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TeamTalk: Season 3, Episode 4 – Katherine Perrin

On 29th August 2024

Welcome back to Season 3 of our TeamTalk Podcast! This season, we are talking to thought leaders, customers and stakeholders from the world of volunteer management as we dive deeper into the world of volunteering.

In this TeamTalk episode, we were joined by Katherine Perrin. Katherine is a Social Impact Consultant specialising in LEGO®SeriousPlay® – a unique, tactile way of exploring topics. The method encourages people to use metaphor – using the LEGO bricks to build models that represent their thoughts and ideas.

Katherine’s Journey

How do you transform a career from local government service to making a significant impact in the voluntary sector? Katherine Perrin, our guest for episode four, shares her “squiggly path” career journey. From working in local government to becoming a certified coach, facilitator, and freelance social impact consultant.

Katherine recalls her experiences at a council for voluntary service and a hospice, revealing the profound personal growth and life-changing insights gained from these roles. Discover how she navigated the bold transition to self-employment, balancing purpose and passion while overcoming challenges.

Katherine also dives into her experience balancing a fulfilling career and personal life within the voluntary sector. We discuss the practicalities of maintaining a work-life balance in a field driven by passion, the struggle against imposter syndrome, and the importance of recognising your own value.

Katherine sheds light on the appeal of self-employment, from the flexibility it offers to the opportunities for collaboration with multiple organisations. In addition, she explains what it truly means to be a coach and facilitator in today’s ever-evolving job landscape as well as the satisfaction derived from witnessing client growth.

In the episode, we unravel the complexities of measuring social impact and how innovative methodologies, like LEGO Serious Play, are transforming discussions and problem-solving sessions.

Katherine highlights the importance of transparent social impact measurement and the challenges faced by organisations in this space. We also touch on the pressing issues of funding and sustainability within the voluntary sector, emphasising the necessity for long-term, trust-based funding relationships.

Listen Now

Listen now to a conversation that not only provides inspiration, but delivers practical insights into the world of social impact and professional coaching.

Catch the episode on Spotify and all other podcast streaming platforms:

Enjoyed this episode? Why not listen to more TeamTalk? You can find more episodes including chats with Rob Jackson, AVM and Sport England wherever you get your podcasts.

If you have any topic or guest requests let us know!

You can find TeamKinetic on social media:

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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.

TeamKinetic 2024 Conference

By Alex Evans

On 27th August 2024

In Events and Conferences, News & Views

The TeamKinetic Conference will take place on Wednesday the 25th September. We’ll be bringing together voices from across the third sector to discuss the latest hot topics from the world of volunteer management. You can get tickets now for just £10!

We have a great lineup of speakers for you, just click any name to find out more!

Dr Helen Timbrell: People and Organisational Development Consultant

Katherine Perrin: Social Impact Consultant

Liverpool City Region Panel

Janet Lewis-Jones: Investing in Volunteers Assessor

Claire Feeney: Senior Web Analyst at EMCode

Gethyn Williams: Non-Profit Development

The Agenda

(Subject to change)

Speakers

Dr Helen Timbrell

People and Organisational Development Consultant

The challenges we experience when looking to grow and develop volunteering within organisations are rarely “just” about volunteering, and yet often colleagues and leaders look to us as volunteering teams to “solve” these wider problems. In this session, Helen will reflect on her experience working in and consulting with organisations, and explore how we might get better at identifying and working through the wider system issues that might get in our way. Helen will advocate for volunteering leaders to take an organisational development perspective to their work and share some of the advantages of doing so.

Helen is a consultant, researcher and coach with a specialisation in strategic volunteering development and supporting volunteering leaders. Clients include Citizens Advice, Cats Protection, Scouts Association, Dogs Trust and SSAFA. Helen previously held the roles of Director of People and Organisational Development at Samaritans and Versus Arthritis. Prior to this, she was Director of Volunteering and Participation at the National Trust.

Helen’s PhD explored geographical variations in volunteering. In 2020 she published “What the bloody hell are you doing here?” research exploring the experiences of Black, Asian and Minority Ethnic volunteers in four organisations. She has an MBA, is a chartered member of the CIPD and holds an MSc in Coaching and Behavioural Change.

Find out more on Helen’s website and connect with her on LinkedIn.

Katherine Perrin

Social Impact Consultant

LEGO®SeriousPlay® is a unique, tactile way of exploring topics. The method encourages people to use metaphor – using the LEGO® bricks to build models that represent their thoughts and ideas. Highly accessible, democratic and gently playful, it’s a surprisingly powerful way to facilitate deep conversations and gain new insights on key issues. Its flexibility is one of its greatest strengths – you can use it for team-building and personal exploration, through to vision and values, strategy and impact.

