Using volunteer management software can simplify the management process and allow volunteers and providers to focus on the bigger picture.
For years volunteers have dedicated their time to help organisations in all areas; youth work, teaching, befriending, sport, you get it, the list goes on!
Volunteers put in tremendous amounts of effort and passion into what they do for the community. Volunteers give up their time for a multitude of reasons like;
Change and impact the lives of others in a positive way.
Become part of a community with a shared goal.
Help those less fortunate than they are.
Provide help to a charity that once helped them.
We occasionally forget the generosity of volunteers. The number of hours they dedicate to helping others can sometimes go unnoticed. It is important for us as a community to be aware of peoples achievements. From the world-class events to small community get-togethers. all the inspiring stories can remind us of the real reasons we volunteer, and why it is so rewarding.
Why Do I Need Volunteer Management Software?
Before delving into the perks of volunteer management software, here are some quick facts and figures to consider:
Volunteer supported events across the UK are held at over 10,000 venues.
Whilst it is fantastic to see the sectors advancements, the resulting demands on volunteer managers become greater and require them to find new ways of recruiting, managing, and retaining volunteers.
Operating a modern volunteer programme manually or using spreadsheets and in-house tools often leads to time being monopolised by administrative work, rather than developing the programme. A manual system cannot support an increase in volunteer sign-ups for opportunities as the process and response become prolonged.
Volunteer managers face the challenge of creating and maintaining a digital volunteer platform and embracing the possibilities that 21 million volunteers offer. This is where a volunteer management system excels, allowing volunteer managers space and time to grow their programme and communities instead of micro-managing the process.
Volunteers want to be connected with what is happening in their community, know what their commitments are, and keep track of their achievements. Volunteers value text and email reminders of their sessions and regular updates about new opportunities. They enjoy connecting with other volunteers and want to be empowered to find and choose their own opportunities.
Volunteer managers want to be able to advertise and promote their programmes. They want to get up to date figures and KPI reports to support their programme and grant applications, communicate effectively with ever increasing numbers of volunteers. As well as, gaining real insight into the effectiveness and impact of their programme.
This is simply not possible with a manual approach. Good volunteer management software should allow the volunteer managers and volunteers access to all of the above at a reasonable cost whilst freeing up the managers to grow and improve their programme.
Why TeamKinetic Volunteer Management Software?
If you decide you do need a volunteer management system there are plenty to choose from so why choose TeamKinetic?
In a nutshell; it’s FREE, it’s powerful, it’s user-friendly, it’s trusted and it works!
The simplicity of the system enables volunteers from 9 to 90 to get on and get volunteering with little or no intervention required by the managers and coordinators. TeamKinetic comes with a variety of user-centric features including;
Logging hours and achievements in a downloadable volunteer profile.
Searching for opportunities, events and roles in their area or further afield.
Direct communication channels to the opportunity providers and other volunteers on the opportunity using Chatter.
Following favourite opportunity types and providers to get notified first when new opportunities are added.
Daily text and weekly email reminders for sessions.
Calendar views.
CPD and qualification uploads.
TeamKinetic empowers the volunteers to choose their own opportunities and commitment level. It keeps the volunteers engaged with regular updates, HourTrade rewards and our Badge levelling system.
We have extensive administration tools for creating and managing opportunities and volunteers. Daily activity summary, TeamLeader functions, profile image and identity badge creation, KPI and custom reports, text messaging, custom registration and profile questions, GDPR compliant and so much more. There is no more need for micro-managing and you can get on with the important development of your programme instead of worrying if you have enough volunteers.
Lastly, did we mention it’s free? Or choose a low monthly cost option so you can see if a volunteer management system is for you with zero or very little financial commitment.
For further information please don’t hesitate to get in touch with one of our team on 0161 914 5757 or visit our website for more information.
Admins can now register volunteers directly from their admin menu by going to VOLUNTEER MANAGEMENT > CREATE VOLUNTEER.
Create a volunteer without an email address
The admins ‘Create Volunteer’ registration page differs from the standard registration page as it allows you to create a volunteer without an email address or password. The volunteer cannot log in, so the administrator would be responsible for joining and logging hours for the volunteers account, but this negates the need to make up dummy email addresses and passwords.
If a volunteer does not have an email address, then this is shown on all pages where you can send an email to the volunteer, so you know which volunteers you will need to telephone, rather than email.
Special Requirements Status
Admins and providers can now see very easily if a volunteer requires additional support on an opportunity by the new Special Requirements icons. This helps notify the provider that they need to look at the volunteer’s details and make sure they can accommodate their individual needs.
Custom Volunteer Profile Fields
Are you fed up of using the admin notes section to record information on volunteers? Well, admins can now add custom fields to volunteers that DO NOT appear in the registration page.
This means that you can capture any information on a volunteer including:
If they have attended an internal course
Any additional information you capture during an induction
If they have completed a particular process
If they have attended an induction meeting
These custom fields are displayed in the volunteer’s profile, and you can stipulate who can see the information (volunteer, provider or just administrators)
Volunteer photos on Find Volunteers page
You can now see the volunteers photo next to their names by going to VOLUNTEER MANAGEMENT > FIND VOLUNTEERS and clicking the SEARCH button.
