attracts the volunteers in that area and stops any of those volunteers from joining if they can’t make the destination provided.

You could also include…

  • Working Environment. Add whether there’s a dress code, or any physical requirements needed for the job. Anything along these lines will work really well here.
  • Skills/Qualifications. It doesn’t have to be a massive list or paragraph, just the essentials that are needed to complete the opportunity. These will be skills that you feel are required for the role.
  • Training. If there is any training needed to be undertaken by the volunteer letting them know in the opportunity description means they can start to get prepared. You don’t have to go in depth about the training, but letting them know how to access it can help them get training completed before the opportunity starts.
  • Support. In what ways will your volunteers be supported on this opportunity?
  • Perks? Is there anything while on the opportunity that volunteers will receive? For example, will they have access to a free lunch or free parking? Adding perks onto your opportunity gives extra ‘bonuses’ to volunteers- what do you have to offer? Let potential volunteers know!

Once you’ve written your description, make sure you read it over! If you saw this opportunity advertised, would you want to join up? Think about if someone who doesn’t know much about your organisation was to stumble across the opportunity, what would they think?

And there you have it!

While our checklist of opportunity descriptions may be quite long, you don’t want to overwhelm your volunteers. Your description should give them all the helpful information they need straight away- any other information can come afterwards.

Potential volunteers should be able to scan the page and know the jist of the opportunity and what is being asked of them. 

If you’re looking for a volunteer management system, don’t hesitate to get in touch! Give us a call on 0161 914 5757, or email us at info@teamkinetic.com. You can also start a FREE trial here! 

How TeamKinetic can help with UK-based volunteering for Ukraine.

For well over the past month, we’ve been updated by news outlets about the war in Ukraine. From Snake Island and “Ghost of Kyiv” to young Amelia, symbolising hope with Let It Go (who has since performed the Ukrainian national anthem in Lodz); we doubt there has been a single person who has felt unaffected by what’s happening.

But it’s what people across the world have chosen to do in these times that we would like to focus on – and how we, as a volunteer management system company, can help. We see day in, day out the work and dedication of volunteers and the impact they’ve made to the lives of those they help; it’s why we do what we do!

At the beginning of the month, nearly 20,000 foreign volunteers travelled to Ukraine. While it’s been advised not to travel to Ukraine, the number of volunteers looking to help within their own countries has only increased. Volunteering for Ukraine continues to cover healthcare, travel and refugee assistance (just to name a few). It lies with refugee assistance we believe our system can be of most benefit.

In recent weeks, the government has announced that Britons will be allowed to open up their homes to millions of Ukrainian refugees displaced by current events- this route will work for an initial 12-month period, matching refugees with those who have offered up free accommodation. From national organisations to the local charities around you, help is needed. 

At TeamKinetic, we pride ourselves on the features in our system which allow for fast setup, recruitment and deployment of volunteers to help the set up of such schemes. Our tools help the rapid deployment of volunteers needed in situations such as the one facing Ukraine and its people.

Our instalment of DBS checks has only increased the pace at which volunteers can be approved and well on their way with helping those in need. While we may not know the ins and outs of every organisation’s recruitment needs, it’s been our promise from our very first day to continuously develop our system to accommodate as many organisations as possible. Our DBS checks are one of the many ways we employ important safeguarding within TeamKinetic while maintaining a swift recruitment.

To keep track of the thousands of homes opening their doors, reaching out a hand and the people they will be embracing, is a mammoth task. Our system’s functions can help with recording all information needed to ensure those refugees entering the UK for shelter know they are safe. Our personalisation means no matter what your organisation is looking to collect, or put out to volunteers, it is all accessible in TeamKinetic.

We have a number of organisations starting and developing programs to help Ukrainian refugees – something we are honoured to play a small part of. We want to ensure that anyone who needs a quick start, rapid deployment of volunteers and a platform to do so can find it at TeamKinetic.

It is easy to sit in a country, surrounded by our family members – the people we love – and think there is nothing we can do to help a country roughly 1,949 miles away. But it would be foolish to think such. We can help right where we are, helping those families who’ve travelled 1,949 miles to find safety; to find even a glimmer of hope that one day, they will be able to return to Ukraine. To return home. 

