TeamKinetic Features Archives

Tag: TeamKinetic Features

Steering Group Recap: 22/06/2021

On 8th July 2021

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Next up we spoke about communications within the system.

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

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

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

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

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

We followed this up with a question surrounding searching.

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

We then moved onto ‘Logging Hours and Feedback.’

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Our polls then moved onto the super admin settings.

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

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

Our final 2 polls were questions on referencing and references.

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

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

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

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

TeamKinetic 2 Release Notes

By Rolf Herbert

On 27th May 2021

In Press Releases, TeamKinetic Features, Technical Updates

The 2021 Q2 major release for TeamKinetic is now approaching our beta test phase where we invite and encourage all our users to have a poke around!

It’s a full jump to Version 2 as we have totally updated the volunteer application with the latest .NET platform (admin and provider to come), have introduced some new features and done some major work to align the design and feel across the whole application. We’ve also got some brand new native apps for android and iOS that will be out a few weeks after the desktop release.

Here are some of the highlights for this major release milestone.

Volunteer Roles

Many of our larger customers, and those with greater governance requirements will get alot from this new feature. It’s a bit like super charged APPLY FIRST feature!

A role is a set of steps that must be completed before a volunteer is approved on an opportunity. Super admins define the role, which is organised around four steps, each with as many (or no) tasks as you require. Each role has its own name, description, and a spot to add some information that is emailed to the volunteer when they first apply for a role.

Roles are applied to one or more opportunities, and once a volunteer has completed all steps on a role they can join any opportunity which requires that matching role, once they have satisfied any other pre-requisites to joining.

For example; if a volunteer joins a litter picking opportunity which has a role called ‘basic role’ then they will be required to jump through a number of onboarding steps as defined by the ROLE. But once they have done this they can go onto join any other opportunity which is also linked to the ‘basic role steps’ and it will not require them to go through the steps again (as they have already completed those role steps).

Each task can be flagged as actionable by the volunteer or administrator, they can complete that task from their dashboard when they have satisfied the requirements.

Administrators are alerted when a volunteer joins an opportunity requiring a ROLE, they are alerted via the actions tab on their main landing page.

The administrator can then monitor and record the volunteers progress through each of the steps within the ROLE, through to completion.

Each role task can be started by an admin, then completed and a full history log is maintained and visible at all times.

An application can be approved once all the tasks have been completed, but there is no enforced order to task completion.

When a volunteer is approved on the ROLE they are emailed (custom emails available of course) and shown a list of corresponding opportunities that they are now eligible to join.

Additionally, if a opportunity has its own APPLY FIRST status and a role requirement, then once the volunteer is approved for the role they are automatically placed in the applicants queue for that opportunity, they wont have to do anything else.

New Scheduling Features

We’ve added a brand new feature for adding volunteers to sessions. You can now select any number of volunteers and add or remove them from any number of sessions in one hit!

You can select from the current joined volunteer list, or search for new volunteers.

It’s super simple but much quicker than moving them individually (still available).

We’ve also re-designed our day schedule report so it’s much easier to see what is going on day by day.

You can still view any period and restrict it to certain opportunities or events, but now you’ll see every day in that period in a calendar like display.

You get the day, all the opps that have sessions on that day, how full the session is (full sessions are highlighted) and can click through to view a list of volunteers on that session.

You’ll be able to see empty days and poorly subscribed sessions really easily, then click through and start adding volunteers using the new multi-add feature we just introduced!

Re-Designed Applicants Dashboard

Applicants are now clearly divided into new, successful, and denied. You can instantly approve or deny a new applicant and then revert that decision and mark them as newly approved. This was something that proved popular in the roadmap voting.

The on-screen messaging and alerts have been improved and standardised so you’ll always know what’s happening.

Modern Front Page

Although our existing front page allows for a lot of customisation, many of our customers have been asking for a simpler cleaner look to their front page.

So we’ve have added a new modern layout that will be the default for all new customers. It’s got much simpler settings, just a single image and a message box, to worry about, looks great on all screen sizes, and gets right to the point so volunteers can login and register quickly.

Multiple Provider Accounts

This is a useful little feature for when there are multiple individuals at an organisation that all need to login as providers as manage their opportunities, but dont want to share login details.

