TeamKinetic

Page 11 of 56

The Importance Of Volunteers To Help Preserve Heritage Sites

On 15th March 2023

In Heritage & Culture, News & Views, Volunteer Management

We currently work with several heritage organisations such as The Pankhurst Trust, The Whitworth Gallery, Manchester Museum and more! It’s important to manage your heritage volunteers efficiently as they play such a vital role in the preservation of heritage sites.

Why preserving heritage sites is necessary

Economic Importance: Heritage sites can drive tourism, providing economic benefits to the surrounding community. Heritage sites attract many visitors helping the organisations to run.

Environmental Value: Many heritage sites are also natural wonders, featuring ecosystems and landscapes. Preserving these sites helps to protect and show the importance of the environment.

Historical Significance: Heritage sites offer us a chance to look at the past, helping us to understand our history. These sites help create a memorable experience for visitors and allow people of all ages to learn about historic events.

The importance of heritage volunteers

Volunteers play a crucial role in preserving heritage sites for a variety of reasons.

They can help to promote heritage sites and increase public awareness. People can become ambassadors for heritage sites, providing tours and sharing information with visitors. This can help to raise awareness of the site’s history and can encourage more people to visit and support the site.

Many volunteers are passionate about history and cultural preservation and can use their skills, knowledge and expertise to help protect and preserve heritages. Volunteers can engage with communities, creating opportunities for people of all ages to learn about and appreciate history.

Volunteers can assist with the maintenance and upkeep of heritage sites. These sites require regular cleaning, repair, and restoration work, and the help of volunteers can be valuable in ensuring that these tasks are completed.

How can TeamKinetic help you manage your heritage volunteers

TeamKinetic can help make managing your volunteers easier within your heritage organisation. With our system, you can recruit more volunteers than ever before, fully customise your site and volunteer registration, communicate with your volunteers efficiently, and more!

Our current customers at The Whitworth Art Gallery have been using our system for over two years now. Fiona Cariss, Volunteer Manager at The Whitworth has said:

Quote from Fiona Carris, Volunteer Manager at The Whitworth. Reads "We chose TeamKinetic as they're a local organisation to our gallery and already supply the volunteer system for Manchester City Council's volunteering opportunities. The Whitworth is in partnership with Manchester Art Gallery, along with Manchester Museum, so it means in the future we could look at sharing our volunteers and opportunities across the partnership through TeamKinetic."

If you would like to try out our system for yourself you can start a FREE trial today or book a demo!

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! We’ll even send you a little thank you.

TeamTalk: Season 2, Episode 5 – Richard Evans And Danielle Hogan

By Alex Evans

On 13th March 2023

In News & Views, TeamTalk Podcast

Welcome back to Season 2 of our TeamTalk podcast. This season, we are talking to thought leaders, customers and stakeholders from the world of sport and physical exercise as we dive deeper into the world of volunteering.

We are also joined again by our co-host Imo Greatbatch. Imo is currently the Head of Volunteering at England Netball, she is passionate about volunteering in sports and is offering her knowledge and insight on the topic.

In this TeamTalk episode, we wanted to feature guests that explore inclusion and accessibility needs. We explore Danielle and Richard’s roles in England Netball and how we create that sense of belonging in the sport.

Listen to Season 2 Episode 5 here:

England Netball

England Netball is responsible for overseeing and promoting the sport of netball in England at all levels. They manage the England national netball team, which competes in international competitions such as the Netball World Cup and the Commonwealth Games. They also develop and implement policies and programs to grow participation in the sport at the grassroots level. This includes coaching, officiating, and volunteer development. England Netball also works with other organisations and partners to develop netball’s infrastructure and facilities, and to promote the sport to new audiences. They also have some role in managing the domestic leagues and competitions.

Danielle Hogan

Danielle is the diversity and belonging business partner for England Netball. Danielle’s background is in business psychology but she has always played Netball and been a big fan of basketball, her life has always been sports outside of any work.

Richard Evans

Richard is the strategic lead for disability at England Netball. Richard discusses how his parents played a big part in why he does what he does today as he had been brought up in a volunteering role. Richard had his first volunteering role at just 15 years old! He then carried this on all throughout university and onwards, all throughout his journey as a non-traditional physio Richard worked in a sport setting.

Thank you to Danielle and Richard for joining us on the podcast, and sharing their insightful knowledge! It was a pleasure to have you both as guests.