How to get your volunteers embracing management software…

Over the past few years, there’s been a real focus on walking away from stacks of papers, and investing in an online volunteer management system. While we may be biased, we have to agree! No matter where you are on your journey, keeping your volunteers in the loop will help volunteers start embracing your new system. 

So how can you give those encouraging pushes to your volunteers, to help them start embracing your online system?

Embracing Your Vision.

Let your volunteers know what you’re planning! Your volunteers are vital to your success as a program, so let them in behind the curtain of your volunteer program. While you might not be up and running straight away, keeping your volunteers in the loop brings a sense of community. Every milestone you hit can be shared, and celebrated, with everyone who adds to the organisation.

It can also be a time where you can be transparent with your volunteers as you work on understanding your new platform. TeamKinetic’s implementation is as slow or as fast as you like; whenever you’d like to debut your new volunteer management system, we’ll be ready!  If it’s going to take a little while longer- let your volunteers know! You’ll develop a stronger connection with your volunteers if you update them on how your organisation plans to move forward.

Remember, your volunteers don’t need to know everything that’s going on behind the scenes. Leaving them with a few updates along the way will excite them for what’s to come. Once you’re up and running, make sure to let them know the important ‘stuff’; how can you register? How to join an opportunity? Where can you reach us for support?

Volunteer Access.

For many organisations, some of their volunteers don’t have access to online devices like a computer or a smart-phone. So as you plan your transition to an online platform, think about the ways in which you can reach those volunteers who might not be online or internet ready.

Why not offer regular drop in sessions where volunteers can pop in, and register in-person. You can also support new volunteers who may need some training or a welcome chat! For volunteers who might not fully understand the system, show them the basics first! Build up from there and your volunteers will be embracing the system as they go. 

It’s not something we really have to say, but make sure you have a team supporting your volunteers. You’ve been using the system in training, and everyday use. Your volunteers will be using the system for the first time- so expect  a lot of questions from volunteers! Try encouraging your volunteers to spend time on the site getting to know where they can find everything and what the basic functions are…

Let your volunteers know about the features…

One way to indulge volunteers into a platform is to let them know about the features that suit them best. Some of the best features we’ve found that are loved by volunteers are…

Online registration. Volunteers have an easy-to-follow, easy to access registration process and profile that they can keep coming back to keep track of when they’re volunteering, the opportunities they like and what’s happening within the organisation. A volunteer site is a great place for all of this to sit!

Achievement badges. When a volunteer hits a certain number of volunteer hours, or has been awarded volunteer of the month at an organisation, an achievement badge popping up against their profile can be the biggest encouragement for a person to carry on volunteering. At TeamKinetic, we’ve seen first hand how achievement or participation badges have motivated volunteers to volunteer more. It also lets them know how much they’re valued at your organisation.

Communication. At TeamKinetic, we believe that two-way communication is a massive factor in keeping your volunteers coming back to volunteer time and time again. Not only can both pirates keep in touch with updates, but organisations can show that they’re around for their volunteers- check in with them and see how they’re doing! Where a volunteer feels valued and listened to, they’ll continue to return.

Time to start embracing volunteer management?

Hopefully this has helped you understand how to engage your volunteers on your new system or help them come round to the online space you’ve provided! If you’re looking for a volunteer management system, why not try a free trial with us at TeamKinetic over on our website.

Or book in a demo with us! Simply call or email on 0161 914 5757 or katie@teamkinetic.co.uk.

 

Screening Volunteers with TeamKinetic

When it comes to recruiting new volunteers, there are a range of factors to consider regarding safeguarding. Screening volunteers is essential to ensure they’re the right person for the job. This might include criminal checks and references, especially in an organisation such as a hospice.

Any good volunteer management software should facilitate these checks, making the process as efficient as possible.

Starting the Journey: Registration

So you have a volunteer ready and willing to give their time. But first, they need to register. Any good system should allow you to customise your volunteer registration forms to get the information you need. After all, every organisation is different – checks needed by one may not be needed by another. TeamKinetic allows you to create a range of custom questions to add to registration.

Not only this, but once the volunteer has registered you can add further questions for them to complete in their profile at any time.

Criminal Checks in TeamKinetic

Now you have your registered volunteer, you might want them to undergo a criminal check.
In TeamKinetic you can add details of a volunteer’s criminal check within their profile.

