Every hospice volunteer, specifically those working in direct care, are often in contact with patients and their families for a few hours a week. This, more than likely leads to a long-term commitment requested by hospices to ensure patients are able to bond with the same volunteer throughout time.
It’s safe to say that volunteers play such an important role in hospices; which is exactly why you have to find a hospice volunteer that is the right fit to offer support. So, what are some qualities to look out for?
What Qualities Are Hospices Looking For?
Hospice volunteers have to be able to listen intensively and hold conversations with patients. Many patients will spend time talking about their lives, families, and what regrets or memories they have. As this is a sensitive time for patients and their families, volunteers can help by being a listening ear, giving no judgment.
Volunteers are given an opportunity to learn and develop their understanding – and a patient’s understanding – of finding peace. Being able to control their emotions can be a benefit. Many conversations revolve around death and grief, being in touch with those feelings, and knowing when to be emotional can help build a bond with a patient, helping them (and possibly themselves) with the acceptance of death.
Volunteers who are able to understand the physical and emotional boundaries needed when volunteering in hospice care can be deemed as essential. Having personal limits is not only essential, it helps create the safest care possible to those patients and their families- a limit means that it may make it easier to disconnect from the patient and family, once the patient has passed.
The Quality of Comfort…
Hospices will be looking to those volunteers who have a comfort level for those patients who may need assistance. Many patients experience deteriorating functioning in their final weeks of life. They may start to need help with daily tasks, which is where volunteers come in. Volunteers should be able to feel comfortable in these situations- from dressing to feeding. Training is most likely to be provided by hospices, so volunteers can assist patients effectively.
For hospice volunteers, being kind is a necessary quality to have. Having compassion can give immense comfort to those coming to the end of their life, along with comforting any family members too. It is important for volunteers to have respect for life in all ways, including religion, views, and cultures.
A volunteer’s company can be the best quality for them to have. With a myriad of commitments, a patient’s loved ones may not be able to be around all the time. This is why it’s crucial for volunteers to be around, providing comfort and keeping patients company throughout the day.
Volunteers are most likely going to be matched with a patient that they then frequently visit; during these visits they can talk, read, apply holistic therapies, write letters, or even document their life. It’s a time to connect with a patient and comfort them at this point in life.
Volunteers are one of, if not, the most important piece of hospice care…
It’s easy to sit here and type out the qualities found in hospice volunteers up and down the country, but the work they do to provide comfort and support to patients and their families is something to be proud of. They’re one of, if not, the most important pieces in hospice care.
If you’re looking for a volunteer management system, why not take a look at us? You can start a FREE trial over on our website.
You can find TeamKinetic on social media and listen to our podcast:
Most Hospices rely on volunteers to support the work they complete- they help ease the challenges faced. Volunteers have been important since the modern hospice movement, founded by Dame Cicely Saunders in the 1960s…
In the next 10-15 years, hospice’s will face challenges and high demand from the UK’s ageing population. People are now living for a longer time with complex and chronic health conditions. A Help the Hospice survey found that 7 out of 10 people think the pressure on hospice care will ‘rocket’ in the coming years.
So how can Hospices make sure their volunteer management systems keeps up with this demand, and ensures volunteers feel connected to the hospice they help?
Exploring what works and the current challenges.
The role of volunteer managers can be demanding, most are responsible for a long list of responsibilities including: recruitment, training and ensuring volunteer recognition…Volunteer managers play a significant role in making sure volunteers have the right resources to volunteer adequately.
A volunteer management system can help volunteer managers collect contact information, preferences, volunteer schedules and stay in touch with volunteers to ensure volunteers know exactly where to go to find the support they need. Luckily, we know a good volunteer management system you can look into- us! You can start a FREE trial with us on our website, and start your volunteer management journey today…
After that little plug, it’s back to business. The covid-19 pandemic has raised some concerns around volunteering in the future, and while all hospices are different, there are some concerns felt across the UK. These include:
Management structures and cultures across hospices for volunteering.
The importance of volunteers towards hospices.
In a post covid world- how will volunteering look?
In other words, volunteers not only help inside hospices, but in the community too. If your volunteer management system doesn’t work effectively, these coils pose a risk for the reputation of your hospice if your volunteers aren’t comfortable.
Managing your volunteers.
Volunteer Managers have found managing volunteers as time consuming and ‘not easy.’ To relieve this pressure, hospices have undergone strategic changes which have been pivotal to understanding more about hospice volunteers and how they can best support staff.
Similarly, there is some concern that managing volunteers and managing paid staff isn’t always distinct. Specifically the distinction between HR and Volunteer service management is becoming blurred between their roles and skills.
Having a separate volunteer management system for volunteers ensures that your volunteers would know exactly what the roles and responsibilities will have within a hospice. This service can help manage a professional and consistent volunteer programme that works for everyone.
In order to achieve full potential, systems should also listen and engage with volunteers. A two-way communication system is beneficial for hospices looking for retention and improving the overall volunteer experience. With TeamKinetic, we have numerous ways you can communicate with your volunteers. Notifications, email, SMS text- the list goes on. Why so many options? Preferences. Not all volunteers want to be emailed- some may want to receive an SMS text. Above all- communication is key.
The executive team and inclusivity.
A hospice’s executive team is important in driving a positive and inclusive culture across the whole hospice. Inclusivity within hospices is about treating staff and volunteers equally, but also ensuring access to training and support for all. Everyone should be treated with respect and treated fairly.
