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TeamTalk: Season 3, Episode 4 – Katherine Perrin

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:

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.

TeamKinetic 2.5.1 Minor Release

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:

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 might even send you a little thank you.

Woman using computer

Accessibility Statement

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:

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.

TeamTalk August: Roundup

Hello and welcome to TeamKinetic’s TeamTalk August newsletter in blog form!

This roundup is designed to keep you up-to-date with what’s going on at TeamKinetic, our partners, and across the third sector in general.

If you’d like to subscribe to the TeamTalk newsletter, please send an email over to me at alex@teamkinetic.co.uk and we’ll get you on the list!

To read our roundup of stories we think you need to know about, click to go to the next page below, or choose a story from the list:

Data Galore: Linking TeamKinetic to Google Analytics

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: 

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

Download the guide below:


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 ReportsLife 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:

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.

TeamTalk: Season 3, Episode 3 – Rosie Wylie

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 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.

TeamTalk July: Roundup

Hello and welcome to TeamKinetic’s TeamTalk July newsletter in blog form!

This roundup is designed to keep you up-to-date with what’s going on at TeamKinetic, our partners, and across the third sector in general.

If you’d like to subscribe to the TeamTalk newsletter, please send an email over to me at alex@teamkinetic.co.uk and we’ll get you on the list!

To read our roundup of stories we think you need to know about, click to go to the next page below, or choose a story from the list:

TeamTalk June: Roundup

Hello and welcome to TeamKinetic’s TeamTalk June newsletter in blog form!

This roundup is designed to keep you up-to-date with what’s going on at TeamKinetic, our partners, and across the third sector in general.

If you’d like to subscribe to the TeamTalk newsletter, please send an email over to me at alex@teamkinetic.co.uk and we’ll get you on the list!

To read our roundup of stories we think you need to know about, click to go to the next page below, or choose a story from the list:

New TeamKinetic Integration for the Big Help Out 2024

We are very excited (and exhausted) to bring you the new TeamKinetic integration for The Big Help Out with DoIt, the platform supporting the 2024 campaign.

We have a video which will take you through the steps and explain the process and you can read a little more about how to register with DoIt and finding your API key with this little piece from DoIt.

The Process

It starts from your super admin menu; find the SETUP page and then the API & Integrations section. You’ll find a section titled DoIt (The Big Help Out).


Here you will find the registration link. This link will allow you to register with DoIt and also join the Big Help Out application. If you already have a DoIt account you should still follow this link as it will check to make sure you already have the Big Help Out app and if not ask you for permission to add it.


Once you have completed the registration process you’ll end up at your DoIt dashboard. On the left hand side hit the Org Settings menu and then look for the Integrations section. In that section you’ll find the API key bit you need.


Hit the generate new key and a new key will be created and displayed on the screen. There is a COPY KEY button you can use to copy the key to your clipboard. Once you have it copied return to your TeamKinetic app and paste the API key into the box ‘Your API Key’ and hit SAVE.


TeamKinetic will scurry off and check that we can connect to your DoIt account and confirm this by displaying your current list of DoIt apps as above. If you see an error message check your key and try again.

That’s it for the setup, from now on when you create an opportunity, on the Promoting and Sharing tab, you ‘ll be asked if you want to share to DoIt and to select the app you want to share to (The Big Help Out in this case).


When managing the opportunity you’ll see in the sharing tab that the oop is shared along with a link to view the opportunity on DoIt and also a button to remove the opportunity from DoIt.


When potential volunteers find your opportunities on The Big Help Out, there is an external apply link that they follow which leads them back to your TeamKinetic website where they can register and join your opportunity. Even if they have a DoIt account they will still get returned to your website.


Providers can also link their own DoIt account in the same way, and share their opportunities to their own DoIt account. This is preferable if you can encourage your providers to do this as it keeps everything nice and tidy and aligned without the potential for duplicating opportunities between one of your partners and yourself. Providers can enter their API key from the Account > Details & Setup page on the integrations tab.


It doesn’t matter whether the opportunity has been uploaded to your DoIt account, or directly to a provider’s DoIt account, the resulting opportunity on DoIt will be the same and the potential volunteer will end up back at your website.

Once you’ve managed to create your account and paste in your DoIt API key it’s super simple from that point on and you’ll soon be sharing your opps to The Big Help Out 2024!


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

Twitter       Facebook       LinkedIn       YouTube       Instagram       Podcast

 

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

TeamTalk May: Roundup

Hello and welcome to TeamKinetic’s TeamTalk May newsletter in blog form!

This roundup is designed to keep you up-to-date with what’s going on at TeamKinetic, our partners, and across the third sector in general.

If you’d like to subscribe to the TeamTalk newsletter, please send an email over to me at alex@teamkinetic.co.uk and we’ll get you on the list!

To read our roundup of stories we think you need to know about, click to go to the next page below, or choose a story from the list:

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