The system will then keep you updated on any checks that have expired or are due to expire soon – handy, right?

You can also filter volunteer searches by those who have been checked.

Managing References in TeamKinetic

So now you’ve got a volunteer who has undergone criminal checks and is ready to go. But wait – what about references?! In TeamKinetic, you can create your own reference forms. These can then be emailed to the referees given by volunteers, or filled in yourself. They’re then kept within the volunteer’s profile on your system.

Creating Reference Forms within TeamKinetic is easy. It’s all done within the system and you can add a range of question types, such as Yes/No, multiple choice, and free text.

Reference Forms can then be:
– Assigned to volunteers.
– Emailed to the referees.
– Completed manually on their behalf.

All completed reference forms will then be saved to the volunteer’s profile for future… well.. reference.

And there you have it – a volunteer who has gone through all necessary checks and is ready to go!


Do you need help screening volunteers?

Start a free trial with TeamKinetic to see if our system has the right tools for you. Starting a free trial is easy and only requires basic information such as your name and email. Just go to our website to get started.

TeamKinetic – 2.1.1 Interim Release

Only a month since the last interim release and here we are again!

As you can tell from the version number bump this is a mostly minor release but there are a few goodies in there.

Email Failure Reports

Our Enterprise level customers can now see a report of the last month’s email failures. This includes hard bounces, where the email was returned for some reason and could not be delivered, rejects where the email address does not exist, and spam responses where the user has reported the email as spam.

In the case of rejects and hard bounces, the volunteer or provider email is marked as INVALID and in the case of spam reports they are marked as DO NOT SEND EMAILS. In both cases the email address will no longer be sent any bulk group, or weekly emails.

We are working on including the email content and subect so that you know which email raised the error and failed.

Event Area Updated

The event area has now been updated to match the look and functionality of the volunteer and opportunity search and manage pages. It looks a lot easier on the eye and for those of you that run a lot of events, you can now easily search them.

Storage Improvements

We’ve mow moved nearly all of the image and document storage to Amazon’s S3 which should improve load and caching times for images like the opportunity images, event images, downloadable documents etc.

There will not be any visible changes and it should be totally transparent to our customers.

Club Functionality Integrated

For those enterprise customers that use ClubKinetic, this has all been integrated into the main top menu bar under the, obvious heading, clubs!

The pages have also been updated to match the layout and functionality of the main areas.

New Qualifications Search Filter

For those customers that use volunteer qualifications you can now filter your volunteers on their uploaded qualifications.

Refreshed and Update News Area

For the administrators the news area has been refreshed and now looks and acts the same as the main areas of the application.

More Sortable Tables

We’ve added some simple sorting to tables that are not paged through many records, for instance the open opportunities table on the admin dashboard. Just click the column header to sort and each time you click the sort direction will be reversed.

There are also the normal smaller bug fixes and visual immprovements throughout the application. Many thanks to everyone that opens support tickets with ideas or lets us know if something isn’t working properly.

You’ll already be on the new release by the time you read this, so enjoy and get in touch if you have any comments.

Thanks, TeamKinetic

TeamKinetic – 2.10 Interim Release

Hot on the heels of 2.09 from December we have another interim release for you. This one focuses on improvements to the expenses functionality after feedback and suggestions from our fantastic users. As always though, there is plenty of stuff to talk about.

Volunteer Expenses Improvements

Volunteers now have a few more options; they can update their bank details at anytime, delete unprocessed expense claims, and quickly view any current claims. Additionally if the claim has not yet been processed the volunteer can also update any of the details. We’ve also adjusted the layout so it looks better on small and mobile screens.

Administrator Expense Improvements

Administrators can now create a new expense claim for any volunteer without impersonating them. Just tap in the name of the volunteer and complete the form, dead easy.

When exporting the expense details to a CSV, we now include a link to the uplaoded receipt file if it exists, which makes it easier to pass the details on to a different department.

The volunteer’s bank details are now also visible and editable on their management page. All processed claims when marked as paid, are stored along with the bank account details that were recorded at that time, so you will have a nice audit trail if accounts change.

New Custom Emails

We’ve added a couple of new custom email and also split the emails up into three tabs; sent to volunteers, providers and admins.