Providers can now create and manage their own user list without any intervention required from the admins or super admins. Just add a name, email address and password and they can go ahead and login.

Multiple Meetings and New Meeting Features

Previously a volunteer could only have one active meeting at a time, now you can book and manage as many meetings as you like for volunteers.

Additionally we have added the ability to specify if the meeting is to be virtual, and if so, to add the link to the virtual meeting, or if not the location of a face to face meeting. You can also add a custom message which gets sent along with the normal custom email for new meetings, so you can let them know any extra information they need.

We’ve also tidied up the induction section of a volunteer manage dashboard and added the meeting details there. From here you get a link back to manage meetings and can also add a new meeting for the volunteer right from their dashboard.

Opportunity Badges

These are linked to opportunities showing that the opportunity is linked to a specific award scheme.

Example: If logged hours on the opportunity can go towards a volunteers Duke of Edinburgh Award, then they might attach it to the ‘DofE Opportunity Badge’.

Just add a name, description, and a badge image to create your opportunity badges. These can then be added to your opportunities, filtered on in the search and are displayed to the volunteers.

Great for quickly indicating to your volunteers what sort of opportunity its likely to be.

Gender List Editable in Alt Language

For those of you that take advantage of our alt language feature and translations (and if you don’t..why not?!) you can now view and edit your gender lists in your chosen alt language.

These are instantly reflected on the registration pages..which brings us to…

New Volunteer Registration

Volunteers begin their registration either by providing an email address, or by registering with Google or Facebook.

If they use and email address they will receive an email with a special link to confirm their email address and continue with their registration.

This will cut down drastically the number of bogus registrations and also reduces the initial inertia for registration. This first step of registration is recorded and we’ll be able to get some great insight into what is preventing volunteers from completing their registration.

We have also worked on the registration page itself; made it shorter, improved the location section, and added more on-screen help.

We think it’s a definite improvement and will hopefully lead to a higher rate of successful registrations.

New Search Page

The public search page is now more compact and the events have been moved to the right so they don’t obscure the results.

When viewed on smaller screens the layout adjusts accordingly so events are still visible.

Opportunity Images

You might have noticed in the screenshot for the search page that we now support adding images to opportunities!

We know from our experience that this has to be quick and painless or providers just don’t bother. So we’ve put in place a number of features to try to make this easy for providers.

Images are mandatory for opportunities, you cant add your first opportunity without uploading at least one image
You can select from your previous images, so once you have one you don’t have to keep uploading
When creating an opp, it will default to your last used image

ABOVE: Admin/Providers view when creating opportunity

ABOVE: Volunteer view of opportunity with image

It really couldn’t be easier! These images are responsive and will adjust in height and width to cope with any sized screen.

Everything Else

Multiple groups are selectable from the bulk email screens
Can add files to the private notes section
Course management improved
More admin options available
More opportunity sharing data available along with suggestions of other organisations you might want to join forces with
Volunteers can see how many slots are available in each session before they join
Induction questions are now sortable
New report showing the ethnicity breakdown of active volunteers
New opportunity search filters
The usual 100’s of small fixes and improvements

Should I Be Using SMS Text Messages?

By Chris Martin

On 18th March 2021

In TeamKinetic Features, Volunteer Management

Yes, yes and yes. That is the first thing you see when you Google ‘Should I be using SMS text messages when managing volunteers?’. And the research isn’t wrong, using texts as a form of communication to your volunteers is incredibly beneficial. Not only does it improve communication, but it can also increase engagement and volunteer return rates. And let’s not forget the speedy responses that come from sending text messages, perfect for those time-sensitive situations.
However, the one thing you don’t really see when you Google this question is how beneficial SMS texts are from someone who is currently using them.

This is where we come in. If you are considering using SMS text messages but are still a bit unsure, hear from Claire at Halton and St Helens Volunteer Centre about her personal experiences using them.

Halton and St Helen’s Volunteer Centre

First, a little bit of background. Halton and St Helens is an organisation that provides advice, information and development support to voluntary, community, non-for-profit, faith organisations and volunteers in the Boroughs of St Helens and Halton. Here, Claire spoke to us about her experiences using SMS text messages in her TeamKinetic system.

1) When did you start using the SMS text message feature?

So, we started to use the text message feature fairly early on into the first lockdown of the pandemic. It was also around the same time that we first launched our TeamKinetic portal.