TeamLeaders
There is often a trusty volunteer who is on the ground and is in a much better position than the provider to help volunteers and to know which volunteers have turned up. These users can now be marked as “TeamLeaders” giving them the ability to mark whether other volunteers have attended the opportunity, which also logs the provider hours on the opportunity. You can specify the number of TeamLeaders you want per session which is independent of the number you set for volunteers.
TeamLeaders have no effect on Flexible opportunities as the checking in process is not relevant.
TeamLeaders are not currently supported on the iOS and Android apps, if you have TeamLeaders enabled users will not be prompted to try the app till TeamLeaeder functionality is included.
Following and Favourites
We have added the ability for volunteers to follow providers and opportunity categories that they like or are particularly interested in.
Once followed, whenever a new opportunity is added by their favourite providers or in their favourite categories they will receive an email with the details so they can jump in quick.
Weekly Email
The weekly email volunteers receive that summarises what’s going on in the following week has been radically overhauled. It is now far nicer to look at and includes details of any events that are going on that week, any new opportunities that have been added since the last email, and any opportunities that have sessions in the coming week. Additionally, any sessions the volunteer has joined for the upcoming week are listed.
This email goes out every Friday evening at 6:30 pm(GMT) to all those volunteers that have opted in to receiving emails and also to all those volunteers that have sessions in the coming week.
Below is an example from Queen Elizabeth Park, each email will carry the colours and branding of your site and contain your most relevant content.
You can switch the weekly email off from your super admin settings page at SETTINGS > APPLICATION OPTIONS > EVERYTHING ELSE
As always we love your feedback on these types of changes, so let us know what you think by emailing us here
Session Calendar
The session calendar now excludes sessions where the maximum number of volunteers has already been reached. In addition, any sessions in the past, that have not already been joined, do not have an active link.
This gives us a faster calendar and we prioritise sessions that are still available to join leading to a less frustrating experience for the user.
Volunteer Session Display
We’ve added a handy session view to the volunteer details page. Previously you could see the opportunities a volunteer was on and then drill down to the sessions, which was fine for most of our users.
Some users are however much more focused on sessions rather than opportunities and it was a drag having to find the opp and then the sessions. This new view available from the sessions tab on the volunteer info page lists all sessions from 6 months ago (we will be adding new searching and filtering in future releases). Any that are in the past can be quickly checked in and the hours logged. Its a great way to spot sessions where the provider has yet to log the volunteers hours.
Mobile App Prompt
We will now be giving users the chance to download our mobile companion apps from the login screen. If a volunteer accesses the login screen using an iOS or Android device they will be prompted to open the app store and download the app.
Please note that TeamLeaders are not yet supported in the mobile app.
Custom Provider Profile Questions
As for volunteers, you can now also add your own custom questions to a provider profile to store specific information you might require against each provider.
You can add these from the same place as registration custom questions in SETTINGS > CUSTOM QUESTIONS from the super admin menu.
These questions are private and not viewable or editable by the providers.
Email History
Providers can now view their email history from ACCOUNT DETAILS > EMAIL LOG. This includes emails they have sent and those they have received from the system, like opportunity joining notifications.
Admins can also see any providers email log via the providers profile page. The volunteer email log has been available since the last update.
Opportunities
More Opportunity Location Types
When creating opportunities you can now specify if the opportunity ‘covers an area’ (e.g. posting leaflets or visiting the elderly). This shows as a large circle on the map and also allows you to describe the area (e.g. North San Francisco)
You can also mark an opportunity location as ‘volunteer from home’.
Both types of new opportunity locations are available as filters, which brings us to…
New Search Filter
Volunteers can instantly filter their search results in a more user-friendly way with the addition of filters along the left side of the search results. Here you can limit the search to a particular category, opportunity type or tag etc.
Better Search Matching
We have included the ability to search for names and words with apostrophes that will match whether the apostrophe is there or not, so St David’s will match St David’s and St Davids.
Conflict Checking
Volunteers will no longer be able to join sessions that overlap in time. If they try, they will receive an alert letting them know they can’t join the session because it conflicts with an existing one.
Route Calculation
Volunteers can now calculate a route from their home location to the opportunity by car, public transport or cycle. This is accessible from the opportunity details page before they join an opportunity and from the opportunity management page location tab, if they have already joined.
Session Confirmation
Previously we only sent the session confirmation email, which consists of a summary of the sessions joined for the opportunity, the first time a user joins an opportunity per user session. This method was used to reduce the number of emails a volunteer receives immediately after joining multiple sessions. This however proved to confuse the users who were suspicious of what the screen was showing them if they did not receive a confirmation email.
The confirmation email is now sent every time they join a session regardless. We would be interested to hear your thoughts on how you think this may impact the volunteer and if you have any feedback we would love to hear it.
Reports
Day Schedule report
Have you ever come in on a Monday morning and wondered what volunteering activity is happening that week. The latest update includes a report which shows you exactly what opportunity sessions are happening that day, week, or on an opportunity or event.