Useful links:

Episode link: https://open.spotify.com/episode/2VgnAGQ2auTPKqS3NJ4xoS

England Netball website: https://www.englandnetball.co.uk/

England Netball Twitter page: https://twitter.com/EnglandNetball

Imogen’s Linkedin Profile: https://www.linkedin.com/in/imogen-greatbatch-024b2823/

Danielle’s Linkedin Profile: https://www.linkedin.com/in/danielleshogan/

Richard’s Linkedin Profile: https://www.linkedin.com/in/richard-evans-81a425198/

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

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The Future Of Heritage Volunteering

By Alex Evans

On 8th March 2023

In Heritage & Culture, News & Views

The heritage sector is always growing and changing, in fact, heritage employment growth outstripped the rest of the UK economy, growing almost twice as fast between 2011 to 2019.

As mentioned in our previous blog post we discussed the challenges that heritages might face. These challenges could largely impact what volunteering in the future might look like.

What Will Volunteering Within The Heritage Sector Look Like In The Future?

Volunteer Strategy

In 2019 Heritage Volunteering Group conducted a survey into the scale, nature and impact of volunteering in the heritage sector. They found that 45% of heritage organisations in the UK depend on volunteer work that is essential to their operations but 40% of them don’t have a volunteering strategy. The future of volunteering is central to the report, only 8% of respondents felt they were very well-equipped to develop new models of volunteering, and 38% said that they were not.

The future of volunteering in the sector could mean an increase in organisations developing a volunteer strategy. A strategy helps people to understand your vision for volunteers and why you’re involving them. The report also raised questions about the lack of diversity and the roles volunteers play. Creating a volunteer strategy for your heritage organisation can help create a more inclusive and diverse environment within your organisation. Your strategy can answer questions such as ‘How will volunteering activity be inclusive?’

You can learn more about writing a volunteer strategy here.

A focus on wellbeing

New research shows the link between heritage volunteering and well-being. In 2020-2021 Historic England developed its strategy relating to how the historic environment could contribute to well-being.

Historic England gave the University of Lincoln the task to undertake the Heritage at Risk and Wellbeing (HARAW) project. The project has shown the ways in which heritage volunteering is associated with well-being and has recognised possible objectives for the future which will help people and our appreciation of the preserved past.

Some key themes were discovered during the project and they identified some objectives for the future. One of these is promoting the well-being impacts that heritage volunteering has. This indicates that in the future, organisations can promote the well-being impacts of heritage volunteering to attract and recruit a wider diverse range of volunteers.

Increase in volunteers

Due to the rising cost of living challenges, many members of the public could struggle with managing their disposable income. As heritage sites such as museums or art galleries are mostly free unless you want to donate to the organisation, the number of visitors at heritage sites may increase as it’s an affordable activity. Heritage organisations may need to adapt to this, it could be difficult to recruit more volunteers to meet the demand and it will be challenging to manage a larger group of people.

It would be beneficial to use TeamKinetic in these times to help you recruit, retain and realise the potential of your volunteers. You can start a FREE trial with us, here at TeamKinetic, through our website or book a demo with us!

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 G2, we’d really appreciate it! We’ll even send you a little thank you.

Integrated Care Systems Conference 2023 Offer T&Cs

By Alex Evans

On 7th March 2023

In Events and Conferences, News & Views, NHS

We’re excited to head to the Integrated Care Systems Conference 2023. The event, hosted by Govconnect, will be taking place at the Royal Society of Medicine in London. We’ll be heading down on the 23rd March to meet with people from across the sector and share the work TeamKinetic has been doing recently.

Find out more about Integrated Care Systems below.

As part of our attendance, we’re excited to be offering an exclusive offer to the attendees of the event. They can start using the TeamKinetic Volunteer Management System at a reduced rate! Attendees who take advantage of this limited-time offer will receive 25% off their first year.

We’ll be handing out flyers at the event from our exhibition stand, they have an exclusive code on them. All you need to do is follow these steps:

Head over to our website: https://teamkinetic.co.uk
Start a free trial
Input the code on the flyer in the ‘Promo code’ box

and that’s it!
If you’d rather not start a trial and instead talk directly to one of our team, you should find a chat box on the website, you’ll be put in direct contact with one of the team between 9am and 5pm, Monday to Friday.

You can find out more about the event over on the Govconnnect Events website.