For some there is still a feeling of ‘them’ and ‘us’ culture within hospices. This is divisive and can stop the potential of a volunteer programme being successful. This, along with changing volunteer roles due to the pandemic, has meant that the full nature of volunteering is changing.
However, there is a fear that hospice’s could get left behind and may not be able to compete for volunteers with our programmes. A volunteer management system can help with this. At TeamKinetic, we help recruit, retain and realise your volunteers and the potential they have. If you’d like to have a chat about what we offer, email us at katie@teamkinetic.co.uk or call us on 0161 914 5757.
For many, covid-19 has put these issues in the forefront of conversations within hospices, and how they are going to run their volunteer programmes in the future.
The challenges faced through covid-19.
It’s known that hospices attract a demographic of elderly volunteers, which has also been the demographic most affected by the pandemic. This means that hospices have fallen short of active volunteers, as those in older demographic groups need to take extra care (even if they’ve had the vaccine, with new variants, the future is still rather uncertain).
Along with this, volunteer roles have also adapted and changed given the situation we’ve found ourselves in. It’s become the perfect opportunity for hospices to look at their volunteer programmes and assess how appealing it is for other demographics. Can certain roles attract younger volunteers? This may mean looking at changing roles to add more flexibility or expanding wider networks.
Looking into the future, managing volunteers is crucial for the sustainability of hospices. If you’d like to know more about how hospices can become more sustainable, you can read our blogs on our website: ‘How Can Hospices Become More Sustainable, Part One and Part Two’.
Looking for a volunteer management system?
If you’d like to look into developing a volunteer management system, why not start a FREE trial with us! Head over to our website and within minutes, you can be exploring your new volunteer management system.
Can hospices become sustainable? It’s time for part two. In last week’s post we delved into the first 5 principles, today is the final four! Hopefully this has helped you to start thinking about how your hospice can become more sustainable…
Become cost effective to be sustainable…
A threat of a severe recession and climbing competition for charitable giving could leave a lasting decrease in charitable revenue. Maintaining a grip on Hospice finances and implementing sustainable practices means there’s a chance to maximise costeffectiveness. However, it isn’t easy to develop cost effective routes. When handed a sustainable alternative, there is rarely any evidence that proves it true- but alternative practices have to start somewhere.
Stakeholders spoken to by Hospice UK want all Hospices to be aware of their own visibility. This way, they’re able to identify services which need to be redesigned for sustainability. Being more transparent about financial positions with commissioners has led to balanced financial risk in numerous areas.
Key benefits and outcomes of greater control of costs:
“The operational model for each service delivers agreed outcomes and benefits.”
“Proactive and reactive: anticipate critical issues and plan for sustainability in advance.”
“Quantify and help provide an evidence base to support decisions that require major trade-offs.”
“Increased certainty in responding to current and future demand by taking a rigorous, outcome based approach.”
Maximise your commercial revenue!
There has been a decrease in income for many Hospices, especially retail income over the past 2 years. It means that those Hospices reliant on a particular area of funding are susceptible to downturns and falling trends. So, Hospices are key in finding the effectiveness in their current revenue. The key is maximising commercial revenue.
Hospice UK has found recurring themes that Hospices could explore… Start re-thinking commercial spaces – are you getting the best out of the spaces you occupy? New revenue models, including collaborations, which has always been a strong starter that benefits multiple hospices at once. And teaming up with local third sector parties or partners.
Are you deploying the correct people around your patients?
Start reviewing the shape of your workforce. Deploy the correct people around your patients. Hospices need to start looking into how their workforce is going to look in the future due to the changes occurring across the end of life and palliative care sector. We suggest Workforce Shaping.
Workforce Shaping can determine your team’s structure in the future and what will be required to introduce new ways of working. Hospices should be (re)considering:
“Consider new staffing models to better deliver care.”
“Embrace new roles and ways of working.”
Shape careers of the future, sustainably…
To attract people towards a career in end of life and palliative care, a development needs to be made in order to make careers and jobs more competitive. While most stakeholders believe it wouldn’t be sustainable to match NHS pay, they do believe that improving career pathways is a clear step in the right direction. Why not start by finding out why people want to join, stay and perform for your Hospice.
Understand and map out the journeys colleagues can take to move up within the Hospice, within their own career. Once you have this down, can you start to implement it? If you’re struggling on potential pathways, what about?
Managerial: Allow them to move up the ladder into managerial roles with more responsibility.
Expert: Build and refine their roles based on their knowledge, skills and abilities while keeping them in the speciality they want.
Mobility: For those who want to increase their knowledge, allow them to cross functions within Hospices or the NHS – they can increase their skills and abilities too!
Ways to make palliative care a place to grow a career:
Leadership and Culture: Culture is critical. The challenge for Hospice leaders is to connect the workforce to the ‘core purpose’- to help them see how their job everyday impacts the lives of everyone within their communities.
Vision and Values: A key factor that attracts people to a career in palliative and end-of-life care is the vision and mission to provide high quality, person-centred care.
Rotations and Preceptorships: There is a lot of interest across the sector for developing greater opportunities from clinical staff to undertake ‘rations’ across different providers and specialities.
Devolved Decision Making: Stakeholders noted that covid-19 has helped to break down previous hierarchical structures and devolve decision making to team members closest to the patient.