The new ‘Day Schedule’report allows you to view a list of all sessions that are taking place on a particular day (or range of days) by going to REPORTING > REPORTS & ANALYSIS then click on the OPPORTUNITIES tab and scroll to the bottom of the page.
These also contain the list of TeamLeaders currently on the session and it also allows you to flip a volunteer from a regular to TeamLeader roles.
Opportunity Tags report
You can now see how many opportunities are tagged with a specific word, and how many hours have been logged against it. To access this report go to: Reporting > Reports & Analysis > Opportunities from side menu then scroll down the page.
Orbit Summary Reports
For those of you in an Orbit network, you can now search across the entire Orbit for volunteers, providers and opportunities. You can quickly find out what Orbit member a resource belongs to, and some useful information about each resource.
This is available from its own menu entry ORBIT SUMMARY. This will only be visible for administrators of Orbit systems.
References
Complete references yourself
If you like all your volunteers to have a reference before they join any opportunities, then this update will certainly be of interest.
Admins can now complete references themselves, or they can manually send a reference form to a referee. This allows you to hold references against volunteers before they have even joined an opportunity.
We have also added the ability to re-submit a reference to the original referee.
We welcome your thoughts and your feedback on these changes if you wish to share them with us just drop me a quick email.
We would love to see you all at our conference this year, where we can talk about the future developments in TeamKinetic in much greater detail. If you have not claimed your free ticket yet, then head to your application or call us in the office on 0161 914 5757 and we will get you booked on.
In a digital age where it seems that everything relating to training, development and even networking can all be accessed online it can sometimes prove challenging to convince or justify time away from the office. We wanted to provide you with 6 reasons to get out of the office and hopefully, convince you to attend a volunteering conference in the future!
You owe it to your volunteers
Countless volunteers travel, give up their time and go out of their way for various volunteering roles. Whether it’s staying an extra couple of minutes to tidy up or responding to an urgent last-minute call to cover a shift, volunteers always have a knack for giving more than expected.
Yet, as volunteer managers, we sometimes forget to prioritise operational and strategic tasks which will provide a greater long-term benefit, becoming immersed by working in our volunteer programme instead of on it.
Sometimes we need to take a step away from our organisation’s day-to-day running to learn, exchange best practice and hard-learned lessons with your peers, or just simply reiterate the steps we need to ensure long-term value in our volunteering programmes. A focused conference can do just that.
If you stop learning, you stop growing (and so does your volunteer programme)
This nugget of wisdom often echoes through any informative or educational events marketing material. Yet, despite its excessive use, it remains true and is one of the most important factors for ensuring you prioritise your personal and professional development.
Without developing your skills and knowledge of the latest trends, technology and discoveries, you put yourself at a disadvantage. Ensuring that you spend sufficient time developing an awareness of new developments will ensure that you protect your volunteer programme and safeguard preparation for future changes.
Who said work should be boring ….have fun
We have all been guilty of slipping into a routine where we repeat activities daily, trying to reduce any distractions and focus on what matters. In doing so, we inadvertently remove the sources of entertainment, creativity and inspiration we previously amused ourselves with and used to fuel our work with the necessary passion it deserves.
Attending a conference provides an opportunity to find new inspirations in an environment that is fun, welcoming and different. Simply by removing ourselves from the confines of our office, we open our minds to new stimuli that can inspire a change in our approach. The opportunity to meet new people, learn new ways and experience new places, genuinely excites (most) of us.
Network, Network, Network
Meeting someone in person provides a real chance to connect. You notice their body language, facial response and their voice. Collectively these interactions have a much greater value which is longer lasting and valued.
The importance of building your network is beneficial to both yourself and your organisation. It could be as simple as identifying new suppliers or sharing approaches to a shared challenge. The value and potential of collaboration, open discussion and mutual interest make networking very worthwhile.
Industry Insight
The opportunity to listen to industry-leading figures can provide a chance to learn valuable information and insight that you may not have been aware of or had access to. As speakers want to be recognised for their experience and expertise they will supply their audience with an arsenal of practical and easy-to-implement takeaways; from bite-size easy wins to long-term strategic considerations.
Lunch, Lunch, Lunch
As every volunteer manager knows, it is important to keep your workforce focused and fed. So make sure you don’t miss out on the top lunch provided and enjoy a freshly prepared, wholesome and tasty lunch with refreshments.
So what are you waiting for, you owe it to your volunteers!
So there you go, 6 compelling reasons for you to give up your desk for one day, go on an adventure to discover, network and learn.
If you would like to find out more about TeamKinetic’s Annual Conference or Volunteer Management Software, please get in touch.
You can find TeamKinetic on social media and listen to our podcast:
Volunteers’ Week is a great celebration of the effort and value volunteers provide. But let’s not let it end here! We need to keep on celebrating. Make sure you say “Thank you” to your volunteers, helpers, doers and anyone that makes it happen.
Volunteers Week 2018 – 1st to the 7th June
TeamKinetic shares 3 simple insights from its Volunteer Management Software on how to say those two important words “thank you”
Tell your Volunteers what impact they have made.