Terms and Conditions apply. The code can be used from 23/03/2023 until expiry on 23/06/2023. The code can be used either when a trial is started or in correspondence with one of the TeamKinetic team. The offer gives you 25% off the fee of your first year using the system. The first year at 25% off offer starts from the date of your first payment, if the system is used after this period, standard charges will apply. Standard prices can be found on our website at https://teamkinetic.co.uk/pricing. This offer can only be used once. Offer only open to attendees of the Integrated Care Systems Conference 2023 using the code when making their trial site (proof of attendance may be required). Please direct any questions about this promotion to alex@teamkinetic.co.uk.

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 G2, we’d really appreciate it! We’ll even send you a little thank you.

How A Volunteer Management System Can Help Heritage Challenges

By Alex Evans

On 1st March 2023

In Heritage & Culture, News & Views, Volunteer Management

Heritage organisations rely heavily on the support of volunteers. According to research by Historic England, evidence from their primary research indicates that volunteers in the heritage sector play a key role in facilitating the operation of the sector.

The number of heritage volunteers has been increasing since 2012. Heritage volunteering has also gradually increased as a proportion of all volunteering, accounting for 5.7% in 2016. In the survey conducted by Historic England, organisations in the sector said that without the time and effort given freely by volunteers, the effectiveness of their activities and engagements would significantly decline.

Heritage organisations may face challenges in the upcoming months such as volunteer shortages. Due to the cost of living crisis, regular volunteers may choose to give up less of their time to help out as they now need to seek paid work to help them during the rising cost of living leading to the retention of volunteers being more difficult.

Heritage organisations could also need more volunteers due to a potential increase in visitors. Many people during this rising cost of living won’t have the disposable income to go out and pay for forms of entertainment such as the cinema or shows however the majority of heritage sector activities are free to attend. More volunteers may be needed to help with the increase in visitors.

It may be difficult to retain, recruit and manage your volunteers if you are an organisation that currently doesn’t use technology to manage your volunteers however TeamKinetic are here to help!

The Challenges

A volunteer management system can help volunteer managers collect contact information, preferences, and volunteer schedules and stay in touch with volunteers to ensure volunteers know exactly where to go to find the support they need.

Some challenges you might be facing are getting back on track after the pandemic and facing the challenges that the pandemic brought. Other current and upcoming challenges include the effects of the cost of living which could lead to difficulty in retaining volunteers. Volunteers might be reluctant to help out as regularly as they might need to replace the spare time they had to volunteer with paid work instead.

How can TeamKinetic help your heritage organisation face these challenges?

With our easy-to-use software, volunteers will be able to navigate the system smoothly, helping with retention. Volunteers may be put off if they have difficulty signing up for opportunities and may not sign up for them in the future if they can’t navigate the system efficiently. As volunteers are key for heritages to function effectively, retention is crucial.

By using TeamKinetic to manage your volunteers you can:

Save time

Volunteer management software can automate many time-consuming tasks such as volunteer registration, communication, and scheduling. This can save significant time for volunteer coordinators, allowing them to focus on other important tasks.

Improve communication with your volunteers

TeamKinetic allows communication between volunteers and coordinators to be quick and simple. A two-way communication system is beneficial for heritages looking for retention and improving the overall volunteer experience. Using technology to communicate with volunteers makes it easier and more convenient for both parties to connect, exchange information, and coordinate activities. With TeamKinetic you can keep in close contact with your volunteers at all times. There are a range of customisable automatic emails and other ways you can contact them using system notifications, or SMS texts. You can read more about communication with volunteers here.

Be more organised

The software can help coordinators keep track of volunteer data. Our opportunity management dashboard has all the tools you’ll need to schedule new sessions, place and move volunteers between sessions and lots more.

Improve your volunteer’s experience

Volunteer management software can make it easier for volunteers to sign up for opportunities, communicate with coordinators, and track their progress. This can help ensure that volunteers have a positive experience and are more likely to continue volunteering in the future.

Key Takeaways

Overall TeamKinetic can help heritage organisations better manage their volunteer programs, increase efficiency, and improve the volunteer experience.

If you’d like to look into developing a volunteer management system, why not start a FREE trial with us! Head over to our website and within minutes, you can be exploring your new volunteer management system.

With our system you can:

Recruit more volunteers than ever before.
Fully customise your site and volunteer registration.
Communicate with your volunteers easily, all in one place.
Motive and reward your volunteers with our achievement badges or create your own

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 G2, we’d really appreciate it! We’ll even send you a little thank you.

Flexible Volunteering – Why Is It More Appealing To Volunteers?