Diversity and Inclusion: Hospice leaders we spoke with talked about a desire to create a more inclusive culture where all employees thrive. Many noted that there was still more to be done in order to increase the representation of different diversity groups within the sector.
And there you have it!
And that’s that! Over the past 2 weeks, we hope we’ve been able to give insight into how Hospices can become more sustainable and rounded up The Discovery Phase of Future Vision Programme run by Hospice UK for you too.
If you’re looking for a volunteer management software that can help you:
Recruit more volunteers than ever before.
Fully customise your site and volunteer registration.
Communicate with your volunteers easily, all in one place.
Motivate and reward your volunteers with our achievement badges or create your own!
Head over to our website and set yourself up a FREE trial!
Demand for palliative and end of life care is increasing. As a result, Hospices are under greater pressure to find ways to do more with less. The Discovery Phase of the Future Vision Programme, by Hospice UK, starts a conversation around developing a more sustainable future. The charity has outlined nine principles of sustainability and today, we’ll be exploring the first 5!
So, how can hospices become more sustainable?
Integrated Care Systems for sustainability
Integrated Care Systems may have a big role to play in the coming years. Helping to ensure the public and voluntary sector act together in the best interests of patients, service users and families.
While many are in support of partnerships, there are also concerns for Hospice independence. It’s important for Hospices to develop greater integration, in addition to keeping a Hospice’s unique identity, values and high quality care. In Hospice UK’s survey, 99% of respondents thought there should be either full or partial integration with the wider Integrated Care System.
If you’re looking for ways to explore integration, why not try…
Starting at the clinical service level. What services are you going to provide and by whom? Where are these services going to take place?
Build relationships with other Hospices- it’s key to greater integration, while it takes time, you’ll reap the benefits.
Start aligning your data and reports. In order to seamless integration (further down the line) one patient record shared between all providers of a system is critical.
Start collaborating…
Through integration, it also presents the opportunity to collaborate. Covid-19 has inevitably intensified the pressure on constrained resources, and yet despite this, there’s a drive for positive change present.
Why not look towards collaborating with neighbouring Hospices on service deliveries? Similarly, look towards exploring back office joint posts and funding? Each Hospice is different, so we know that not everything suggested will work best for you, but it’s best to explore your options.
Collaboration means you can reach out and work with a wider range of partners in the sector- you aren’t limited.
Time to get technological
As a volunteer management system, we’re all for talking technology– and it’s crucial for you to define your digital strategy. With the increasing demand for care, the opportunities to look digitally as an enabler to change is exciting.
To succeed, as Hospice UK say, is to look from a patient-centric perspective- make sure that the leadership and governance of your digital systems is in place for fostering future innovation.
Speaking to stakeholders Hospice UK picked on multiple themes that need to be addressed for greater digital enablement:
Improve patient experience and engagement. Allowing your patients to have more choice and control over their care, and how they’d like to receive it.
Help provide integrated care- it will be easier to connect individuals to the right parts of the health system. You can strengthen the partnerships across sectors.
Help decreasing the demand for palliative and end of life services driven by the UK’s aging population, a growing population, and an increasing prevalence of chronic conditions and diseases (just to name a few).
Technology can also help with making systems more efficient- there’ll be less time looking for information or duplicating patients.
Influencers for sustainability
Alongside rising demand, hospices may also be providing services to just a minority of people who need it. So, Hospices need to start reaching greater numbers of people with the limited resources they have. Stakeholders have expressed that the focus has to shift from efficient delivery of direct services to patients towards earlier system interventions and advanced care planning- to do this? Influence.
Hospices can use their own influence to bring additional resources in to meet the evolving demands:
Influencing the system through closer working relationships with other providers.
There is a value in education, and adding family members/friends to support delivery of care can help avoid crises alongside meeting a patient’s needs.
Covid-19 has sped up education through online learning and training. Hospices can use this to their advantage to promote awareness and help drive referrals to other sectors in the system.
Hospices can use their unique data insight, this complemented with other systems intelligence, gives opportunity to enable a needs-based approach to the allocation of resources in future.
Is the current funding model sustainable?
The Hospice UK’s survey also highlighted that 83% of respondents agreed or strongly agreed that the current funding model is unsustainable in the long term. Most respondents went on to point towards a renegotiation of the funding offer with relevant commissioners as a high priority to ensure stable sustainability in the future.
An example of this would be End of Life Together in Nottinghamshire. The collaboration between a number of local Hospices’, Trusts and Primary care providers formed a partnership to secure funding and create an integrated care model. There key services included:
One point of referral providing a triage, assessment and coordination of a person’s needs.
‘Hospice at Home’ services with community hospice beds.
Access to bereavement and carer support services.
And more!
To conclude…
After all that, we’re coming back with a part 2! This week we’ve looked at the first 5 principles for sustainability through the Discovery Phase of the Future Vision Programme. Hopefully, you’ll be gathering some ideas on how you can develop the sustainability of your Hospice, we’ll be back next week for the final 4 principles- we’ll see you there!
Above all, if you’re interested in developing your volunteer management processes, why not start a trial? Head over to our site and sign up today!
The majority of work we refer to in Willowbrook Hospice’s case study is based on figures and interviews from the year 2020. This data has then influenced the extra research conducted in the hospice sector.
It is also worth noting that these figures are taken from the beginning of COVID-19 pandemic and with fewer people volunteering, the activity on the system we’ve recorded has been limited.