Saying ‘thanks’ is a good start, but if you want to supercharge the impact of your thank you, look at how you can convey the difference that volunteer has made.
Now it’s not always possible to send out personalised messages to every volunteer, but you can quickly summarise what volunteers mean to your service or organisations and what has been achieved collectively.
Using TeamKinetic, many of our customers are able to send personalised, impactful thank you messages directly to Volunteers immediately after they have finished their work. We have seen volunteers twice as likely to volunteer again when someone says thank you and takes the time to explain what a difference they made.
Put a little thought into your “Thank You”
Every volunteer manager knows they rely on superstar volunteers. The person who will turn up no matter what. Where you have someone special, let them know. It does not have to be expensive or time-consuming, you just have to get a little creative.
If you’re not the creative type, why not look at some of the great ideas suggested by the Scouts.
TeamKinetic’s real-time reporting makes it simple to know who your superstars are. It’s easy to see which individuals you simply could not live without from our Volunteer dashboards.
Be authentic, be consistent.
People can soon tell if the messages they receive are just automated messages. Don’t be a robot! Put some personality into it when you say “Thank you” to your volunteers.
Having said that, there are some really useful messages that you can set to run automatically and can make your volunteer offer more consistent. Wish your volunteers a Happy Birthday, tell them when they have been with you for a year, or when they pass a milestone such as 100 hours volunteered.
TeamKinetic has been busy developing its milestones function. This will make it even simpler to build up a range of fantastic, motivating and inspiring messages to keep your volunteers hooked on helping.
All that is left to say, is Thank You for reading, I hope it makes a difference to your volunteers and I look forward to hearing what works for you and your teams.
Happy Volunteers Week
You can find TeamKinetic on social media and listen to our podcast:
This year TeamKinetic is celebrating our tenth year helping to build volunteer communities! We thought to celebrate this alongside Volunteers Week 2018 and do something special.
Celebrating 10 Years of TeamKinetic
In ten years of business, we have grown to become a trusted partner for many organisations that help volunteers. Our flagship Volunteer Management Software is one of the most advanced and complete volunteer management systems available, and each day we continue to plan its development to meet the needs of our customers and the sector. We now serve hundreds of happy organisations across the globe and have logged nearly a million volunteer hours.
To celebrate we wanted to do something special. Of course, we considered the obvious choices for a tenth birthday, such as a trip to the zoo or a bouncy castle party. All of which were very tempting, but, we realised that spaces might be a tad limited. Instead, we made the decision to do something that everyone would appreciate, enjoy and access: A £10,000 give away*.
That’s right a £10K give away.
What’s included in the 10K give away?
1 x TeamKinetic Enterprise Edition Volunteer Management Software (worth over £3000). For one lucky winner’s organisation, a one year license for our bespoke volunteer management system.
2 x tickets for TeamKinetic’s annual volunteer conference. On the 12th September 2018 TeamKinetic welcomes a host of industry and thought leaders to Manchester to join us for the annual conference. This year’s event is our best to date, with speakers including Kristen Stephenson (Head of Volunteering at Sports England), Fiona Liddel (Volunteering Development Manager at WCVA), and many more.
£10,000 worth of Free upgrades from TeamKinetic FREE to TeamKinetic COMMUNITY. This version of volunteer management software is hosted on our national volunteer website, TryVolunteering.com.
So how do you get involved with the #TKGIV?
To enter you just need to follow these simple steps;
On Friday 1st June 2018, Volunteer Week will start. At 9:00am TeamKinetic will be tweeting:
“ VOLUNTEER MANAGERS IT’S TIME TO CELEBRATE #Volunteersweek
@TeamKineticUK are throwing a £10,000 Give Away of Volunteer Management Software & More
Simply retweet, tag two other volunteer managers and include these 2 hashtags #TK10GIV #Volunteersweek”
And you will automatically be entered.
The Small Print:
This competition will run from 9:00 am on 1st June 2019 until 11:59 pm the 7th June 2018. The winners and how to access the free upgrade to TeamKinetic Community will be announced on TeamKinetic’s Twitter Channel (@TeamKineticUK) at 12:00 pm on Friday 8th June 2018.
TeamKinetic is excited to be giving away these prizes, we hope you will be able to support us and many other organisations by spreading the word across your own social media channels.
TeamKinetic has been providing volunteer management software to third-sector organisations for over ten years. As part of our service, we also provide free volunteer management software to organisations through our national brokerage website tryvolunteering.com providing TeamKinetic FREE.
This is the perfect opportunity for organisations to test the benefits of advertising opportunities nationally, understand the benefits of volunteer management software’s reporting functionality and test the responsiveness of volunteers to join opportunities through an online portal. TeamKinetic FREE lets you manage an unlimited number of volunteers on one opportunity.
To help understand the benefits of volunteer management software, TeamKinetic have put together this short guide:
What is volunteer management software?
‘Volunteer Management Software’ is a term coined to describe a built-for-purpose computer system which can be used by voluntary organisations to recruit and manage volunteers. It creates an online portal for volunteers to access advertised opportunities, which in turn makes volunteering more accessible. There are various systems available on the market. Each provider of volunteer management software takes a different approach to delivering their software system and this is reflected in the functionality, features and design.