Katherine brings nearly 15 years of charity management experience across corporate projects and operational/senior management roles (including volunteer management). She has a passion for supporting individuals and organisations to have better conversations and deliver greater impact. Her certification in the LEGO®SeriousPlay® method is the perfect complement to her wider work in facilitation, as well as being an Action Learning Set lead, mentor and certified coach in the for-social-good space.

Visit Katherine’s website, and connect with her on LinkedIn.

You can also listen to the podcast episode we recorded with her here!

Liverpool City Region Panel

Chris will host an exciting panel discussion with various key figures from our partnership across the Liverpool City Region. Claire Redford-Kerr and Lauren Jones will join us to discuss the impact of technology in enhancing collaboration between volunteer centres across Liverpool.

The Liverpool City Region Volunteering Orbit, powered by TeamKinetic, is a central place to showcase voluntary opportunities across the LCR, managed by the Volunteer Centres across Halton & St Helens, Knowsley, Liverpool, Sefton and Wirral.

Lauren Jones

Lauren serves as the Volunteer Centre Coordinator at Volunteer Centre Sefton (VCS). The Centre plays a crucial role in supporting the sector with all aspects of volunteering and collaborates closely with partners and other CVS organisations across the Liverpool City Region to promote and sustain volunteering in the area.

With over twelve years of professional experience in the sector, primarily as a Volunteer Coordinator, Lauren has been in her current role for two years. She is passionate about assisting organisations with volunteer infrastructure and is dedicated to continually enhancing the Centre’s offerings. On a personal level, Lauren has been involved in various forms of volunteering and fundraising since childhood. She currently volunteers with her Miniature Shetland therapy pony, Squirrel.

Claire Redford-Kerr

Claire is the Place-based Lead for Halton at Halton & St Helens Voluntary and Community Action. She leads on volunteering across the organisation, providing guidance and support to staff involved in place-based project delivery. Claire plays a key role in shaping local priorities by serving on strategic boards, partnerships, and networks within the Halton area.

Janet Lewis-Jones

Investing in Volunteers Assessor

Janet’s session will explore the importance of enhancing volunteers’ experiences through good practice. It will look at everything, from recruitment to exit, using the Investing in Volunteers framework and accreditation journey.

Investing in Volunteers (IiV) is the quality standard for all volunteer-involving organisations. It aims to improve the quality of the volunteering experience and to ensure organisations acknowledge the contribution made by volunteers.

IiV is a development tool that uses a quality framework to demonstrate best practice in volunteer involvement and management. The process will support you and your organisation with the development of your volunteer programme and highlight the effectiveness of your work with volunteers.

Details of how you can go through the accredited journey as well as information on the benefits of achieving IiV status can be found at Home – Investing in Volunteers

Janet Lewis-Jones has extensive experience in the criminal justice sector and with non-profit organisations. She worked briefly as a psychologist in the prison service before spending nearly two decades with a national charity, where she became the National Director of Operations, managing contracts worth over £12 million, 450 staff, and 2000 volunteers.

Since becoming a freelancer in 2004, Janet has advised and assessed various quality standards for not-for-profit organisations. She is a Registered Assessor for the matrix Standard, an Assessor and Lead Assessor for the Investing in Volunteers Standard, and has worked with the Volunteer Centre Quality Assurance (VCQA) and UK Community Foundations (UKCF) quality standards. Janet also holds an SFEDI-accredited Level 5 Certificate in assessment processes and practices.

Claire Feeney

Senior Web Analyst at EM Code

Claire will present an introductory session on Google Analytics 4 (GA4), focusing on how organisations and charities can leverage GA4 to gain deeper insights into volunteer engagement, identify popular content, and collect actionable data. This session is designed to equip volunteer managers with the knowledge needed to enhance their strategies and improve their overall volunteer management through insight leveraged from GA4.

Addressing the current challenges facing the third sector, including declining donations and volunteer numbers, Claire will help audiences to understand how GA4 can be used to gather critical data that can inform recruitment and engagement efforts.

Find out more about EMCode.

Gethyn Williams

Non-Profit Development

TeamKinetic’s new Digital in Volunteering Toolkit, developed with AVM members, is about to be launched. In this session, you’ll get an advanced look at its content and structure, as well as an overview of the key insights and points of learning for Volunteer Managers gained through its production. The purpose of the toolkit is to help Volunteer Managers adopt the digital tools and approaches that will best serve their needs, supporting a ‘growth mindset’ powered by digital innovation.

