In-person, or place-based, signposting is often the first step in a volunteer’s journey. A visual queue can be very provoking! Just like you might update your current noticeboard with news and events, update it with ongoing and new volunteering opportunities. Signpoisitng volunteering opportunities on-site or across your organisation’s locations is a brilliant way to inspire those who have an existing affinity with your organisation, or, are simply passing by.
TeamKinetic aids the creation of physical volunteering opportunity advertisements with the ‘Print’ tool. Press ‘Print’ on an opportunity to generate a poster. The poster includes the opportunity details you entered and a QR code to the opportunity page. Existing employees can also download a volunteering opportunity list as a CSV or PDF. This is especially useful when looking to fill skill-based opportunities that may be best suited to those with existing knowledge of your organisation.
If you want to get even more creative, Canva and Adobe are useful tools for creating free signage or posters. Design your poster to be visually appealing and informative. Don’t forget to include the opportunity QR code linked to your TeamKinetic site! With the QR code, volunteers can scan, view and join the opportunity via their mobile phone.
Best Practice Inspiration
This is an example of best practice in-person signposting by A.C.E. A.C.E’s inclusion of location and contact details and a thorough ‘Opportunity Description’ make for an informative poster generated using TeamKinetic’s ‘Print’ tool.
More Signposting Best Practice!
For guidance on other best practice signposting methods including website signposting, search engine signposting and social media signposting, click here.
Ensure you follow us on our social media pages to receive regular updates about the voluntary sector and learn more about the TeamKinetic system. You can find TeamKinetic on social media and listen to our podcast:
The Importance of Signposting for Search Engine Optimisation
You may be surprised by how many people scout out volunteering opportunities online before inquiring or joining an opportunity. Even with all the best in-person signposting, you will not appear in an online search without effectively signposting your volunteering opportunities on your organisation’s website and TeamKinetic site! The aim of search engine optimisation (SEO) is for your organisation’s TeamKinetic site to appear at the top of the search engine, e.g. Google, results page. Therefore, an important element of best practice signposting is search engine optimisation. As outlined below, effective signposting for search engine optimisation includes updated content, location data, detailed opportunity descriptions and links.
How?
When creating an opportunity, be sure to provide a detailed ‘Opportunity Description’, list any ‘Benefits & Perks’, ‘Skills Required’ and ‘Search Tags’. Therefore, when people are searching for volunteering opportunities, either on a search engine or within your TeamKinetic site itself, there is more likelihood that the keywords used will match up. If a volunteering opportunity is long-standing, it is a good idea to update the ‘details’ so that your site’s content is accurate and fresh. Websites that have regularly refreshed content tend to rank higher on the search engine results page.
Besides being a crucial element of a volunteering opportunity, including location data in your volunteering opportunity is a factor in search engine optimisation. When creating an opportunity, select ‘Pick the Location’ and enter the address details. Those browsing online for volunteering opportunities will be doing so via an IP address linked to their location. If your volunteering opportunities contain location data, those who are nearby are more likely to see your TeamKinetic site at the top of their search results page.
Including inbound links to your own website, news feed, or blogs can also boost your chances of ranking highly on the search results page. A good place to include a link to your organisation’s website would be the ‘About Us’ and ‘Home’ pages on your TeamKinetic site. Volunteering opportunities could include a link to your volunteering-related website news feed within the ‘Opportunity Description’. As with signposting on your organisation’s main website and social media, including links to your TeamKinetic site adds continuity across your organisation’s online platforms. High online presence raises SEO.
Best Practice Inspiration
An example of best practice signposting for search engine optimisation is Glasgow Life‘s TeamKinetic ‘Home’ page. Glasgow Life has included various outbound links; linking to their organisation’s main website under the ‘Back to Glasgow Life Volunteering Homepage’ button, to volunteer registration under the ‘Register Now!’ link, a ‘log in’ link, and registration buttons depending on whether a site visitor is ‘Interested in Volunteers?’ or ‘Recruitng Volunteers?’.