By Alex Evans

On 22nd February 2023

In Volunteer Management

What is flexible volunteering?

Flexible volunteering allows individuals to give their time and skills in a way that fits around their existing commitments and schedules. Unlike traditional volunteering, which may require commitment at a set time or specific days of the week, flexible volunteering offers more freedom and adaptability. It allows individuals to make a difference in their community and support causes they care about, without having to make significant sacrifices or changes to their existing routine.

Offering flexible volunteering roles may be off-putting for some volunteer managers as it is a lot harder to manage because there aren’t set roles and times. However, using TeamKinetic can make managing these roles easier.

Giving both options of flexible and set volunteering opportunities is more attractive to volunteers. People want the option of being able to decide what and how much they want to do, based on their situation in that particular week.

Why is flexible volunteering more attractive to volunteers?

Flexible volunteering is often more attractive as it allows volunteers to fit their volunteer work around their existing commitments and schedules. In a recent blog post by Rob Jackson, he says that people today want more flexible volunteering that fits around their availabilities & interests. It connects them to a larger sense of purpose and makes an impact. Also due to the current cost of living crisis and post-pandemic, these adjustable options are more appealing, organisations are more likely to engage volunteers if the volunteering opportunities are flexible. Below there are six reasons why flexible volunteering can be more attractive at this time.

Current circumstances: Due to the current cost of living crisis, flexible volunteering is more appealing. Volunteers can still complete voluntary work but will still have the spare time they need. This may be useful if volunteers need to do extra paid work in order to help them out during the rising cost of living.
Convenience: Many people have busy schedules and cannot commit to regular, fixed volunteering hours. Adaptable volunteering options allow them to contribute to a cause they care about in a way that works with their schedule and lifestyle.
Diverse opportunities: Adaptable volunteering often includes a wider range of activities, such as remote volunteering or micro-volunteering opportunities that can be completed in short periods of time.
Skill-based opportunities: Flexible volunteering often allows volunteers to use their specific skills and expertise in a way that fits with their interests and strengths.
Personal satisfaction: Volunteers who have the freedom to choose when and how they volunteer may feel more in control of their experience, leading to greater personal satisfaction and a sense of fulfilment.
Social impact: It allows organizations to tap into a wider pool of volunteers who may not be able to commit to traditional volunteering opportunities, leading to greater social impact and community engagement.

Overall, the flexibility of volunteering can be a win-win for both the volunteer and the organization, as it allows for a greater level of engagement and contribution from volunteers while meeting the needs of busy schedules and lifestyles. So if you are an organisation that is struggling to recruit and retain volunteers, maybe consider offering flexible opportunities to volunteers.

How to create flexible opportunities with TeamKinetic

At the end of adding an opportunity, you are given the choice to list your opportunity as a flexible or individual session. A flexible opportunity is when you need a volunteer for a certain role but it’s not always on the same date when it’s needed. Meaning you have the date you want the volunteering role to be completed but you are flexible about when the volunteer attends.

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! We’ll even send you a little thank you.

Effective Communication With Your Volunteers

By Alex Evans

On 15th February 2023

In TeamKinetic Features, Volunteer Management

Not only is communication crucial to enable you to build relationships with your volunteers but it also helps with retention. Contact with volunteers is vital for boosting their engagement, satisfaction, and overall effectiveness in supporting the organisation’s mission.

Why is communication important?

Maintaining motivation: Keeping in contact regularly helps volunteers feel valued and appreciated, which can increase their motivation and commitment to the organisation.
Building trust: Effective communication builds trust between the organisation and its volunteers, creating a positive and supportive environment.
Understanding expectations: Regular contact helps ensure that volunteers understand their roles and responsibilities, which can prevent confusion and mistakes.
Improving performance: Regular feedback and coaching through communication can help volunteers improve their skills and performance.
Resolving conflicts: Keeping in touch with volunteers provides an opportunity to address and resolve any conflicts or misunderstandings that may arise.
Promoting collaboration: Communication helps encourage community and collaboration among volunteers, encouraging them to work together towards common goals.

How can we help you to communicate with your volunteers?

Using technology to communicate with volunteers makes it easier and more convenient for both parties to connect, exchange information, and coordinate activities. This can save time and effort compared to traditional methods of communication, such as phone calls or in-person meetings.

With TeamKinetic you can keep in close contact with your volunteers at all times. There are a range of customisable automatic emails and other ways you can contact them using system notifications, or SMS texts.