Gethyn provides strategic and operational support services to charities and non-profit organisations, helping them tackle challenges in order to grow and thrive. He has twenty years experience across the UK non-profit sector.

Find out more about Gethyn on his website, and connect with him on LinkedIn.

Stay tuned for more information regarding our speakers and agenda! But in the meantime..

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.

TeamKinetic 2.5.1 Minor Release

By Rolf Herbert

On 19th August 2024

In Press Releases, TeamKinetic Features, Technical Updates

The TeamKinetic 2.5.1 Minor Release is complete and some of you will have already spotted the new stuff!

Reporting Page Speed Improvements

The reporting page is grabbing ever more data for more reports over longer periods. We’d already noticed some slowdowns and some customers had opened support tickets to report load time of 10 plus seconds. We needed to fix that!

We have rewritten some of the queries that fetch the data to make them snappier
Delayed the fetching of some data until you open the relevant section
Fetched the all time and date limited stats after the page has loaded so it won’t block you looking at other reports

It looks like this when you first load the page and the stats will drop in shortly.

The page will load in less than 4 seconds now for even our largest data customers.

New Help and Info for the Custom App

For our admins that have got their own branded app in the Play and iOS stores, we have added a few areas to help them manage the new app.

In the Super Admin > Setup > Custom App section you’ll find all the information you need to explore and communicate to your users about your new all. It contains QR codes, links to the app and a large version of your app icon.

If you want to find out how many people are using the app, registering via the app and joining sessions via the app we’ve got you covered with a new section in the reporting page.

The little tooltips will let you know how each stat is calculated and what it means and the figures are limited to the dates you choose on the reporting page.

Mobile App Download Prompts

We’ve now reinstigated the screen overlay prompts for volunteers who access their dashboard on a small screen to download the mobile app.

If you have switched up to the custom branded app, then the links and QR Codes adjust accordingly.

There is also a permanent notification in the footer, reminding users they can use the native mobile app.

Improved Volunteer Password Reset

After working through the process with the Wildlife Trust (thanks Jake) that had lot of volunteers to import and on-board, we spotted a few places where the process wasn’t as clear and simple as it could be, so we’ve made these changes

A clear message if the reset token (from an old email) a volunteer is trying to use is expired or bad. This appears before they try to reset their password; it used to appear afterwards and so some volunteers missed it and thought they had reset their password successfully.
Suppose a volunteer resets multiple times in a short period and the existing token is still valid. In that case, the token is not reset and a new email is sent with the same token as included in previous emails. This stops that reset loop of doom where a volunteer uses the reset link and an email is sent, but they don’t receive the email quickly enough, or hit the reset link again by accident. This would result in multiple emails with different reset tokens only the latest of which would work.
If a reset token is not valid the volunteer has only the option of sending the reset email again, so if they miss the fail message they can’t try to login, which would be frustrating as it wouldn’t work yet
Changed the wording of some of the messaging to make it clearer

All the changes together lead to a more intuitive process and we’ve been logging the outcomes for a while and we are getting far fewer issues.

Email Notification of Deleted Volunteer

Volunteers can remove themselves from your database, an important ability to fulfil your GDPR responsibilities. Previously, although the hours were anonymised and retained, the admins would have no idea that a volunteer had removed themselves.

We’ve added an email notification to the main admin which will tell them which volunteer and email address has been removed.

This clears the path to a future update that will allow admins to pick the level of detail they wish to retain when a volunteer is removed. Keep an eye out for that update.

Volunteer Registration Form Improvements

We’ve added some new messaging and prompts to aid volunteers in completing the location section, which has been an issue for some.

Volunteers cannot proceed when entering a UK postcode until they have hit the search button and selected an address from those available.

This will help those volunteers who find they cannot proceed but don’t know why.

Session Number Filter

Added a session number filter to the volunteer search so you can filter your volunteers by the number of sessions they have joined in addition to the existing filters for number of opportunities and hours logged.

Length of Service Added to Volunteer Search

Just a little something that might help, next to the registration date for volunteers is a year and months since registration figure so you can quickly see how long they have been volunteering.

New Volunteer Search Filters

You can now filter by;

volunteers that have never logged in (imported but not logged in)
volunteers awaiting parental consent (remember you can resend the parental consent email and update the parental email from the volunteer management page)
Expiry date of qualifications
Date a volunteer last applied for an opportunity

We add filters to this area regularly so it is always worth a quick scan down the filter list occassionally.

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 might even send you a little thank you.

