After a few completed opportunities, you might be wondering how you can go reward volunteers for all their hard work. The first option to reward volunteers is through Achievement Badges. These badges are attached to volunteer profiles after they’ve logged a set amount of hours. You can also change the names and icons of the badges to match any reward systems you might already have in place.
Task
Set the number of hours needed to unlock each badge and change the name/picture if needed.
The Process
Step One Go to the Admin Settings Cog.
Step Two Click ‘Basic TeamKinetic Setup’.
Step Three Click the ‘Achievement Badges’ tab in the left-hand-side menu.
Creating events is very easy and can be a great way to collate a bunch of opportunities that are related to a specific occasion, e.g. a festival. This will make the opportunities easier for your volunteers to find and easier for providers to manage.
You can find out more about how we’ve previously helped organise large events in this blog post!
Task
Create an event and add at least one opportunity to it.
The Process
First we’ll create the event.
Step One Go to ‘Opportunities & Providers’.
Step Two Click ‘Events’.
Step Three Fill in the necessary fields and click ‘Add’.
Next, we can either create a new opportunity to be part of the event, or add an existing opportunity to it.
Creating an opportunity as part of an event
Step One Go to ‘Opportunities and Providers’.
Step Two Click ‘Create Opportunity’.
Step Three Fill in all fields until you reach the boxes below.
Step Four Finish creating the opportunity as usual.
Adding an existing opportunity to an event
Step One Go to ‘Opportunities and Providers’.
Step Two Click ‘Opportunities’.
Step Three Find the opportunity you wish to add and click on it.
Step Four Click on the ‘Details’ tab on the left-hand-side menu and scroll down until you see the options pictured above to add the opportunity to the event.
By now we should have a volunteer on their first opportunity… but now what? You can now start to manage opportunities, completing tasks such as logging hours for completed sessions, using the chat room to send information to the volunteers on the opportunity, and processing applicants.
To log hours, the volunteer first leaves feedback (if this is mandated by your settings) for the provider/opportunity. Next, they enter how many hours they spent on the opportunity session. The provider/admin then leaves their own feedback for the volunteer and inputs the hours spent volunteering (they should match!).
Note: you’ll only be able to log hours for session-based opportunities if they have already happened and have a volunteer signed up. To log hours now for this task, you’ll need to create a flexible opportunity as hours for flexible opportunities can be logged at any time.
Task
Complete and log hours for an opportunity from both the provider and volunteer side.
The Process
There are a few different ways to complete this one but first we’ll look at how to do it from the admin/provider side.
Step One Go to the ‘Opportunities & Providers’ tab.
Step Two Click ‘Opportunities’.
Step Three Find the opportunity you want to log hours for
Step Four Click ‘Log Hours’ in the left-hand-side menu.
Step Five Leave feedback for the volunteer and log hours.
It’s also important to familiarise yourself with the volunteer’s point of view when learning to manage opportunities in case they have any questions or issues with the process. You can see a video of this process below.
Step One From the volunteer homepage, go to the ‘Opportunities With Hours To Log’ box OR the ‘ Opportunities’ tab on the left-hand-side menu.
Step Two Click ‘Log’ / ‘Log Hours’
Step Three Leave feedback for the provider and input the hours spent volunteering.
So now you have an opportunity but where are all the volunteers?! Don’t worry, it’s easy to invite volunteers to your new system, especially if you have an existing database. This involves sending volunteers a unique link which not only lets them register, but also adds them to your volunteer list. You will then be able to see their details and manually add them to the opportunities on your system.
Once a volunteer has been registered on your system, you may wish for them to upload a picture or some identification before they get started with any voluntary work. These things can be made a requirement on your system through the admin settings and is outlined through the optional task in this lesson below.
Task
Invite or create at least one volunteer and then view their profile on your system.
The Process
Inviting Volunteers
Step One Go to the ‘Volunteer Management’ tab.
Step Two Click ‘Invite Volunteers’.
Step Three Type in the email addresses/upload a CSV file of the volunteers you wish to invite.
Creating Your Own Volunteer
Step One Go to the ‘Volunteer Management’ tab.