More Signposting Best Practice!
For guidance on other best practice signposting methods including in-person signposting, website signposting and social media signposting, click here.
Ensure you follow us on our social media pages to receive regular updates about the voluntary sector and learn more about the TeamKinetic system. You can find TeamKinetic on social media and listen to our podcast:
For most organisations, their website is the go-to destination for information about what they do, where to find them and who to contact. Therefore, signposting your TeamKinetic site on your organisation’s main website is best practice. Showcasing your current volunteering opportunities inspires involvement with your organisation. Continuity between your website and TeamKinetic site helps to create a more rounded picture of your organisation. This way, volunteers can have insight into their impact and how this benefits the purpose of your organisation.
How?
If possible, be sure to update your volunteering website features regularly. This is key for ensuring you come to the top of online search results. If you have an existing ‘news’ feed, recent and current volunteering events will fit in nicely. Entice those browsing your website with past and present volunteering projects, events and initiatives. Also, collect volunteer testimonies and feature them alongside the opportunity details. Hearing from a volunteer helps to assure prospective volunteers that your organisation is welcoming and personable.
Include a call to action button! For example, ‘Volunteer with us’ or ‘Volunteer now!’. This can be in addition to more detailed opportunity descriptions, or as a stand-alone prompt. If you have less time or resources to create a volunteering news-style feed, simply linking to your TeamKinetic website via a call to action button will be effective. You can link to any relevant area of your TeamKinetic system; specific opportunities, your TeamKinetic homepage or volunteer registration.
Using volunteering-related keywords in your website will mean that those looking for volunteering opportunities with your organisation, or similar, are more likely to be directed to your organisation’s website. Signposting volunteering news and opportunities on your website is a simple way to increase your chances of ranking higher in search results. Optimising your TeamKinetic page for Google search is explored in the TeamKinetic Best Practice – Search Engine Optimisation Signposting guide.
Best Practice Inspiration
An example of best practice website signposting would be Wiltshire Wildlife, who have a tab on their main organisation website that links directly to their TeamKinetic site. In addition to this, their ‘Blog’ and ‘News’ tabs feature regular volunteering opportunity-related updates and information.
More Signposting Best Practice!
For guidance on other best practice signposting methods including in-person signposting, search engine optimisation signposting and social media signposting, click here.
Ensure you follow us on our social media pages to receive regular updates about the voluntary sector and learn more about the TeamKinetic system. You can find TeamKinetic on social media and listen to our podcast:
TeamKinetic is perfect for showcasing your volunteering opportunities, but how do you make the journey to registering as a volunteer clear and simple? You may already be doing one or more of the following, depending on the nature of your organisation. But, as you will see, it is vital to effectively signpost your volunteering opportunities across in-person and various digital spaces! This way, you will maximise your volunteer reach and outcomes.
Click any of the above for guidance on how and why to incorporate each signposting method.
Ensure you follow us on our social media pages to receive regular updates about the voluntary sector and learn more about the TeamKinetic system. You can find TeamKinetic on social media and listen to our podcast:
If you are a volunteering-involved organisation, don’t be quiet about it on social media! Social media signposting is best practice for attracting volunteers to your TeamKinetic. After creating an opportunity on your TeamKinetic site, there is an option to ‘Share’ to multiple channels including your organisation’s social media accounts under the ‘Promote’ tab on the left-hand toolbar. If your organisation already communicates with existing and prospective volunteers via their Facebook page, for example, then posting about volunteering opportunities on Facebook will increase your chances of attracting enthusiastic volunteers! Similarly, where enabled, your volunteering opportunities can be shared between different organisations’ TeamKinetic sites or national brokerage sites such as Do it, the Wales Council for Voluntary Action (WCVA) or the Scottish Council for Voluntary Organisations (SCVO).