Accessibility Statement

By Rolf Herbert

On 15th August 2024

In TeamKinetic Best Practice, Technical Updates

Our Commitment to Accessibility

At TeamKinetic, we are committed to ensuring our software platform is accessible to all users, regardless of their abilities or disabilities. We strive to follow best practices and standards to provide an inclusive user experience that caters to diverse needs.

Accessibility Features

We have implemented several features on our website to enhance accessibility, including but not limited to:

Keyboard Navigation: Users can navigate through the website using a keyboard, without the need for a mouse.
Screen Reader Compatibility: Our content is designed to be compatible with screen reading software, enabling visually impaired users to access information.
Text Alternatives: We provide text alternatives for non-text content to ensure that all users can understand the information presented.
Consistent Layout: Our website follows a consistent layout and design to facilitate ease of use and navigation.

Limitations and Areas for Improvement

Despite our best efforts, there may be instances where certain aspects of the website are not fully accessible. This may occur due to:

Third-Party Integrations: Some sections of our website may include third-party tools or plugins that we do not have full control over. These may not meet our accessibility standards.
Technological Constraints: Rapid technological changes may sometimes present challenges that affect our ability to provide fully accessible experiences.
Design Trade-offs: Balancing aesthetic design and functionality can occasionally impact the accessibility of certain elements.

Feedback and Assistance

We value feedback from our users and continually seek to improve the accessibility of our website. If you encounter any accessibility barriers or have suggestions for improvement, contact us at info@teamkinetic.co.uk.

Contact Us

For any assistance or to report an accessibility issue, please reach out to our support team:

Email: info@teamkinetic.co.uk

We appreciate your patience and understanding as we work to improve the accessibility of our platform. Thank you for helping us create a more inclusive environment for all users.

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.

Data Galore: Linking TeamKinetic to Google Analytics

By Alex Evans

On 24th July 2024

In Application Features and Tutorials, TeamKinetic Features

Google Analytics is a service that allows you to track and report on your website traffic. By linking your TeamKinetic system to Google Analytics, you can gain a deeper understanding of your audience and how they interact with your content.

So how do you link TeamKinetic to Google Analytics?

We’ve created this handy guide on how to link your TK site to Google Analytics. The key steps:

Create a Google Analytics account (if you don’t have one already)
Set up a new property
Add your website (data stream)
Grab the tracking code
Open a support ticket with the code and we’ll do the rest!
Give it time to collect the data

Download the guide below:

Setting Up Google Analytics 4 (GA4) for Your WebsiteDownload

The Key Metrics you should be tracking

Once you’re all set up, there are a load of things you may want to start tracking. We’ve outlined some key metrics to track.

Site Visitors

Site visitors, or users, are the individuals who visit your website. Monitoring the number of visitors helps you understand the reach of your site and track growth over time.

Where to Find It

In your GA4 dashboard, go to the Reports → Life cycle → Acquisition → Overview. Here, you can view metrics such as the total number of users, new users, and active number of users in the past 30 minutes.

Why It’s Important

Knowing how many people visit your site can help you gauge the effectiveness of your outreach efforts and identify trends in your traffic.

Traffic Sources

Traffic sources tell you where your visitors are coming from. This could be through search engines, direct visits, social media, or referral links from other websites.

Where to Find It

Navigate to the Reports → Life cycle → Acquisition → Traffic Acquisition. Here, you’ll see a breakdown of traffic sources, including organic search, direct, social, and referral.

Why It’s Important

Understanding where your traffic comes from helps you identify which channels are most effective in driving visitors to your site. This can inform your marketing strategies and help you allocate resources more effectively.

Engagement Rates

Engagement rates provide insights into how users interact with your site. Key engagement metrics include bounce rate, average session duration, and pages per session.

Where to Find It

In the Reports → Life cycle → Engagement → Overview. Look at metrics like the engagement rate, average engagement time per session, and the number of engaged sessions per user.

Why It’s Important

High engagement rates indicate that visitors find your content valuable and are spending more time on your site. This can lead to increased volunteer sign-ups and better retention.

You can even see which pages are most popular on your site by going to Reports → Life cycle → Engagement → Pages and screens

Go forth and track!

By tracking these key metrics in Google Analytics, you can gain valuable insights into your website’s performance and make data-driven decisions to enhance your volunteer management efforts.

We hope this guide helps you get started with Google Analytics and empowers you to take your volunteer management programme to the next level.