Step Two Click ‘Create Volunteer’.
Step Three Fill in all the registration information.
Advanced Task (Optional)
Alter your system settings so that new volunteers must upload a picture and/or a piece of ID before volunteering.
The Process
Step One Go to the Admin Settings Cog.
Step Two Click ‘TeamKinetic Options’.
Optional Next Steps (depending on what you want for your system)
– To require volunteers to be cleared first: Click ‘Registration’, then ensure that ‘No’ is checked on ‘Enable Access to New Volunteers’.
– To require all volunteers to have a profile photo: Click ‘Everything Else’ on the left-hand-side menu and make sure ‘Yes’ is checked on ‘Require Volunteer Photo’.
Under ‘TeamKinetic Options’ you’ll find a wide range of setup options to play around with. This can either be done now, or once the workbook is completed. We suggest you cover the basics first, but it’s entirely up to you!
Now your site is properly set up and looks like your site instead of a generic TeamKinetic system, it’s time to get to work and create your first opportunity. All the different fields to fill in on an opportunity may seem complicated at first but you’ll quickly get the hang of it!
It’s important to get to grips with all these different options so you can go on to create opportunities quickly in the future and save yourself some time. Right now, the basic thing you need to know is the difference between session-based and flexible opportunities.
We covered this in the introductory page of the workbook but it can’t hurt to go over it again!
Session-based Opportunities Sessions can either be recurring (daily, weekly, monthly, etc) or individual. They’re used for activities that have a specific time/date they need to be completed on.
Flexible opportunities In contrast, flexible opportunities can be completed at any time. This is great for opportunities that can be done online, such as language translations, or over the phone, such as befriending.
Task
Create an opportunity.
The Process
Step One Go to ‘Opportunities and Providers’.
Step Two Click ‘Create Opportunity’.
Step Three Fill in all fields with details relevant to your opportunity.
We’ve got the system set up, what next? Site customisation can help turn a good looking TeamKinetic system into a great branded system. Just take a look MCRVIP’s siteto see what we mean! To start with, we’ll create a custom front page and footer, adjust colours to match your branding and edit some CSS properties.
Task
Complete all relevant site customisation options.
The Process
Step One Click the admin cog in the top right corner.
Step Two Click ‘Look & Feel’
Step Three Go through the following tabs to make your website more personalised: – Logo (if not completed during registration) – Colours and Text – Front Page – Footer – CSS
TeamKinetic have been recognised by TechForce 19 as a technology provider that can help in the response to the COVID-19 pandemic. The following webinar is showcasing our new COVID-19 Task System, called the Community Task app – designed and made for COVID-19.
You can find TeamKinetic on social media and listen to our podcast:
TeamKinetic is proud to announce that we are working together with CIMSPA- the Chartered Institute for the Management of Sport and Physical Activity.
Like many working sectors across the UK, the sports and physical activity sector has also been hugely affected by COVID-19. With all gyms, sports and leisure centres being closed due to the pandemic. This has created many uphill challenges for the 500,000 workers in the sports and physical activity sector.
The Challenge
The task of keeping the UK physically active and healthy has never been more crucial. Although we are faced with self-isolating, social distancing and many other sanctions in our daily lives, doesn’t mean we can’t all stay healthy.
We share the same ambition as CIMSPA of being versatile in these difficult times to aid the sector to keep the UK active. Therefore we have offered CIMSPA our support in the form of our Advanced volunteer management software – built for COVID-19. We hope by becoming a CIMSPA supporter we will be able to help some of the 500,000 workers affected by this pandemic and help those stay active and healthy along the way.
Read more below on what CIMSPA is doing as part of their Stronger Together campaign
TechForce19 was developed as a call to action for all innovators who have the technological ability to be able to supply the elderly, vulnerable and those self-isolating during COVID-19.
The competition saw over 1600 entries who felt their technology could help to combat this pandemic challenge. We are very proud to announce that TeamKinetic has been shortlisted as one of the 20 companies who will receive the £25,000 to test their technology to help with the response to COVID-19.