Who uses volunteer management software?
Volunteer management software is used by many voluntary, non-government, education, health and sport organisations. The staff that use the systems often include volunteer managers, community engagement officers, events coordinators, sports development officers, volunteer coordinators, HR and operation staff, and many more.
What does volunteer management software do?
Volunteer management software helps organisations to reduce the amount of time spent on administrative tasks. The software also helps to recruit and deploy volunteers. Depending on the software provider, additional functionality may be available, such as reporting features, social media sharing, communication tools and much more.
What is the difference between free and paid versions of volunteer management software?
Free volunteer management software often has limitations or simplified functionality. As more functionality, reports and functionality increase, so does the price of the software.
TeamKinetic provides several volunteer management software options to match the needs of different organisations. We have one free version and three paid versions of volunteer management software.
TeamKinetic FREE is a free volunteer management software system that is hosted on tryvolunteering.com. You can’t control the look at feel of the site, but you can advertise opportunities and invite volunteers.
TeamKinetic ADVANCED and TeamKinetic ENTERPRISE are both bespoke systems that are hosted on their own domain and include higher functionality features. You can find out more about this on our website.
What features and functionality does TeamKinetic FREE include?
TeamKinetic FREE is a national volunteer brokerage system with advanced volunteer management functionality; it acts as a virtual portal for volunteers to find voluntary opportunities. Removing the restrictions of traditional volunteering sign-up, your organisation will be bought into the digital age and will save valuable time, previously spent on administration tasks.
In all versions of TeamKinetic’s volunteer management software volunteers can access all of the same features. These features include:
the ability to join opportunities,
Create a profile
track achievements
add CPD and qualifications
track opportunities attended
log hours
Search for opportunities, events and training by:
keywords
categories
activities
distance and date
leave opportunity feedback
share opportunities on social media
As an opportunity provider you can:
Create a profile for your organisation
Create opportunities
Manage unlimited volunteers
Group volunteers
Check DBS
Request references
Access automated emails
Upload documents
Restrict opportunities
Share the opportunity onto Do-It
Using TeamKinetic enables you to report on essential KPIs and Data, including:
Gender of Volunteers
Volunteer Ethnicity
Volunteer Age Groups
Volunteer Group Membership
Hours Logged by Category
Opportunity numbers by category
Monthly cumulative logged hours
Unique Active Opportunity Sessions
Available Opportunity Sessions
All of this data is available for download in a CVS file.
What if my organisation needs its own system?
As mentioned, TeamKinetic also provides bespoke volunteer management software systems which can be integrated into your organisation’s current website. We are more than happy to discuss the pricing of the system, the specification required and which version would best meet your organisation’s needs.
Where can I find out more / Can I discuss this further with you?
TeamKinetic is always happy to help and support voluntary organisations and we will happily discuss which option of our software would be best suited to your organisation’s needs. Speak with one of our specialist Team today.
You can find TeamKinetic on social media and listen to our podcast:
If you haven’t started preparing your organisation for compliance then the next 3 months are crucial. If you have started getting ready for the GDPR deadline, keep going.
Make sure your board is bought in to the importance of the project. Having the support you need from the top is vital to the GDPR compliance process.
ONCE THE GDPR COMES INTO FORCE, YOUR BUSINESS MUST:*
Keep a record of data operations and activities and consider if you have the required data processing agreements in place
Carry out privacy impact assessments (PIAs) on products and systems
If applicable to your organisation, designate a data protection officer (DPO)
Review processes for the collection of personal data
Be aware of your duty to notify the relevant supervisory authority of a data breach
Implement “privacy by design” and “privacy by default” in the design of new products and assess whether existing products meet GDPR standards
What are TeamKinetic doing right now
See what we have already put in place, to be ready for 25th May 2018.
Are the rules different for electronic communications?
What is TeamKinetic doing right now?
Disclaimer: The information in this whitepaper is for your general guidance only and is not and shall not constitute legal advice. If you need advice on your rights or responsibilities or any legal advice around data protection matters, please obtain specific legal advice and contact an adviser or solicitor.
Let’s refresh…
What is the GDPR? The General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) is a binding legislative act from the European Union for the protection of personal data. The Regulation tackles the inconsistent data protection laws currently existing throughout the EU’s member states and facilitates the secure, free-flow of data.
Why do you need to know about it?
As of April 2016, businesses have been preparing for the legislation coming into effect on 25th May 2018. Although we are in the process of leaving the EU, working towards GDPR compliance remains crucial.
If you fail to comply with the Regulation you could find yourself being fined up to 4% of your company’s global annual turnover and your reputation damaged beyond repair.
That is 4500% increase on current fines that can be issued by the ICO!!
Now that the deadline is just 3 months away, is your organisation ready?
Why has the GDPR come about?
There is a need in Europe and beyond for a standardised data protection framework that addresses the rapid technological advancements that have taken place in recent years, putting the personal data of the masses at risk.
Where do vulnerabilities lie?
Everywhere. All organisations are at risk of a cyber-attack, despite common misconceptions that some industries are more secure than others.