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 3, Episode 3 – Rosie Wylie

By Alex Evans

On 11th July 2024

In News & Views, TeamTalk Podcast

In this TeamTalk episode, we were joined by Rosie Wylie. Rosie serves as the National Volunteering and Community Development Manager at Historic Environment Scotland and is a Trustee for Volunteer Scotland. She is also an independent assessor for the UK-wide Investing in Volunteers quality assurance award and Vice Chair of the Make Your Mark in Volunteering Campaign Group.

At Historic Environment Scotland, Rosie oversees the national volunteer programme and provides volunteer development support for the heritage sector. Her expertise includes community engagement and development, national engagement programme design, collaborative project delivery, and the organisation of digital and hybrid events and conferences.

Rosie’s Journey

In this episode, Rosie Wylie shares her journey into volunteering, which began at 18 when a six-month trip to Australia turned into a five-year stay. This period of her life boosted her confidence and helped her discover the importance of volunteering.

Returning to Scotland, Rosie continued exploring various career paths through volunteering, highlighting the importance of supportive volunteer coordinators in shaping volunteer experiences and career guidance.

Chris, Imo and Rosie discuss the many challenges faced by volunteer coordinators. The episode also focuses on the “Make Your Mark” campaign, aimed at increasing volunteer diversity in Scotland’s heritage sector. The campaign’s goals include upskilling volunteer managers, developing inclusion tools, and fostering community engagement.

Looking ahead, Rosie highlights the growing demand for workshops and the need for cross-sector knowledge sharing and alignment with the Volunteer Scotland action plan. Key challenges include connecting with volunteers, understanding their expectations, and addressing participation barriers. Collaboration and relationship-building are essential for providing excellent volunteer experiences and adapting to post-pandemic expectations, with ongoing efforts to sustain and grow the “Make Your Mark” initiative and achieve accreditation through Investing in Volunteers.

Listen Now

Listen now on Spotify and all other podcast streaming platforms:

Enjoyed this episode? Why not listen to more TeamTalk? You can find more episodes including chats with Rob Jackson, AVM and Sport England wherever you get your podcasts.

If you have any topic or guest requests let us know!

You can find TeamKinetic on social media:

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.

Tobi Johnson, Volunteer Engagement Extraordinaire

By Alex Evans

On 24th June 2024

In News & Views

Earlier this month, we helped facilitate an event that brought Tobi Johnson to the UK.

Now, if you don’t know who Tobi Johnson is, you should get to know. Especially if you work with volunteers.

Tobi is an internationally sought-after expert, consultant, and master trainer in volunteer management and engagement. She is known for her modern thought leadership, highly practical evidence-based strategies, and innovative, “big hat” thinking around engaging, supporting, and acknowledging the work of volunteers.

Tobi’s work has resulted in the development of Tobi Johnson & Associates, a consulting firm, and VolunteerPro, an online training and networking community for volunteer managers. They can offer some amazing resources to anyone working with volunteers so be sure to check them out!

The Event

‘Beyond The Big Help Out: How to Recruit Your Volunteer Dream Team with a Solid Plan for Action’

We were so excited to sponsor this event, hosted by AVM. We were even happier when it turned out that Manchester Metropolitan University were supporting it, meaning we didn’t have to travel very far!

Chris Martin (*Director of TeamKinetic*), Ruth Leonard (*Chair of AVM*)

During the workshop, Tobi challenged pre-existing ideas of what a good volunteer strategy looks like. Building an environment that gives volunteers a sense of connection and community while providing clarity, respite and equity is vital. If someone can find trust, meaning and purpose in the work they’re doing, they are likely to stay engaged and volunteer for longer.

Thanks to Tobi, all attendees were able to create volunteer personas to help reshape the way they create and advertise volunteering opportunities. These personas were based on psychographic information rather than demographics.

Of course, the demographics matter, but volunteering is all about emotional motivations. Finding out why your volunteers do it helps you create opportunities that will be fulfilling for them – you’re giving them a sense of trust, meaning and purpose.

Based on this, Tobi helped everyone build better core messaging, focusing on what’s in it for the volunteers and what the effect of their actions will be. This involved building a 6-step formula to build messaging that engages and compels audiences to take action.

Need help with your volunteer management?

Now, we can’t give away all of Tobi’s tips! But we hope this taster is enough for you to go and find out more about what Tobi can offer to help you boost your volunteer management. However, we also have a few tips of our own to offer, see our blogs below for more:

Review and Refresh your Volunteer Management

A Fresh Look at Digital in Volunteer Management

Inclusivity is a Necessity: Enabling Volunteers with Disabilities

How You Can Measure Volunteer Impact

Prioritising Volunteer Feedback