You can now edit the password reset email to add more information and instruciton if your volunteers are struggling. This email was previously sent but was not customisable.

We’ve also added a brand new process for when a volunteer removes themselves (see below) from the system and we’ve added a custom email to go along with that process.

New Restore Feature For Volunteers

Previously when a volunteer deleted their own account they were taken back to the homepage and their data and login details were immediately removed.

Now the new custom email (see above) is sent and the volunteer is given some information about what happens now; when their data is destroyed etc. Most importantly, the email contains a special link that the volunteer can use to restore their account if they change their mind, or in case of a mistake. The volunteer has 48 hours to restore the account before its removed.

More Customisable Registration Fields

We’ve added the data sharing confirmation questions to those that are customisable from the super admin pages. So you can now update the label and the tool tip for these fields.

We’ve also improved the tool tip recognition code for your customised registration fields so they show more effectively now.

Dual Language Support for Custom Questions

We did previously support dual language for custom questions but now super admins can edit and adjust all their own custom questions at anytime from the same interface as the main language questions.

Dual Language Support for Customised Registration Questions

Additionally super admins can now also adjust the text, labels and tool tips for all the required registration questions instead of relying on the fixed translations.

Provider Search Speed Improvements

You may have noticed the provider search page was slowing down and took a number of seconds to return the first set of providers. These slowdowns when using the same database query as previous are due to table size effects and data complexity. The same query works fine upto a tipping point, then its slows down precipitously. The query has been redesigned and is now nice and snappy again.

As this is an interim release, we dont have the beta test period we employ with our larger release. This means this release will be hitting your browsers this week. Get in touch if you have any questions or feedback.

Thank you.

New Features: Emailing and Expenses

We’ve recently released TeamKinetic version 2.09 and you may have noticed a few new features. We’ve added new emailing and expenses features in our latest update.

New Email Features

The video above lays out all the new features.

When creating bulk emails you can now select any number of opportunities to be included in the email. You have the option of including the events that week and if you want to show the volunteer’s statistics across the top. These are all displayed in exactly the same way as within the newsletter so its now possible to send a newsletter type email to any of your volunteers, for any of your opportunities, whenever you like!

We have also rearranged and refactored the preview and draft buttons so you can now send a preview email to your email instantly and save a draft copy without leaving the page. We also now update the saved draft each time you hit the save draft button, rather than creating a new draft.

New Expenses Feature

The video above lays out information needed when adding/processing an Expense.

This is an Enterprise only feature. Administrators will have to switch this module on and off via the
Super Admin Menu → Options → Opportunities → ‘Use the in app managed expenses module’.

Opportunities can now either be marked as ‘Managed Expenses’ and/or ‘Expenses Paid’.

Expenses Paid simply means that volunteers will be reimbursed. In this case, you should add details about what expenses are paid and if there’s a cap on the amount. This is useful for providers to specify that their opportunity pays expenses.
Managed Expenses means that volunteers will be able upload expense claims which can then be managed by administrators. Managed expenses are always also marked as expenses paid.

If enabled, volunteers can select applicable opportunities from their dashboard, upload a receipt, an explanation of what the expense is for, and the amount they are claiming. Admins will get an alert when a new claim is submitted by a volunteer and can manage them all from a simple interface.
The admin can view the receipt, adjust the claim amount, and update the claim status. A full history of changes and notes is maintained and viewable underneath the main claim.

Any issues?

New updates can create small problems elsewhere in the site (despite rigorous testing!)
If you run into any issues on your site, don’t hesitate to reach out to us. You can either use the live chat feature, or raise a support ticket.

You can also visit our website and find us on social media:

Twitter       Facebook       LinkedIn       YouTube       Instagram

TeamKinetic 2.09 Interim Release

Another great value interim release for you all, and only a few weeks since the last one! This one is all software based, no hardware or infrastructure updates, which is much better for my health and sanity =)

Update Feedback from Volunteer Dashboard

Providers and admins can now update a volunteers feedback from the feedback section on the volunteer dashboard page. Just hit the update link and you can save it right there – no refresh required.

 

New Translation Engine

For those customers (Enterprise only) that use an alternative language to English (get in touch if you are interested) we have now brought all translations in-house to our own replacement engine.