In addition to your website, regularly update your social media page with volunteering news. Post links to opportunity pages on your TeamKinetic site, and engage with other sector voices. For example, the National Council for Voluntary Organisations (NCVO), the Association of Volunteer Managers (AVM) or Volunteer Scotland. Engaging with sector voices over social media draws attention to your organisation’s social media profile, and, in turn, drives traffic to your TeamKinetic site. Ways to engage with other organisations’ social media pages are; reposting and adding some of your thoughts, commenting on another page’s posts, or simply being active and liking posts that are of interest or relevance to your organisation. If links to your website and TeamKinetic site are present on your social media pages, either in your page’s ‘bio’ or within posts, your TeamKinetic site will be easy to find!
Best Practice Inspiration
An example of best practice social media signposting would be One Knowsley, who post a volunteering opportunity of the week feature across their social media pages. Including the opportunity link makes it quick and easy to view the opportunity page. Mentioning Guide Dogs improves One Knowsley’s chance of achieving a wider audience reach on Twitter.
More Signposting Best Practice!
For guidance on other best practice signposting methods including in-person signposting, website signposting and search engine signposting, click here.
Ensure you follow us on our social media pages to receive regular updates about the voluntary sector and learn more about the TeamKinetic system. You can find TeamKinetic on social media and listen to our podcast:
The TeamKinetic 2023 Conference took place on Wednesday the 27th September. We brought together voices from across the third sector, all discussing the latest hot topics from the world of volunteer management.
This year, our theme was:
The changing world and its potential impact on volunteering.
All responses will be taken on board to help us make next year even better.
We kicked things off with an intro to the Association of Volunteer Managers, you can find out more about the AVM and all the great work they do for the sector here: https://volunteermanagers.org.uk
Next, we had a great Keynote from Rob Jackson on the conference theme (The changing nature of work and what this may mean for volunteering). He touched on the potential of AI and the implications for volunteer engagement professionals. He believes that AI currently has the potential to:
Create jobs
Provide health benefits
Give us freedom from the mundane
Allow us to focus on what’s uniquely human
Meanwhile, Rob mentioned that the implications for people working in volunteer management/engagement may include:
In our final session before lunch, we heard about all the new TeamKinetic App and Integrations from Rolf, as well as some recent new updates people might have missed. See this session below, or click here.
Creating Volunteer Pathways for Everyone with Tempo
Rachel Gegeshidze (CEO) & Brian Ratcliffe (Director of Operations) gave us a great presentation on how to create pathways into volunteering for everyone.
Rachel and Brian also spoke about the benefits of using Tempo Time Credits to reward your volunteers and the impact they make.
Lee Weightman (Senior Customer Manager) delivered an interesting presentation on how organisations can use First Advantage’s background check system to speed up processes.
Volunteer Experience: The Good, The Bad and The Ugly
Steve Hall (one of our Directors here at TeamKinetic) delivered an engaging session on how to improve the volunteer experience within your TeamKinetic system. There are a variety of things you can do within TeamKinetic to take your system to the next level, including custom CSS and adding your own volunteer onboarding resources.
Molly Sweeney (Volunteering Project Manager) from Groundwork London joined us to discuss how people can most effectively advertise their opportunities to volunteers. She mentioned the current issues people face:
She also proposed three models of volunteer types that can then be used to create opportunities which will improve engagement.
Last but definitely not least, Gethyn Williams dropped in to talk to us about the Digital Volunteer Toolkit we’re building in collaboration with AVM.
The toolkit aims to help Volunteer-Involving Organisations adopt digital tools and approaches that are right for them. You can help shape the toolkit by responding to this poll about the issues you face in volunteer management: https://forms.gle/8qJDzbyxuLuSTEHp6
If you have any questions about the conference don’t hesitate to reach out. You can email alex@teamkinetic.co.uk or you can find TeamKinetic on social media and listen to our podcast:
Join Steve in this TeamKinetic Masterclass on improving your volunteers’ experience. He covers the key areas in which administrators can configure their TeamKinetic site in a good or bad way, with examples of both.