The results of a survey carried out by the Information Commissioner’s Office (ICO) of 173 councils at the end of 2016 reveals that more than 15% of councils do not have data protection training for employees processing personal data and a third do not carry out privacy impact assessments (PIAs) as required by the GDPR.
The survey’s release coincided with the news that the ICO had fined Norfolk Council £60,000 for a data breach in which social work files were discovered in a cabinet bought in a second-hand shop by a member of the public.
Capgemini: The Currency of Trust, February 2017
74% of UK SMEs had a security breach in 2016.
While leaving vulnerable information in a cabinet or on a train may seem like a problem from 1997 rather than 2017 – when cloud technology means physical files never need to leave the office – the overarching security challenge remains.
Professionals across the public and private sectors must be aware of the nature of the data they are accessing from their home networks and ensure they are doing so securely.
Computer Weekly: Many Councils Still Unprepared for GDPR, March 2017
What about Brexit?
Despite the vote to leave the EU, UK businesses must continue to work towards GDPR compliance. Not only has the UK government stated that it is good business practice to do so, but the legislation applies to all businesses working within the EU and with EU data. A failure to comply can lead to significant fines and irreparable damage to a company’s reputation.
The latest thinking is that the UK could replace the 1998 Data Protection Act (DPA) with legislation that mirrors the GDPR, enabling the UK to achieve free data flow with the EU post-Brexit. The government has warned that it may take two to three years for the European Council (EC) to decide that the UK has an adequate data protection regime.
While the impact of the Investigatory Powers Act on the UK’s GDPR compliance has yet to be fully understood, it is possible that the mass surveillance and data retention practices carried out under the Act could cause issues when the EC comes to decide whether the UK’s practices are adequate. The existence of these two extraordinarily contradictory legislations could result in a UK equivalent of the Privacy Shield agreement held between the US and the EU to facilitate secure transatlantic data flow.
If your business activities are contained within the UK or elsewhere within Europe, you will have to observe the protections afforded by the GDPR for citizens.
What happens if my business is not complaint?
The GDPR introduces a two-tier fine system that emphasises just how small a financial deterrent existed under the Data Protection Act (DPA).
As of the 2018 deadline, any data controller or processor that fails to comply with the Regulation will face the following fines:
Tier 1
If a data breach occurs that puts highly important data at risj, the data controller/processor will be fined upto €20M (£17.25M) or 4% of the previous year’s global annual turnover, whichever is greater.
Tier 2
Any other data breach could lead to fines of up to €10M (£8.6M) or 2% of the previous year’s global annual turnover, whichever is greater.
It is estimated that if breaches remain at the same level as in 2015, the fines given will raise 90 fold from €1.4 billion to €122 billion
Key changes to consent
Do you ask your customers for permission before you use their data? Do you go a step further and tell them what it will be used for? If the answer to either – or both – of these questions is no, you could be in trouble if you don’t start changing your ways before the GDPR deadline.
Why is consent important?
Consent enables your business to lawfully process data.
Organisations applying the GDPR’s standards are giving individuals greater control over their information and, in turn, building trusting relationships that ultimately keep customers coming back for more.
Any business found to be misusing personal data will be fined according to the highest level of the two-tier system and – most poignantly – is at serious risk of damaging its own reputation. When is consent required? You must have the data subject’s consent to lawfully process their data. However, just to confuse things, there are instances that will call for consent to be acquired via alternative methods; we’ll clarify this shortly. Consent is also needed under ePrivacy laws if you’re in the business of tracking communications and installing software and apps on devices.
If you want to use someone’s personal data they must give you explicit consent to do so. This means in practise no pre-ticked boxes, a user must always choose to tick the box.
If you want to use an individual’s personal data for multiple purposes, they must give consent for each purpose, separately
Who might need an alternative method of gaining consent?
Most commonly, data controllers in a position of power such as public authorities and employers who are likely to find getting valid consent challenging and so must consider the alternative options.
For example, if you are a highly successful eCommerce business is bringing on board a new supplier of garden furniture, you will need a contract with them that clarifies the role of each party and enables you to lawfully process their data.
Whether you are the data controller or processor, you must always record how consent was given, who from, when, how, and what the interested parties were told.
You must not bundle your consent request with your standard terms and conditions.
Does your consent process meet GDPR standards?
Carry out a thorough review of existing consent processes and asses whether they meet the Regulation’s requirements. if they do, there is no need to request consent from the subject again.
Key changes to breach notifications
Europe had a phenomenally inconsistent data protection landscape. It meant that when a Switzerland-based business suffered a data breach affecting people in Greece, Italy and Spain, the organisation would need to comply with the breach notification standards of each of the three member states.
This lack of uniformity throughout Europe means that while some member states, such as Spain and Germany, are recognised for their rigorous data breach privacy laws, there are also member states with minimal to no regulations in place.
In this environment, organisations in lax member states have not needed to notify an authority of a breach.
The GDPR smooths all this out with the introduction of a single breach notification requirement.
What is a personal data breach?
A personal data breach is not simply the loss of data but a breach of security, resulting in the destruction, loss, alteration, unauthorised disclosure of or access to personal data.