Before TeamKinetic
We’ve previously spoke to Willowbrook Hospice’s volunteer manager, Bev, about how they managed volunteers before TeamKinetic and what it was that made Willowbrook decide to look into a volunteer management system. Before TeamKinetic, they were managing volunteers through an access database described by Bev as an “archaic system”- with no way of contacting volunteers. With the access database, they’re was no opportunity for interaction and Bev realised that they needed something that would better manage their volunteers.
They realised they needed something web-based that can be accessed from anywhere. The system previously in use was linked to the NHS SHK system, it couldn’t be accessed at any time or place. Willowbrook decided they needed something shop managers could also use; this when they decided to start looking for a volunteer management system and came across TeamKinetic.
Moving to TeamKinetic and Implementation
Willowbrook Hospice chose TeamKinetic after seeing how local we are, watching a number of videos on our YouTube channel and speaking with our Director of Sales, Chris.
At TeamKinetic, we are constantly changing and adapting to suit our customers needs. This was another factor that “sold” us to Willowbrook – they knew if they ever suggest anything, we will take it on board and look into adapting the system to include this.
Regarding implementation, Bev openly mentioned that they needed “lots of planning”, but Steve, our Implementation Consultant, helped with all their planning needs. Willowbrook has numerous shops and with the way they manage their volunteers, it helped them to have a staged way of implementing the system.
They started with one shop first, and shop by shop they managed to get all their volunteers on board. Bev even mention that COVID-19 helped them in some ways; having shops closed gave them the time to fully roll out the system to the volunteers. Joining TeamKinetic also allowed them to have a “data cleanse” – speaking to volunteers who didn’t want to volunteer anymore. With a new system, Willowbrook now know that the volunteers they have registered are the ones who are active and want to volunteer.
COVID-19
COVID-19 affected everyone, including Willowbrook Hospice. While we’ve has multiple lockdowns, the Hospice’s nine shops have been closed during those times . The pandemic also meant that the fundraising team at Willowbrook had to come up with ways to ensure they came up with COVID-19 safe fundraising events. So, having TeamKinetic really helped them with managing their volunteers during COVID-19 safe events. This is what Bev had to say about using TeamKinetic for one of these events:
We had an event that came up where we could sell things in a local Garden Centre. It’s something we had to implement quite quickly because it was over Christmas and the garden centre had told us that if we wanted a stall to sell our Christmas cards and other things then we could. So within half an hour, I had created it on TeamKinetic and had it emailed out to all the volunteers. I would say within the hour, we filled up all the slots for two weeks worth of people volunteering for it. I think that raised over £2,000; without TeamKinetic that would never have happened.
Bev Neilson, volunteer manager at willowbrook hospice
As well as events, from a communication point they were able to stay in contact with volunteers throughout every stage of the pandemic; something that was very important to them. Before TeamKinetic, staying in touch with volunteers was “virtually impossible” and would have involved bulk emails which never worked because the NHS system was too slow for them. Now, they can email and text volunteers from one system with a click of a button.
In addition to this, having the TeamKinetic system available to them during the pandemic allowed them to set up a ‘befriending system’ between the volunteers. From this, they have been able to keep volunteers in touch with each other, solely from the private notes function on the TeamKinetic system.
Willowbrook’s Volunteering by Index of Mulitple Deprivation Rank (IMDR) For All Volunteers Registered Since 2020
This graph shows the number of Willowbrook Hospice volunteers by decile. That is the number of volunteers with a home postcode that is ranked using IMDR.
1 = bottom-ranked postcode area in bottom 10% ranked area of England
10 = top-ranked postcode area in the top 10% ranked area of England
These figures are interesting to see as volunteering is typically viewed as a traditionally middle-class activity. A report by NCVO supports this, as their statistics show 48 per cent of those who volunteered in the last 12 months have a degree compared to 20 per cent who have no qualifications. Some 42 per cent of unemployed people have never volunteered, compared to 21 per cent of those who work part-time.
This is of course also impacted by the fact that Greater Manchester has more postcode areas that fall into the bottom 50% according to the IMDR rank. Despite this factor, I believe it is captivating that despite these statistics, Manchester shows that poverty is not a defining factor in their willingness to volunteer.
When looking at this graph, it shows that Willowbrook has been able to recruit and retain volunteers from all different postcode ranks in England. Showing their inclusivity in welcoming all volunteers into their volunteering programme.
Age
As evidence shows, volunteering is often found to be a pursuit of older individuals. This typically comes from them having more spare time to volunteer than others. Although Willowbrook’s figures around age profiles accurately represents this statement, their figures also show the rising ability to recruit younger volunteers. This comes from the use of TeamKinetic as their volunteer management system. We are able reduce barriers into volunteering, especially for younger volunteers who are digitally engaged through TeamKinetic. We also allow for a quicker and easier recruitment process, something that is favoured in young people volunteering.
Gender
Stereotypically, data from the voluntary sector normally suggests a divide of 60% female volunteers and 40% male volunteers. Linking to this, evidence and research online also suggests a gender split in hospice volunteering with far more female volunteers over male volunteers is common.
Therefore, these figures from Willowbrook are not surprising with over 3/4 of volunteers being female. Despite this, Willowbrook Hospice does demonstrate inclusivity in volunteers with a range of female, male, transgender, and non-binary volunteers getting involved in hospice volunteering. This shows the TeamKinetic system is successful in ensuring anybody can register to be a volunteer as however they identify, allowing further inclusivity in the voluntary sector.