TeamKinetic offers a lot of flexibility for how your system can look and perform. Some of our users configure their systems with tight deadlines, which can mean areas are overlooked or not given the appropriate attention. The result is a difficult navigation experience for volunteers. This session covers how to improve your site’s look and feel, about us page, onboarding, automated emails and document hub.
You can check the latest training dates from within your system. Just go to ‘Help & Support’ → ‘Extra Training’.
If you’d like to suggest a future TeamKinetic Masterclass, please let us know. We’d be happy to develop one on any topic! You can get in touch via our website, email, phone, or social media. See all the important links below.
You can find TeamKinetic on social media and listen to our podcast:
TeamKinetic recently attended the Why Sports ‘Improving Health and Increasing Activity Conference’ at the Royal Society of Medicine. Focusing on preventative health measures, the conference featured voices from the public, leisure, education and sports sectors. It was an informative, thought-provoking day punctuated by 8 themed sessions including a panel discussion hosted by TeamKinetic’s director, Chris. Here’s our Why Sports Conference roundup!
So, Why Sports?
It’s common knowledge that activity is beneficial for the mind and body. Healthier people live happier lives. Those at the Why Sports conference want to turn this knowledge into concrete action. As Mike Farrar from Ukactive articulated at the conference opening, we must align the physical activity sector with the health sector. When scaled, case studies and pilots by the likes of Sport England and Ealing Council can create widespread, real-life outcomes.
Social prescribing links together groups, services, people and activities within communities to address the social, emotional and practical influencers on health and wellbeing. Active Travel Lancashire have taken an approach that prioritises activity in communities by encouraging local cycling and walking.
Keep offering support. In a couple of years time, the data will highlight the benefits of these ambitious schemes.
Without the likes of Gemma Hyde from the Town and Country Planning Association, such schemes could not be scaled. Gemma defined the concept of 20-minute neighbourhoods, why they benefit people’s health and, importantly, how can we make them happen. Using architectural design to remove barriers to activity is a significant undertaking that sparks much debate. The benefits of such a setup reach beyond health. If done in an inclusive, viable manner, 20-minute neighbourhoods can greatly benefit the environment and economy.
The Conference encouraged partnerships of all kinds; between charities, community groups, councils and the NHS. Such partnerships provide direction and outcomes that can inform government policy and implementation. For the second time, Raleigh Bikes was a Why Sports sponsor. Birmingham and Southall’s free bike schemes evidence the power of activity once social and economic barriers are removed.
TeamKinetic Panel
Volunteering isn’t just about giving; it’s about gaining too! Alongside some brilliant keynotes, the TeamKinetic panel inspired some fantastic discussion. TeamKinetic’s Chris Martin was joined by Leila Bendrimia from GLL, Bryony Hudson from Active Lancashire and Lee Malkin from Everybody Health and Leisure. The panel spoke on what volunteering means to their organisations and the difference that effective volunteer engagement software has made. The connections between leisure trusts through the Active Kindness Programme showcase the power of volunteering in the sports, health and leisure sectors. Here are some snippets from the panel discussion:
Ask your volunteers why they are there, this is crucial for volunteer retention.
Leila, GLL.
When reporting back to our board about how volunteering is going, with TeamKinetic we can dissect data at the click of a button.
Lee, Everybody Health and Leisure.
Volunteering brings all the good vibes and best out of people, but having TeamKinetic lets us translate this into something tangible you can justify to your trustees or board.
Bryony, Active Lancashire.
Final Roundup
The Why Sports ‘Improving Health and Increasing Activity Conference’ built upon our existing awareness of the benefits of activity. Hearing from industry professionals and analysing case studies will inspire and inform the implementation of additional activity-based initiatives.