In addition to this, it was around March/April that we had quite a substantial funding grant come through, which allowed us to buy a great big text bundle. And I already knew of the texts and how they worked from the work we have done with TeamKinetic before.

2) How do you use your text messages?

Initially, we used text messages for our volunteers who were supporting local residents during the pandemic with the community tasks. We would use the function to send a text to show they are a verified volunteer for us, this was pre the ID cards. It was a quick and easy way for us to give them something that was mobile that they could show the person they were working for that they were a verified volunteer.

When the ID cards came into play on the community task dashboard, we started to use the texts to message our ‘Street Champions’ about ongoing tasks that hadn’t been picked up that needed to be done. I’d say that is the main way we used them now.

3) Do you find the SMS text messaging feature helpful in communicating to and engaging volunteers?

Yes, definitely. Between that and emails, we can have more of an impact in terms of communicating straight away with volunteers. And it’s that instant impact that is important for us particularly when there is an urgency in terms of volunteer support.

Recently we have also used them with our vaccination volunteers. For example, when volunteers have dropped shifts and we have then asked other volunteers to quickly log in and see if they can pick up a shift. So, that’s been really helpful as we’ve now had full commitment and maximum volunteers throughout our vaccination programme which is great.

4) How have you benefited from the SMS text message feature compared to a time when you didn’t use them?

For me, it’s just an added bonus in terms of being able to communicate quite directly with that we’re not always in connection with and we don’t see physically. It wouldn’t even matter that much when we’re back into the ‘new normal’ after COVID-19 and we do see people on a regular basis. This is because the text messages would still be a massive benefit in terms of that quick turn around and communication with volunteer around shift patterns etc.

For example, we have worked with the TeamKinetic portal for years at Warrington Hospital, and we have never used the text message feature with them. This is mainly because we have never had the funding to be able to do that. But, again with some added funds, we have been able to out a little bit of a bundle on there too. So, we have now used it for when we have needed to contact our away finders, when there’s been an urgent need for people to support the vaccination centre, or when we’ve needed a quick turnaround on support. I think we could probably do that again going forwards, even when we start to bring our volunteers back, it will be a great tool.

We also use them differently in the Hospital in terms of the communication that we do in Halton and St Helens through the Volunteer Centre. So, with the Hospital it’s linked directly to a phone number which helps that two-way communication. With the Volunteer Centre, we actually just link it to a name so they understand it’s just from us and there’s no response from that.

5) What would you say to another organisation that is considering using the SMS text message feature but is still unsure?

For me, it’s a great way of quickly communicating and getting action from volunteers very quickly too. Particularly if you have got an event on for example or you are providing urgent response support; it’s a great way of supporting that quick action of volunteers to get engaged, get involved, and get moving.

Thinking About Buying SMS Texts

If after reading this, you realise SMS texts would benefit your organisation and your volunteers, then check out this video explaining how to take up the offer!

4 Ways TeamKinetic Can Help YOU Incentivise Volunteers

By Alex Evans

On 7th December 2020

In TeamKinetic Features

Retaining and recruiting volunteers can be a difficult task. With volunteering in high demand incentivising your volunteers may be the way forward to ensure retainment. Now, you may ask… “Incentivising volunteers! How can I do that?” Keep reading, TeamKinetic may just have the answer you are looking for…

1. Logging Hours/Leaving Feedback

Your volunteers give up their own time to help your organisation. So giving them some feedback even after they have volunteered will show how much you value them and will mean more to them than you may think!

TeamKinetic allows you to leave feedback when logging a volunteer’s hours. If you forget or don’t have time to personally thank your volunteer at the end of their session, this section gives you the chance to do so. It also let’s the volunteer log their own hours and leave feedback about the opportunity they joined. As someone who has volunteered in the past, receiving feedback from anyone at the organisation is such a great feeling and has pushed me to come and volunteer again. This could be your volunteers.

2. Achievement Badges

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

TeamKinetic has achievement badges automatically on their system. So, for example, if volunteers were to reach 10 hours combined they would get the badge ‘Super Member’, at 50 hours they could get the badge ‘Dedicated’ and so on.

The achievement badge’s pictures and names can be customised by yourself. These badges are a great way to incentivise volunteers and get them to keep on volunteering so they can reach the next milestone.