Opportunity Data
Volunteers recorded 16,007 hours of volunteering in the system from 2020. These hours took place over 49 opportunities.
The top 8 most popular opportunities regarding the number of hours undertaken by volunteers are:
1
Retail
2
Admin
3
Fundraising Events
4
Teaching Roles
5
Reception
6
Gardening
7
Catering
8
Driver
As you can see above, the top 8 most popular opportunities is a very diverse range. This shows that since Willowbrook has been using TeamKinetic they have been able to recuit volunteers onto a wide variety of volunteering opportunities. Since Willowbrook Hospice rasies a lot of their funds from their charity shops, it is not a shock to see retail at the most popoular choice. Alongside this, one off fundrasing events are always popular amongst the volunteering community.
Support
To conclude, when on our Enterprise Plan you get telephone support from 9:00 am-5:30 pm, online chat support, support tickets you can raise in the system, YouTube ‘How To’ videos, and Facebook groups and livestreams. From this, we asked Bev from Willowbrook Hospice, who is on the Enterprise Plan, how she found the support she has received from TeamKinetic. Here’s what she had to say:
So from the beginning, and I will say, the support has been absolutely fantastic. If I ever send an email or put a support ticket because I need something, the efficiency is fantastic and I think that it’s that personal touch we get from TeamKinetic. I think if we’d have gone to one of the bigger companies, we wouldn’t have got that.
With TeamKinetic, you never feel like any questions stupid, because I have asked some really silly questions in the past, but actually they’ve come back and easily explained everything to me.
I also think the help videos have been really good. We’ve sent those through to shop managers for them to watch. And I think that’s helped them train them, so I would definitely say support has been absolutely fantastic and I can’t fault that at all.
BEV NEILSON, VOLUNTEER MANAGER AT WILLOWBROOK HOSPICE
Find Out More…
TeamKinetic helps to build better volunteer communities by providing great tools for volunteer managers that save time, increase impact and improve insight. Our goal is to make volunteering easy for everyone no matter what. But don’t take our word for it, why not check out our customer reviews.
For more information on how we can assist with your volunteer management and getting the best out of all your volunteers visit our website or contact us on – 0161 914 5757
The pressure and demand on hospices is only increasing. With an aging population, it’s important to note, this demand will continue to increase in the next few years. So, how important will volunteers be in the future? We’re aware of the immense impact volunteers make today- they are the backbone for many hospice services.
In 10 years time, could the role of volunteers look?
Building on best practice…
Hospices will need to adapt to the growing demand for care so can we strengthen hospices best practices to help ease increasing pressures. In the context of volunteers, a large volunteer workforce could be needed. To do so, there should be plans to encourage growing recruitment.
It would be beneficial to have a volunteer management system in these times to help you recruit, retain and realise the potential of your volunteers (and yes, we mean us!) You can start a FREE trial with us, here at TeamKinetic, through our website – or book in a demo with us today!
After all that plugging, why not work towards developing a package for volunteer training. The quality of training is key for volunteers to deliver the best care to patients and their families. While training costs money, it means volunteers become an integrated part of hospices and their team. These packages should be general and available to all, but they should also have the chance to be adopted and changed at a local level…
The perception of volunteers also looks to have improved. They are too essential to be left out of any hospice strategy for extending the impact a hospice can make to those who need its services. If you’re looking for new volunteer recruits, why not get your current volunteers to help? They may have reaches in the community that the hospice doesn’t.
As volunteers become more significant in the supporting of hospices, we could also see:
Clear boundaries for those volunteers working in patient-facing roles.
Extend the supervision of volunteers in patient-facing working roles too.
There should be common applications for approaches that sustain volunteer practice safely.
Promoting excellence in the future
There is a belief that investing volunteers and voluntary management can push more volunteers to contribute more, and we have to agree. We find volunteer management systems (whether it’s our own or others) helps build up communication, and a relationship between organisation and volunteer. In turn, this encourages the volunteer to volunteer more.
In the future, hospice models could look towards changing models and programmes that, while might be working now, could become unsustainable with increasing pressure. Therefore, more innovation is needed. Hospice UK believes this can start in three core areas…
Enabling volunteers to play a full role in the work of the clinical team- working in partnership with clinical colleagues.
Having volunteers contribute to the services and strategy for hospices. They play an important role and should be recognised as the vital connection between hospice and community.
Take new approaches to sustaining and nurturing volunteer contribution through volunteer stewardship…
Exploring new approaches for the future
It’s encouraged that hospices look to experiment with volunteer roles. Like a trial and error process, hospices can learn, evaluate and share their findings to pinpoint the useful roles volunteers can play. There are a number of new approaches which could be taken…
Encouraging new organisation forms of hospice-owned but volunteer-led volunteer services at the end-of-life. Volunteers may be able to organise ways that support their contributions across end-of-life providers. They may be able to bring knowledge and continuity to systems of care.
Volunteers can take on significant roles for helping people, and their carers and families. This can relieve pressure on other providers, who may have other responsibilities to attend to; you can’t have one person in two places at once.
There is a call for extensive research in hospices, in particular hospice volunteering. It can build a base around the effectiveness and economic impact of volunteer-led, volunteer delivered and volunteer enable innovation.
In conclusion…
It’s known to us now just how important volunteers are for Hospices. There is no doubt that this importance is only going to increase as pressure on hospices increases. Volunteers will continue to be the backbone of hospice services, and more should be done to support volunteering in these circumstances.