This has a number of advantages; we can update and add new replacements fast, translator marked Super Admins can provide translations right there in the Super Admin area, and they can request new replacements to be added.

Using our own replacement and translation engine has increased the page load time for translated pages by four fold, an excellent result.

Send Custom Newsletters Whenever You Want

The bulk email system has been updated to use the same HTML wrapper as the weekly newsletter, so all your bulk emails will now look better and have more branding elements for your organisation.

When creating bulk emails you can now select any number of opportunities to be included in the email. You have the option of including the events that week and if you want to show the volunteer’s statistics across the top. These are all displayed in exactly the same way as within the newsletter so its now possible to send a newsletter type email to any of your volunteers, for any of your opportunities, whenever you like!

We have also rearrange and refactored the preview and draft buttons so you can now send a preview email to your email instantly and save a draft copy without leaving the page. We also now update the saved draft each time you hit the save draft button, rather than creating a new draft.

Expenses Module – First Phase

This is another great Enterprise only option to help you manage your expenses. You’ve been able to mark an opportunity as expenses provided for quite a few versions now. This new module closes the loop for expenses.

Volunteers can select applicable opportunities from their dashboard, upload a receipt, an explanation of what the expense is for, and the amount they are claiming.

Admins get an alert when a new claim is submitted by a volunteer and can manage them all from a simple interface.

The admin can view the receipt, adjust the claim amount, and update the claim status. A full history of changes and notes is maintained and viewable underneath the main claim.

We have also added some additional profile data points for UK bank account and sort codes which are only requested and stored if a volunteer makes an expenses claim. One day we hope to create some in app payment methods but we’ve yet to find one that has been acceptable to the majority of our customers yet…but we are still looking!

The managed expenses module is an enterprise only feature. Administrators can switch this module on and off and allow trusted providers to be able to mark an opportunity with the managed expenses flag. The managed expenses runs alongside the regular expenses flag, so anyone can still mark an opportunity as paying expenses, and this will show in the search filters and opp description, but only enterprise admins and trsuted providers will be able to add this managed aspect to those expenses.

Front page customisations

Our new front end (if you are not using it we suggest switching it on as volunteers seem to prefer it!) has some extra customisations, and now they are all also available in your chosen alternative language (enterprise only).

If you can’t find a suitable image, then it will fill the background with some of your chosen colours with a subtle animation effect so it will still look great even without an image.

Accreditation Improvements

We’ve standardised all the accreditation badge prints now so there will be zero variability between badges no matter how you print them.

We’ve also added the help and support menu to the accreditation menus so you can open support tickets straight from there without having to return the main volunteer menu.

The event access screen now accommodates the full 12 possible areas for each event and correctly displays access for each selectable zone.

There have also been quite a few small improvements and enhancements to the UI/UX as we harmonise it with the main application.

You can try out these features as normal on the beta site before the interim gets pushed out on 5th December. We’ll be notifying everyone and getting together some training videos and materials to make sure you can hit the ground running.

Closing Opportunities Added to Dashboard

Opportunities that are closing within 7 days are now shown to providers in their dashboard under the tasks panel.

These have been available on the administrators dashboard for a little while now but have now been brought across to the provider dashboard as well.

Happy Birthday Message for Volunteers

Just a little message on their dashboard when it is their birthday, wishing them the best and thanking them for volunteering.

We’ll be adding more life events to these notifications over time, like anniversaries of them registering, joining their first opportunity, logging their first hours etc.

Restore Recently Deleted Volunteers

We receive quite a few support tickets where administrators have accidentally deleted a volunteer, or deleted the wrong volunteer.

So we have implemented a restore feature that will work for 48 hours after the deletion. You can use the new DELETED filter in the volunteer search page to find all the volunteers that have been deleted in the last 48 hours. To restore a volunteer just hit the checkbox next to their name and then use the CHANGE STATUS bulk action in the bottom blue bar to restore them.

Once the 48 hour period has expired you will not be able to restore that volunteer. We can restore volunteers after this period for upto 30 days from cold storage backups but there is a charge.

Administators cannot restore a volunteer that has removed themselves, for obvious reasons; however all their hours are anonymised and retained.

Anonymised Hours from Deleted Vounteers Included

You can now see your anonymised hours from deleted volunteers in the quick stats area of the reporting pages. It combines the totals and highlights the total from deleted volunteers in brackets.