3. Hour Trades

Wouldn’t it be great for volunteers to trade all of their logged hours for real life items!

Well, TeamKinetic has just the thing. Hour Trades. Your volunteers can use their logged hours to trade them in for things such as vouchers, T-shirts, hats, entry to museum/art galleries, sporting activities… Whatever items you feel fit. This type of reward recognises a volunteers contributions and can push them to want to volunteer more.

4. Custom Award Badges

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

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

Start Incentivising Today

If these incentives have drawn you in and you want to find out more, you can watch the video below where we go through the system to show you each incentive.

Even more intrigued, head over to our website and start your FREE 30 day trial today to explore the whole of TeamKinetic! Be sure to also visit our social media pages to find out more information about TeamKinetic Twitter, Facebook, Linkedin and YouTube.

You can also give us a call on 0161 9145757 and we would be happy to talk with you about our system.

We hope to speak to you soon, Stay Safe!

TeamKinetic – Interim release 1.3.3

By Rolf Herbert

On 12th November 2020

In TeamKinetic Features, Technical Updates

It has been a busy few months at TeamKinetic during the Covid 19 summer, but we’ve still been updating and fixing TeamKinetic regularly. What we haven’t been doing well is letting you all know about the changes, apologies.

We have now pushed through our last interim updates and fixes before our next major release in Q1/2 2021. TeamKinetic is up to version 1.3.3!

Here is what is new.

New Opportunity Details Layout

We’ve, hopefully, improved the layout of the opportunity details or more info page. Peoples monitors are getting larger with a higher resolution, so we have adjusted the layout to a two column view.

On mobile or small screens this reverts to a single column display.

External opportunities

When adding a quick opportunity (super admins can enable quick opportunities for their providers from the settings area), you have an extra option to mark the opportunity as external. When selected the user enters what external organisation is responsible for the opportunity, the web address for more information/application, and the advertising end date.

When a volunteer views the opportunity they are informed its an external opportunity, and are redirected via an apply button to the organisations own website.

It’s a great little addition for when you want to advertise an opportunity that you think your volunteers would benefit from but are not actively managing.

Secret Opportunities

These are not clandestine opportunities for secret agents, but a way to hide open opportunities from search results and opportunity suggestions throughout the application.

Volunteers with the exact link will be able to view and join the opportunity as normal, but those without access to the link will not find the opportunity.

In all other regards the opportunity behaves just like a regular opportunity.

Add Volunteer Meetings in Bulk

You can now create and add volunteers to meeting dates directly from the bulk actions on the volunteer search page. So you can add 10 or 20 volunteers to a group meeting very easily.

We’ve also updated the text a little to make it clear that you can enter a zoom/meet link in the location field if your meeting is going to be virtual.

Private Notes for External Volunteers

You can now add private notes to external volunteer profiles. These private notes are not viewable by the administrators of the volunteers home application.

New Volunteer Search Filters

You can find two new filters in the TYPE area for a volunteers disability and special needs status.

Completed Community Task Report

We are still working on getting some more insightful reporting around community tasks in the next major version.

In the meantime, you can download a complete list of all completed tasks from the community task page. It includes dates, times and which volunteer that completed the task.

You’ll find the download button at the top of the completed task column.

Healthcheck Status Included in Member Downloads

This is an update for the accredit module in TeamKinetic (interested in managing events and printing access badges straight from TeamKinetic? Get in touch).

When you export event member details the export now includes their latest healthcheck status.

POD Report

We’ve included a small POD report in the main reporting area which tells you how many admins, providers, opportunities, volunteers, and hours are in each pod.

We will be adding some more detail in the next major release.

Public Roadmap Accepting Votes

You can now access our public roadmap straight from the help menu, read up on what features might be heading down the road and also importantly, vote on the features you would most like to see.

We will be keeping an eye on the votes and endeavouring to push the most popular features to the front of the release queue, so get voting.

New Help Videos

We have added a tonne of new help videos to the Tutorial Videos section in the your help menu.

They are super short informative videos about specific features or processes and well worth a look.

Increased Maximum Image Size

The maximum width of images for provider and event profiles is now 1900 pixels, so the quality of the image on large displays is now a lot better.

We have also adjusted some of the image processing to improve the size/quality performance.