TeamKinetic aim to use their volunteer management software and their new COVID-19 related volunteer management features to optimise staffing in care and volunteer sectors. This will be achieved by deploying TeamKinetic with 3 of our new customers, The Royal Brough of Greenwich, Halton & St Helens VCA and Groundwork working in partnership with Barnet Council. The application will be used in the recruitment and training of volunteers into non-clinical roles at a local level and providing essential services that people in isolation need.
TeamKinetic is already used across the UK with over 145,000 volunteers using the system and is used to power the national system Volunteering-wales.net on behalf of Wales Council for Voluntary Action (WCVA). So this award feels like a nice acknowledgement of the hard work that has gone into developing TeamKinetic into the simple to use platform it is today, over the last 10 years.
In preparation for taking on the TechForce19 challenge, TeamKinetic has been working with their existing partners to look at the specific requirements that have been created due to the pandemic. Partners like Manchester City Council and Glasgow Life have all played a key role in helping TeamKinetic respond to the crisis and to push our engineering teams to do some amazing work in response.
Read all about TeamKinetic and the other winners here
TechForce19 is an initiative being run on behalf of:
NHSX is one of the largest health and social care transformation programmes in the world, created to deliver technology that staff and people need. With the aim to utilise technology in the most efficient way possible in order to reduce stress on our NHS workforce.
AHSN connects the NHS and academic organisations, local authorities, the third sector and industry. They focus on improving outcomes for patients through innovation and technology.
PUBLIC is an organisation which aims to breach the gap that smaller start-up technological companies struggle to overcome themselves. Many small start-up organisations have made progressive headway in innovative technologies which have the potential of helping many people. However, they struggle with the initial start-up when connecting to the right people, like the governments and local authorities.
For more information on how TeamKinetic can help your orgainsation.
Did you know that you can customise your TeamKinetic system’s volunteer registration emails? Changing the first email your volunteers receive can be a big step in improving your volunteer management.
How do I change the registration email?
Go to the Admin Settings Cog→ Customise Emails
Find the ‘volunteer registration’ email and click ‘Edit’.
You can now edit the default text and style it accordingly. When you click on the blue buttons on the right, a placeholder will be added to your text, and when sent, that placeholder will be replaced with the appropriate text; in this case you can use placeholders for your organisation name, organisation contact number, the volunteers email address, and a login link for the volunteer to follow.
What changes should I make?
That first email after registration should layout the next steps you want the volunteer to take. For example, this might be to upload a photo and a piece of ID. You could also direct them to the Resources & Help, where all the documents in your document hub are available, if your volunteers require extra information after registering.
You can alter options regarding volunteer photo/ID uploads via the Admin Settings Cog → TeamKinetic Options → Everything Else.
Volunteers can easily access these things through the left-hand-side menu on their dashboard.
They should go to the underlined tabs to upload a picture, ID, and view the document hub (in that order).
You can also add links to various areas of the system for easy access and attach files to the email. For example, you could share the link to take them straight to a search for COVID-19 related opportunities. This will help highlight ways volunteers can help their local communities. You can find your shareable link to all COVID-19 opportunities on your admin homepage:
If necessary, make sure to tell new volunteer about inductions, DBS and ID checks when they first join to allow them to get started with you as soon as possible. As an admin, you can keep track of DBS checks via Volunteer Management → Criminal Checks as well as visiting a volunteer’s profile directly via Volunteer Management → Search Volunteers.
You could also customise the ‘joined opp’ email that is sent when a volunteer joins their first opportunity to let them know what you want them to do next. Perhaps explaining the keywords used on the site, such as sessions, the different opportunity types, and how to log hours.
What else can I do to get volunteers started?
Switching on text messages is another great way to keep in contact with your volunteers. Text messaging can be switched on by going to the Admin Settings Cog → TeamKinetic Options → Notifications → Switch on Text Messaging.
Building your Document Hub can also be highly beneficial to your volunteers. You can add documents, links and text for your volunteers and providers, e.g. a code of conduct or training manual for new volunteers. To access the document hub, go to the Admin Settings Cog → Document Hub
Want more TeamKinetic tips?
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You can visit our YouTube channel to find further help navigating your system or call us on 0161 914 5757, we’re always happy to help you out!