When must the relevant supervisory authority be notified?
The relevant supervisory authority must be informed of any data breach that puts an individual’s rights and freedoms at risk. This includes a loss of confidentiality and financial loss.
Data controllers must inform the supervisory authority without undue delay and within 72 hours of learning of a personal data breach. They must state:
Its nature
The approximate number of people affected
The contact information for the organisation’s DPO (if one has been appointed)
The controller must also pin-point the likely consequences of the breach and the measures taken to reduce further risk to those affected.
Data processors must tell the data controller about a data breach without undue delay after having become aware of it.
If a breach is significant enough that it is in the public interest, those responsible – be that the controller or processor – must do so without undue delay.
The impact of data breaches If we hark back to our real world TalkTalk and Yahoo examples, we can see that the severe consequences each company experienced following their respective breaches were related to how they handled the aftermath of the breach and not simply because the breach happened in the first place.
What should you be doing now?
A personal data breach is not just the loss of that data but a breach of security, resulting in the destruction, loss, alteration, unauthorised disclosure of or access to personal data.
Educate your employees about personal data breaches and how to spot when one has occurred.
Set-up an internal process for reporting a personal data breach.
Make sure you have the internal resources and processes in place to detect and investigate breaches. Speak to any third-party data processers if they are storing your data.
Put an incident response plan in place.
Are the rules different for electronic communications?
No, not really. The EU has introduced a complementary legal framework to the GDPR to clarify exactly what data controllers and processors must be doing to protect individuals’ communications; electronic or otherwise.
New cookies responsibilities for browser providers Users must be given the choice to consent to cookies as part of the browser software set-up. This should reduce or eliminate cookie banners on websites entirely.
Extra-territoriality and 4% fines The Regulation no longer applies solely to the EU. It applies to anyone in the world that provides publicly-available “electronic communications services” to acquire data from the devices of EU citizens. Any organisation that breaches the Regulation will be subject to the GDPR’s two-tier fine system. That means you should be paying attention even if your business is contained within the UK.
The Regulation application is expanded Unlike its predecessor, the ePrivacy Directive, the ePrivacy Regulation goes beyond the traditional telecommunications organisations and internet service providers. It incorporates messaging apps like WhatsApp, and email providers, amongst other communications suppliers such as Facebook and Snapchat.
New rules for processing communications data The Regulation introduces new rules for handling: what was said, who said it, where and when. This data is confidential; interfering with it could result in a Tier 1 fine.
Exemption analytics cookies Businesses are exempt from the cookie consent requirement when using firstparty analytics. However, using third-party analytics platforms such as Google Analytics requires user consent.
For the non-techy amongst you, ‘party’ refers to the website that places the cookie. So when you visit www.ukfast.co.uk, and you find the domain of the cookie placed on your computer is www.ukfast.co.uk, this is a first-party cookie. If you visit www.ukfast. co.uk and a cookie by a suspiciously dissimilar name appears, this cookie has been placed by a third party.
Like the GDPR, the ePrivacy Regulation will come in to effect on the 25th May 2018.
The combined NHS Foundation Trust of Warrington and Halton Hospitals is responsible for a budget of around £215 million each year. They manage over 4,200 staff and provide access to care for over half a million patients.
Two volunteer managers, Claire and Emily, manage and coordinate volunteers across the entire trust. We spoke to Claire to find out how Warrington and Halton have managed volunteers since December 2016 using TeamKinetic volunteer management software.
Can you explain your roles and responsibilities at Warrington and Halton Hospitals?
Emily and I lead the volunteer programme here at Warrington and Halton Hospitals Trust. We are responsible for the safe recruitment and training of new and existing volunteers and developing innovative ways to engage volunteers to support patient and visitor experience. We also work alongside the whole staff team to develop and improve their volunteer management skills.
How did you come across TeamKinetic?
In a previous role, I was the North West Volunteer Centres Representative for NCVO and had a demonstration of the Volunteer Kinetic software when the Volunteer Centre network was looking at alternative brokering solutions. It was a couple of years later when working with Warrington and Halton NHS Trust that I saw the opportunity for TeamKinetic to provide its software benefits for the organisation, so I got in touch.
Can you tell me about the kind of opportunities you have available to volunteers?
Currently, we have 32 different opportunities for volunteers to get involved with. Both clinical and non-clinical. Some of these roles are more traditional such as our administrative roles, meeting and greeting and ward buddies, but there are also some unique roles that we have developed specifically for us. We have worked closely with our theatre departments, to develop roles for volunteers to assist our sterile services and provide back-office support to the stores. We also have volunteers in our eye clinic, medical engineering department and accommodation and education department to name a few.
How has TeamKinetic improved the recruitment process for volunteers?
The volunteering portal provided by TeamKinetic has allowed a simple registration process for our new volunteers enabling us to exceed our volunteer recruitment forecast to date. Being able to monitor the recruitment steps and manage the administration of DBS checks has supported a smoother and quicker registration to active rate.
How has TeamKinetic benefited the volunteer?