By using SMS texts you can remind your volunteers if they have a session coming up, or other important reminders such as letting them know if their criminal check is due for renewal. There is also a higher chance of your volunteers seeing your text messages over email as not everyone checks their emails regularly. Using TeamKinetic to send SMS texts makes your life and the volunteer’s life a whole lot easier. It is also important that when contacting a volunteer it comes from a person rather than an anonymous call or message. That person could be a volunteer manager, who volunteers can trust and view as an expert.

Check out this video below for more information about using TeamKinetic to communicate with your volunteers.

Key Takeaways…

It is not always manageable to keep in close contact with your volunteers. With TeamKinetic you can automate your emails or texts so that you never forget to keep in close contact, this enables you to build relationships and trust with every one of your volunteers.

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! We’ll even send you a little thank you.

Engaging Gen Z Volunteers

By Alex Evans

On 8th February 2023

In News & Views, Volunteer Management

This week is National Student Volunteering Week so it only seems fitting to discuss Keeping Gen Z engaged as volunteers. Research by Oxfam reveals that Gen Z is the most generous in donating their time to charity, followed closely by Millennials.

Around 63% of respondents up to the age of 25 said they have volunteered for a charity in some way compared to 55% of Millennial respondents. The British Heart Foundation has also published research that shows that people aged between 16 and 24 are more likely to have volunteered for charities than any other age group.

Gen Z are keener to volunteer than other generations because they are very socially conscious and want to positively impact their communities. Volunteering allows them to contribute to a cause they believe in directly. Due to the decrease in volunteers because of Covid-19, older generations are not returning to volunteering. So how can we continue to recruit Gen Z and keep them engaged in volunteering?

Keeping Gen Z Engaged

Feedback

Gen Z values feedback. In a blog post by Volunteer Strategies, it was suggested that an effective strategy for keeping Gen Z engaged was providing them with frequent ongoing feedback. This eases the pressure of an end-of-year review for the volunteers and keeps them updated on how their performance is throughout the year. Gen Z wants to hear feedback on their performance and impact on the organisation as they want to make sure they are making a difference, they want their volunteer work to have meaning and to see the results of their efforts.

Technology

Utilising technology can keep Gen Z engaged, as Gen Z are tech savvy they prefer using technology for communicating. When informing them about their roles, you can contact them using our system. With TeamKinetic you can use automated emails, SMS texts and system notifications to always keep in close contact with your volunteers.

Social Connections

Gen Z volunteers may be more engaged knowing that they will be making friends from their volunteering efforts. Volunteering provides opportunities to meet new people and form relationships with those who share similar interests and values. It’s less daunting going into doing something you’ve not done before knowing you’ll make friends whilst doing it. Alternatively, you could promote to Gen Z volunteers that they can bring their friends along too, this way they aren’t doing it alone and will feel more comfortable.

Making A Difference

Gen Z are very socially conscious and want to make a positive impact in their communities and know that they are directly making a difference. Volunteering allows them to contribute to a cause they believe in directly. Gen Z wants their volunteer work to have meaning and impact so allow your volunteers to see the results of their efforts. Highlight the impact that their volunteer work will have and how it will help others.

Key Takeaways…

Due to the decrease in volunteers because of Covid-19, older generations are not returning to their volunteer roles. Therefore we need younger generations such as Gen Z to be fully engaged in volunteering to better retain them. By providing feedback, utilising technology and emphasising the impact they are making on the organisation they can become better engaged.

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! We’ll even send you a little thank you.

Page 11 of 56

Why preserving heritage sites is necessary

The importance of heritage volunteers

How can TeamKinetic help you manage your heritage volunteers

England Netball

Danielle Hogan

Richard Evans

Useful links:

What Will Volunteering Within The Heritage Sector Look Like In The Future?

Volunteer Strategy

A focus on wellbeing

Increase in volunteers

The Challenges

How can TeamKinetic help your heritage organisation face these challenges?

By using TeamKinetic to manage your volunteers you can:

Save time

Improve communication with your volunteers

Be more organised

Improve your volunteer’s experience

Key Takeaways

What is flexible volunteering?

Why is flexible volunteering more attractive to volunteers?

How to create flexible opportunities with TeamKinetic

Why is communication important?

How can we help you to communicate with your volunteers?

Key Takeaways…

Keeping Gen Z Engaged

Feedback

Technology

Social Connections

Making A Difference

Key Takeaways…

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