Facebook Live

Please join us for our Facebook Live on Friday 13th at 2pm on our Facebook TeamKinetic Customer Group to see these new updates in action. Make sure you are a member of this group before 2pm tomorrow to make sure you can watch the live! Just click here to go to the group.

Product Steering Group: 16/09/2020

By Alex Evans

On 17th September 2020

In TeamKinetic Features

That was our first ever product steering meeting and we would like to thank everyone for their feedback and comments, we think it went pretty well!

This group was a chance for us to relay some ideas and details about possible updates to our system and get a feel for how our users felt about these updates. It was also a chance for us to listen to your ideas on future features which could be added to the system or at least were worth further exploration.

So with that, let’s show you what was discussed at the product steering group 16/09/2020.

Roadmap

The roadmap is what we are using to help with the potential new features being added to upcoming updates. We are developing this through the MoSCoW Project. These are the Must haves, Should haves, Could haves and Wish list. The MoSCoW project will allow a way of ordering potential features based on their feasibility, price, etc… This section is live on your systems and will be under the help menu and under the new entry ‘roadmap’.

The ‘must have’ section will be everything we plan on fixing for the next update. On each potential new feature will be a voting system so you can vote on which you definitely want and which you don’t. This will then bump up certain features which are popular.

If you have any new features you want and we haven’t mentioned, you can open a support ticket and choose ‘new feature’, this will then be added to a certain part on the MoSCoW project.

Rolf will be adding a comments section soon, so let us know what you like, what you hate and everything in between.

Watch the video below to see how to view the Roadmap and how to add a new feature.

Community Tasks – Where next?

Community tasks were set up in response to the COVID-19 crisis. They are small tasks designed to provide community support to people who are unable to leave their homes. To test out the community tasks you need to enable from the super admin settings and you can try out creating tasks without publishing them to your volunteers. Watch the video below to see how to turn on community tasks.

At the moment the way the community tasks work is they are separate from the opportunities volunteer page. We kept these separate at the beginning of this update to ensure volunteers wanting to help with COVID-19 tasks would just go straight to this site. However, we are now interested in knowing how we might integrate the two sites and features more effectively.

We think Community Tasks are useful beyond COVID-19 but we open to where they will ‘live’ with in the application moving forwards. If you have any comments on this please get in touch with us or fill in the questionnaire we have sent our on the subject and let us know what you think.

Native Mobile Development

Our native mobile development unfortunately all but stopped during the height of COVID-19 because our developers have been furloughed and unable to work.

This would have been a new version of our Apps for iOS and Android with all features you would expect added in and some neat new customisation available. We are committed to continuing to develop our apps but coronavirus forced us to make some difficult choices, one of which was to build our Community Task app using Progressive Web App technology.

Using Progressive Web App (PWA) for the community tasks site was fast to build and was easy to roll out and it had almost all the same features of a native app however it just uses the web browser on your phone instead of downloading the app store.

There are pros and cons of both app types of app and we are keen to know what you think about using PWA more in the future!

Native Mobile Development

Pros – Available on both IOS and Andriod, gives the best overall experience and integration with the mobile device.

Cons – Slow and significantly increases the lag for new feature incorporation.

Progressive Web App

Pros – Fast to build and implement.

Cons – Do not have access to all mobile capabilities, especially on iOS.

Focus – UI/UX

UI – User Interface

UX – User Experience

Whilst looking at our set guidelines and rules for our interface we wanted to make sure it enabled a good workflow for our users and let them focus on the tasks they were doing, so we named it ‘focus’.

Over the last 12 months we have been integrating this look across all the pages on the system. The new side bar gives access to extra features on that page and there is no restriction on sizing. Searching is much easier as the universal search bar is now at the top of every page along with the notification settings and help bar. The new alert messages will either be in red or green depending on urgency and the ones in yellow will be for standard messages.

Please let us know once you notice these changes, what works well and what doesn’t. We are heading down the root of changing all pages to look like the one above, so if you see anything that can be changed, set up a support ticket to explain.

Thank You!

We hope all of our clients enjoyed the Product Steering Group, there were some great comments and ideas being said which will enable us to create a clearer path for the future.

So we can get some extra feedback from our Product Steering Group, please fill in the survey we have created.

We can’t wait to hear more from you. And until next time…