If you’re looking for a volunteer management system, why not sign up for a FREE trial with us! Head over to our website, and set your site up now…
Palliative care and hospice volunteers support those with life-limiting diseases and their families. Their purpose, to improve quality of life and build deeper relationships with patients, gives valuable insight to hospices and their overall care.
Being able to understand the role that volunteers play within hospices helps improve their effectiveness and will better aid those who are thinking of volunteering. Recent evidence suggests that in order to make an impact on the development of volunteering, stronger resources and commitment from those in high positions is required.
More care and support is needed now more than ever – volunteering can play a key role in adapting to the changing needs.
Do Hospice Volunteers Need Training?
Before anyone becomes a hospice volunteer, it’s likely that training will need to be completed. Volunteer training helps prepare them for any services they may perform and understand how they will be assisting patients and their families.
It’s likely that a hospice training program will include:
Understanding the hospice’s philosophy of care.
Understanding the services delivered by the organisation.
How to properly communicate with patients, caregivers and families.
Understanding patient privacy regarding their health information.
Through this training, hospices have recorded common traits that make effective volunteers:
A sense of understanding and compassion towards those on their end-of-life journey.
A respect for all customers’ cultures and religious views.
The ability to listen when needed and be comfortable in silence.
Awareness of personal limitations.
The Types of Volunteering for Hospice Volunteers…
Hospice volunteers provide an immense amount of hours through two main categories: Direct and Indirect Care volunteering…
Direct Care Volunteering is defined by those volunteers who work directly with patients, caregivers and families. They provide comfort and support in a number of ways:
Indirect Care Volunteering, on the other hand, is for volunteers who would like to work behind the scenes. They help the hospice with any administrative tasks. For instance, preparing mailing and/or newsletters to the community. They’ll also be looking to input any general data and other clerical duties needed to be completed. Indirect Care involves making sure the hospice is known within the community and day-to-day tasks are completed for everything to run smoothly.
The Challenges for Hospices
There are concerns about the accessibility of those who can benefit from hospices services which have become a challenge. Volunteers have been a significant part of responding to this and, as a result, can be a significant advantage for hospices.
Volunteers extend the scale of availability to hospices in order to deliver a wide range of services. Importantly, they offer a prolonged connection of care to those with life-shortening illnesses in ways beyond clinical. Volunteers can help extend the reach a hospice can make in the community through stronger social activities.
A diverse range of volunteers can broaden the range of skills and benefits available to you. Hospices can reach out to the same broad community mirrored within the hospice. It’s extremely important to acknowledge the work and benefits volunteers bring, while starting to think about how volunteers can work effectively to push back against rising challenges.
How Can We Help?
With a broad range of volunteers, you might be wondering how you’re going to connect and reward them for their work… Here’s where we come in. A volunteer management system, like TeamKinetic, can help you:
Recruit more volunteers than ever before.
Fully customise your site and volunteer registration.
Communicate with your volunteers easily, all in one place.
Motive and reward your volunteers with our achievement badges or create your own!
Willowbrook Hospice provides care for patients with life limiting diseases living in St Helens, Knowsley and the surrounding areas. They rely on their fundraising methods and their dedicated volunteers. After realising they needed a volunteer management system, they came across us, TeamKinetic.
Why TeamKinetic?
For Willowbrook hospice, their previous system was archaic- there was no way to engage with their volunteers. We know the importance of interacting with volunteers we have already, so this was a concern for Willowbrook. They needed a system that allowed for this interaction. Willowbrook also wanted a web-based programme which would allow everyone to access the site from anywhere.
Benefits of using TeamKinetic:
One of the biggest benefits for Willowbrook, as mentioned above, is the ability to access the system anywhere. It’s critical for volunteer managers in each of Willowbrook’s nine shops to have access to the system. This way each shop manager can see who’s coming in to volunteer, and has all the information they need in one place.
In Willowbrook’s case, their current contact details for volunteers was through paper, which we all know isn’t the most effective. With TeamKinetic’s data protection and GDPR compliance, Willowbrook Hospice are able to see necessary contact information on volunteers profiles. If there is an emergency, managers know exactly where to go to find an email address or a phone number.
Having this information at hand means that they’re able to be more present in volunteers’ lives, through emails and messages. Since using our system, Willowbrook’s volunteers have noticed the change- they feel as if they’re more involved with the Hospice due to the update emails they receive. Willowbrook has learnt the importance of communication and engagement between themselves and volunteers along with the importance of volunteers talking with each other too.
Willowbrook Hospice’s communication:
For Willowbrook, they’ve created a befriending team between their volunteers. They’ve brought their volunteers together to support each other- especially through-out the pandemic. TeamKinetic hosts a private notes function, so Willowbrook can update when they’ve spoken to a volunteer.
All this communication has meant that volunteers feel more involved than ever with the happenings around Willowbrook Hospice and their nine shops. By involving volunteer managers and volunteers, it becomes much more likely that they will spread Willowbrook out into the world further. You’ll be attracting new volunteers whilst building and retaining the volunteers you already have. In Bev Neilson’s (a volunteer manager at Willowbrook) words, “if you want efficient communication, then you’re going to get it with TeamKinetic, definitely”.
Willowbrook also outlined the quick response rates you can get with the TeamKinetic system;
“We’ve had small events that have come up now and again. We had an event that came up where we could sell things in a local Garden Centre. It’s something we had to implement quite quickly because it was over Christmas. So, I created it on TeamKinetic and had it emailed out to all the volunteers. I would say within the hour, we filled up all the slots for two weeks worth of people volunteering for it. I think that raised over £2,000; without TeamKinetic that would never have happened.”
The ease of creating an opportunity online, and advertising it out to volunteers meant that they’re unexpected fundraising occasion was a success! Our advertising options aren’t limited to just emails, you can automatically send out a post on social media when you’ve created an opportunity, or bulk text your volunteers to let them know!
Willowbrook Hospice advice:
You’ve heard a lot from us, so here’s Willowbrook’s advice for those looking to manage their volunteers more efficiently;
“I think having this system in place helps because everything is in one place. Before it all felt a bit jumbled, we were going from system to system to try and run everything, and engage volunteers while still trying to keep in touch with them. Whereas now, we’ve got one system that we can use and as it’s web-based, like I said before, we can access it anywhere.”
What’s Next For Willowbrook Hospice?
What is happening for Willowbrook at the moment? They’ve recently celebrated World Hospice and Palliative Care Day on the 9th October. Willowbrook have decided to incorporate a Reaching Out Focus into their 2019-2022 Strategy and Organisational Work in line with this year’s theme: ‘Leave no-one behind- equity in access to palliative care.’ There objectives are as follows:
All the members of the community we serve are aware of our services, have equal access and feel comfortable to do so.
To see more people from across the communities we serve.
Thank you to Bev Neilson and Willowbrook Hospice for letting us in behind the curtain!
Find out more:
TeamKinetic helps to build better volunteer communities by providing great tools for volunteer managers that save time, increase impact and improve insight. Our goal is to make volunteering easy for everyone no matter what. But, don’t take our word for it, why not check out our customer reviews.
For more information on how we can assist with your volunteer management and getting the best out of all your volunteers, visit our website or contact us on 0161 914 5757.
Over the past 20 months we have seen organisations transform and adapt in order to continue helping those they serve. One way they have adapted is through micro-volunteering. We’ll be covering just what micro-volunteering is and how you can really get the best out of it!
What is micro-volunteering?
Micro-volunteering consists of people taking small amounts of time out of their day to volunteer; we’re looking at up to 30 minutes on a particular task, maximum. These tasks can be broken down into small parts, in which one volunteer can complete just one component. It’s convenient and low commitment actions appeal a lot to potential volunteers who may only have limited free time. Micro-volunteering takes numerous small contributions and accumulates them together to make a difference.
While the majority of micro-volunteering takes place online, through signing petitions and sharing/retweeting to spread awareness- it doesn’t have to be. You could be taking part in a run, sorting through recycling or baking for an event.
Micro-volunteering is good for organisations and it doesn’t take away from traditional volunteering. Volunteering long-term, micro-volunteers aren’t who you should be looking at. They cannot be deemed as reliable. So, if your organisation is looking at micro-volunteering, make sure that your opportunities fit the micro-volunteering mould; don’t change a traditional opportunity for the sake of it- you’ll find more often than not, it simply won’t work.
Plan Correctly…
If your organisation is thinking of using micro-volunteering, they have the chance to save themselves time and money, if planned correctly.
Start Planning. What’s the opportunity? Who’s going to manage this within the organisation?
Get Advertising. Use various websites and social media to promote your micro-volunteering opportunity.
Quick Management. Find your volunteers, get them started and confirm they know what it is they’ll be doing (there still needs to be some management even if the opportunity is small).
Recognise and Reward. Send volunteers some feedback on their completed opportunity and tell them about their impact.
The Pandemic Effect on Micro-volunteering…
As organisations rethought their volunteer programmes throughout the pandemic, micro-volunteering and the digital opportunities it provided was the gateway organisations needed to carry on. Organisation’s now face whether they keep micro-volunteering up now we return back to ‘normality’.
At AVM’s annual conference, it was mentioned that micro-volunteering should have as little bureaucracy as possible. These aren’t the volunteers you so much rely on, but they can massively make an impact within your organisation. Relationships with micro-volunteers are different from your traditional ones (mainly because you can have hundreds of micro-volunteers, so personal relationships will be hard to maintain!)
Benefits and Considerations
As we’ve hinted at, micro-volunteering does have some benefits for organisations. Currently the biggest barrier to volunteering is time. The world we live in now is fast paced, and people find that they don’t have enough time to get everything done; micro-volunteering is perfect. The flexibility of smaller tasks is appealing to many, but remember, new volunteers may be worried that they have to pledge a long-term commitment of some sort. With micro-volunteering they don’t have to.
Micro-volunteering opens you up to have a wider range of skills at your disposal (so to speak.) As volunteers are only engaged for a small amount of time, you might find that you have a group of volunteers with the same skill. Opportunities can now be split and completed quickly and efficiently: it’s a win-win. Your organisation will be getting the help it’s looking for, while volunteers haven’t lost too much of their free time.
A challenge with volunteers from an organisation’s perspective is making sure that you reach the micro-volunteering demand, especially because you’re dealing with quick opportunities. Along with this you’ll also need some sort of support for these volunteers. While they aren’t directly linked to your organisation, they’ll still need some support and direction from you. To do this, having a support tool kit you can send to your micro-volunteers with all the information they might need will set them on their way and means you can focus on other aspects of your organisation.
While your relationship with micro-volunteers is different from your traditional volunteers, you should still collect feedback (from them and from you!) As we know, micro-volunteering can be set at an arm’s length, especially for those opportunities completed online so volunteers may never know the impact they’ve made within an organisation – so make sure to let them know!
How do you know whether your organisation can use micro-volunteering?
Despite what the title says, not every organisation will work well with micro-volunteers (sadly). If you’re struggling to figure out whether your organisation would benefit, we might be able to help. Micro-volunteering is good for organisations that:
Have the potential to attract a large pool of diverse volunteers; especially those who may not have a lot of time on their hands.
Have a strong path for potential micro-volunteers to transfer into a traditional volunteer role (this may be letting micro-volunteers know where they can register their interest etc.)
Have ideas around building motivation for micro-volunteers to keep them interested in the progression of your organisation, whether it be to volunteer or just to keep in touch.
Offer new micro-volunteering opportunities to existing volunteers. This is really important now that we’re coming out of the pandemic, because volunteers’ perceptions and safety concerns have changed.
Hopefully those bullet points can give you some insight into whether, or how your organisation can start to introduce micro-volunteering into its daily process. It’s clear to see how this kind of volunteering has become popular in recent times, especially as the past 18 months have transitioned onto online platforms. If you’re thinking that micro-volunteering is something you should be adapting into your company, you might need a good volunteer management system…
Need a good volunteer management system? Look no further.
TeamKinetic helps to build better volunteer communities by providing great tools for volunteer managers that save time, increase impact and improve insight. Our goal is to make volunteering easy for everyone no matter what. But, don’t take our word for it, why not check out our customer reviews.
For more information on how we can assist with your volunteer management and getting the best out of all your volunteers, visit our website or contact us on 0161 914 5757.
Having a strong pool of volunteers is absolutely crucial for charities; and technology can be the solution to effectively recruit new volunteers. We’ve seen recently just how much technology has connected us, bringing people together – exactly what charities are looking for.
The National Council for Voluntary Organisations (NCVO) have recommended that charity organisations move to digital outputs in order to become as accommodating for potential volunteers as possible. We want to cut through current barriers stopping people from volunteering.
Managing volunteers on a digital platform builds a community, and improves communication, not just between organisations and volunteers, but between volunteers themselves too! You’ll find that everyone will be more focused on your organisation’s cause.
Richard Cooper, Director of Programmes at the Technology expresses that one of the biggest issues in charities is the lack of understanding on how technology can help. Well, we can help with that!
Why Technology/Digital?
So, why digital? You can find the right volunteers for you. With constantly changing volunteer pools, digitally advertising your opportunities gives you new options. When you promote your opportunities, you’re able to tailor your language to the volunteers you’re looking for. If you already have a good volunteer pool, you can use them as a reference… How would you promote them? What tone would you use?
By having a digital sign up/application process, you have all the information you need on a volunteer’s profile, in one centralised system. By registering online, volunteers can instantly gain access to your opportunities, and start volunteering as soon as possible!
If your charity has an onboarding or training process that volunteers have to complete, you can transfer this onto volunteer management systems too. Your processes are now streamlined and you can attract more people than ever; a digital initiative by Age UK a has amassed a 50% increase in their sign up conversions.
Perfect your Two-way Communication:
You might think that it’s all well and good having volunteers sign up, but for charities human connection and having that relationship between one another is crucial. So how do we achieve that online?
Communication between a volunteer and organisation should always go two ways: it’ll help you keep attracting and retaining volunteers. With digital systems, that communication is always open. You can build a relationship through email, chat box, or even SMS text all from one place.
This not only shows your support but can also be used to recognise volunteers. For example, within TeamKinetic’s system you can leave feedback (on both a volunteer and organisation side) thanking the volunteer in question for completing the opportunity. The Charity Retail Association (CRA) has expressed how showing appreciation can really motivate a volunteer – and we agree!
Digital systems also offer new ways to recognise and reward your volunteers too! To come back to TeamKinetic, you can create custom achievement badges such as ‘volunteer of the month’ or enable ‘HourTrades.’ HourTrades are vouchers that volunteers can swap their logged hours for. This gives them a reward (the reward is up to you!)
Has the Pandemic moved technology forward?
It doesn’t seem a surprise that the pandemic has thrown volunteering into a more digital design. Using digital platforms throughout the pandemic to work and volunteer have doubled compared to pre-pandemic rates (82%). This has meant that volunteering through the pandemic was able to continue, with new digital systems improving service accessibility by 45%. Technology has been able to improve the ease of access towards volunteering over the past 18 months, and if we look more into the future, digital platforms are here to stay.
One of the concerns surrounding moving to digital, is the lack of skills paid staff had. Yet over the past 18 months to 2 years, there’s been an increase of 73% of required staff increasing their level of digital skills. It seems the pandemic has only increased the rate at which charities are moving online and taking a more technology based approach. This is reminiscent of the work towards Volunteer Passporting, which we wrote a blog all about too!
The processes of time-consuming and complex processes are a thing of the past, streamlining your volunteer management digitally offers a comprehensive service, for your managers and your volunteers.
Want To Know More?
Here at TeamKinetic we can get you set up quickly and efficiently, so you can start to recruit, retain and realise the potential of your volunteers…
Start a free trial with TeamKinetic here. Or alternatively email chris@teamkinetic.co.uk or call on 0160 914 5757.