The date of removal is used as the hour logged date.

TeamKinetic 2.05 Interim Release

We have had a busy few weeks and have rolled out another interim release packed full of useful changes and updates suggested by our users.

Additionally we have also updated our infrastructure over the last few weekends with minimal distruption. All our servers and virtual environments are now on the latest server operating system and our database has also been updated to a new version. We’ve also thrown some more hardware at the application and I hope you have noticed some snappier responses.

Custom emails for opportunities

You can now add a custom email to an opportunity that is sent when a volunteer joins INSTEAD of the universal email (the universal email remains accessible and customisable as before). So if you have a special message to give to volunteers that join certain opportunities here is your chance.

It’s super easy to use and access, quick check box to say you want to use a custom email then you will see the normal editor window where you can craft the email.

Administrators can add an attachment to these emails from the normal list of email attachments you are used to seeing in the bulk email and email customisation areas.

Remember, this email is sent INSTEAD of the universal one, so be sure to include full details.

Custom email for role applications

Just as above, now when super admins are creating or editing roles they can add a custom email that is sent when a volunteer applies for that role.

It all works identically as for custom opportunity emails, and once again is sent instead of the universal email.

Close applications for an opportunity

Admins and providers can now hit a button on the APPLICANTS tab for apply first opportunties which will close applications for the opportunity without closing the opportunity. This enables already accepted volunteers to carry on as normal, and access new sessions, without attracting any new applicants.

Opportunity image enforcement option

Super Admins can now elect to switch of the mandatory upload of images for each opportunity. This option is OFF be default.

Information about the opportunity the intial role application was for

When a volunteer first applies for a role we record which opportunity this was on. We used this to enable the auto application to the opportunity if it was required, once the role applicaiton was complete and successful.

We have now started to show this information on the role management page so you know which opportunity the volunteer was originally interested in.

The volunteer also gets this information, along with a link to the original opportunity so they don’t need to hunt around to find it.

New and fixed reports

We have added a pie chart showing the proportion if volunteers on events and opportunities that have reported as having special needs or disabilities, downloadable of course.

The pie chart showing the ethnicity of volunteers on opportunities and events was not using distinct volunteers, but all the joined sessions. This has been fixed and is now accurate and the total volunteers will match the number given in the summary for volunteers.

Improved profile editing for volunteers

The layout when editing the profile for a volunteer has been tidied up and the various layouts for external volunteers, provider editing pages have also been improved.

We have split out the location aspects of their profile from their personal details, so you can update and edit independantly. This will help where location details have not been recorded properly but you still need to update other aspects of their profile.

Feedback report is now downloadable

Added a download button to the feedback report page so you can grab a full list of all the feedback at anypoint.

New filter for searching volunteers

You can now choose in the TYPE filter, to show volunteers that will and that will not receive bulk emails. A volunteer only receives bulk emails if they have opted in, have a valid email address, and have been granted access.

Faster searching

The opportunity search page speed has been improved by excluding distance calculations where possible and also using a boundary box method of finding matching opportunities rather than calculating the distance from the volunteers location and all other opportunites.

This is not as accurate but much faster and the accuracy is perfectly acceptable for this search. This means that empty or null searches, which are by far the most performed search such as;

https://volunteering-wales.net/volunteers/search

can return the maximum 250 opportunities in less than a second.

Providers having multiple accounts is now optional

The ability for providers to create their own sub accounts for collegues to use to login is now an option. You can find it in the super admin menu > options > everything else tab.

Better ordering of completed opportunities for volunteers

When volunteers view their opportunity tab in their dashboard, completed opportunities were ordered by their start date (age). We’ve switched this around now so that the opportunities are ordered by the date of their last session on that opportunity. So the opportunity that was mostly recently completed is at the top.

In app criminal checks

We are just finishing our initial development of in app criminal checks with KnowYourPeople in the UK. This wil mean you can fill out a simple form in the app, send it off and within 24 hours or so you will have the completed criminal check details available on the volunteers profile.

They will also send the certifcate to the volunteers address and your organisation name will appear on the certificate.

We don’t have finalised prices for the each check, but we are confident they will be less than £12 per check for the enhanced version.

If you are interested in trialing this new feature please get in touch.

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