Our volunteers are aged from 16 to 83. For those confident using technology, it has handed over the responsibility for finding opportunities, logging hours and tracking their progress. This has incentivised them to search for more opportunities that match their interests and suit their needs.
Of course, for those less confident using technology we have spent some time showing them. For others we can imitate them as a user, enabling us to log their hours and track their activities. Provider and Volunteer feedback on the portal is also a useful tool in encouraging others to register and supports the recognition and reward of their individual contribution. We have received some great feedback from our volunteers, telling us how much they like the system and like being able to pick their own opportunities and have the ability to try a variety of roles at the same time. This has been a major draw for some of our younger volunteers who are keen to further their education and careers in the Health and Social Care field.
How has TeamKinetic benefited the opportunity providers?
Using the volunteering portal to list opportunities has made advertising opportunities across lots of social media channels and websites a lot easier. We take a short amount of time to train key staff to upload opportunities themselves if they are confident. This gives them more freedom and access to engaging volunteers who engage in their area of work
For those departments and staff who have time limitations and have a host of other programmes and systems to use, we are able to take the pressure off them and do it on their behalf. Collectively, this reduces the pressure placed on us volunteer managers and also reduces the time it takes for them to advertise opportunities.
What influence has your organisation had in the development of TeamKinetic’s functionality?
Over the last year, we have continually provided feedback on how the system could be developed to support specific aspects of our recruitment and administration processes and give us back valuable time to support our volunteers and staff. As the NHS’ recruitment is a much more stringent process compared to other sectors, such as sport. We needed a greater focus on the internal documentation required, and some of the suggestions we have made have gone into the development of the software.
What advice would you have for other NHS Trusts who need to improve their volunteer management?
For us, TeamKinetic software simplifies the recruitment and management of volunteers, enabling us to advertise opportunities on multiple social media channels and being an easy read platform for our volunteers to get involved in the opportunities available. Engaging more volunteers and providing robust good quality opportunities that support our staff and patient experience enables us to add value and improve our service to those using Warrington and Halton Hospitals NHS Trust.
Thank you for your time and comments, Claire and Emily.
TeamKinetic is pleased to announce that the latest version of TeamKinetic Volunteer Management Software has arrived, bringing with it many new tools and features.
Now available is TeamKinetic Chatter that provides isolated chat rooms for opportunities that volunteers, providers and admins can use. It is a secure platform for volunteers and opportunity providers to communicate without the use of external instant messaging services.
TeamKinetic understands the importance of being able to have a communal area for volunteer and opportunity providers to be able to share their thoughts and comments on an opportunity. It enables those essential messages to be communicated to all volunteers without the formalities of an email or the cost of a SMS text.
In developing this functionality, the option to develop an API that connects Whatsapp or Facebook Messenger was considered. However, this feature would be limited as not all volunteers have the same access or use technology to the same extent as others. Factor in the inadequate control over how the data is shared following the acceptance of terms and conditions for using an external application and developing an internal function became more appealing. To help achieve GDPR compliance, it is in the best interest of TeamKinetic and our clients to reduce any opportunity for data to be shared unnecessarily.
TeamKinetic felt that by using our own chat engine it enables the opportunity providers and administrators to control the room’s tone, message and comments using the profanity filter and comment approval and deletion features.
TeamKinetic hopes that this new feature will continue to help develop the community aspect we want all of our voluntary organisations to share with its volunteers.
We look forward to showing how to use more of our functionality in the future.
TeamKinetic’s data policy can be found here
To try out TeamKinetic Chatter please follow the instructions below:
For volunteers,
Step 1 join an opportunity
Step 2 – using the left-hand navigation bar, click onto ‘chat room’
Step 3 – enter any comments into the type area and click ‘add’
For opportunity providers,
Step 1 Using the navigation bar, hover over ‘opportunities & provider’ and on the drop-down menu, click ‘Opportunities’.
Step 2 Find the opportunity you wish to add a comment to
Step 3 Using the left-hand navigation bar, click on the ‘chat room’ button
Step 4 Enter any comments into the type area and click ‘add’
If you have any further questions or would like to share your thoughts, please get in touch with our team.
A few months ago I wrote a post about the potential impact we can all make and how we as individuals and business owners should try to maximise that impact. It occurred to me that I really needed to live by my own message and I started to look for new personal and business projects to increase my impact.
Through a friend, I was introduced to The School Under The Tree, a Manchester based charity that supports a school project in Ethiopia. The charity name echos its beginnings, a young Ethiopian man teaching local street children under a tree in the town of Awasa in Southern Ethiopia. Supported by people from Manchester, that school of humble beginnings has 13 years later transformed into a provider of primary age education for over 200 students every day.
The challenge
How can we make this small school in Ethiopia, sustainable and maybe even give it the potential to grow, without it being dependant upon donations and funding?
This is a challenge many fundraisers and 3rd sector organisations around the world battle with every day. My goal is to develop a business model that will allow the school to prosper long term, whilst staying true to its goal to provide education for some of the poorest young people in this region.
Over the next few days I’ll blog about my experiences in the school and share ideas on how we might help achieve long-term viability for the School Under The Tree. If you have ideas please comment below or follow us on twitter @schoolundert.