Sheffield Hallam University developed the 5I’s ‘Easier to be Active’ Framework in partnership with Sport England, the Office for Health Improvement and Disparities, The Richmond Group of charities, and others. The framework overviews the necessary considerations when seeking to help people to live more active, healthy lifestyles. If you’re looking to incorporate activity into your organisation through volunteering or other schemes, this framework is a helpful starting point!
You can find TeamKinetic on social media and listen to our podcast:
The TeamKinetic 2023 Conference will take place on Wednesday the 27th September. We’ll be bringing together voices from across the third sector. All discussing the latest hot topics from the world of volunteer management. This year, our theme is:
The changing world and its potential impact on volunteering.
Get ready for an exciting online event that will bring together professionals from across the third sector. The TeamKinetic 2023 Conference is your chance to connect, learn, and grow with like-minded individuals.
The conference will feature a diverse range of sessions covering various topics related to volunteer management, digital solutions, and the future of volunteering.
Throughout the event, you’ll have the opportunity to hear from industry experts, participate in engaging discussions, and gain valuable insights that will help you excel in your own role.
Whether you’re a seasoned professional or just starting out, the TeamKinetic 2023 Conference is designed to inspire and empower you. Don’t miss out on this incredible opportunity to connect with fellow volunteer managers and expand your network.
Volunteer interviews are often a crucial step in the volunteer recruitment process. It is here that you can really get a sense of a person and their suitability for your organisation. However, conducting volunteer interviews is different to paid role interviews! Whether the potential for volunteer impact is small or big, volunteer interviews must be thoughtful and selective.
Interviewer Responsibilities
As an interviewer, it is your responsibility to lay the groundwork for a productive volunteer interview. Volunteer interviews are usually more informal than interviews for paid roles and are conducted for the purpose of getting to know the candidate as opposed to checking credentials. If necessary skills or requirements are entered in TeamKinetic, only suitable candidates will be invited to interview.
Remember that interviews are a two-way process. First, briefly outline the volunteer role and your organisation. This helps to put the interviewee at ease and affirms the focus of your discussion. Candidates should be given the opportunity to ask questions of their own in response to the information you have provided. A keen interest in the role and your organisation is always a positive!
Potential Questions
The informal nature of volunteer interviews can make it more difficult to select and sort volunteers. Having some core questions that structure the interview will make it easier to identify your chosen volunteer/s. Here are some question categories and examples to guide you when conducting volunteer interviews:
Personal
What motivates you?
Do you prefer working independently or collaboratively?
What do you like to do in your free time?
General
Do you have any personal connection to our organisation?
What attracted you most to this volunteering opportunity?
What other volunteering experience do you have, if any?
Situational
What would you do if you were faced with an unhappy patient/customer/etc?
If you felt that someone in your team was behaving inappropriately, what would you do?
Describe a volunteering situation that would require you to be empathetic.
Volunteer Selection
Use your checklist of core questions for each interview to ‘score’ interviewees. In combination with your personal impression and wider discussions that took place, a scoring system in response to specific questions ensures your interview process is fair. More broad observations you can make include:
Interviewee Green Flags
Confident responses
Referring to examples in their answers
Genuine personality
Admitting weaknesses
Knowledge of the organisation
Interviewee Red Flags
Vague responses
Unclear intentions
Not prioritising values
Lack of knowledge about the organisation
Interview Tips for Volunteers
Make sure that you have an understanding of the organisation that you wish to volunteer for. Knowing the purpose of the organisation will guide you towards being the best volunteer you can be!
Your interviewer wants to know that you will enjoy your role. Therefore, demonstrating enthusiasm for a voluntary position is particularly important. Your enjoyment and sense of purpose will be your primary motivators.
Ask questions! When researching the organisation, take note of the things that you would like to hear more about. Equally, feel free to ask any questions when the interviewer describes the role and organisation. This will show that you are interested and proactive.
You can find TeamKinetic on social media and listen to our podcast:
