Tag: Volunteer system Page 11 of 14

How to get your volunteers to log hours

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On 19th July 2021

In News & Views, TeamKinetic Features, Volunteer Management

Volunteering at its core is an entirely selfless activity completed by people with no expectation of acknowledgement. Despite this, we believe volunteers deserve to be rewarded for their hard work. But how do you do this without them logging hours? 

Why is logging hours so important?

In short, data. This data is key to your organisation to:

  • Measure success. Logged hours can represent the amount of work your volunteers are doing for their community or particular cause. 
  • Track your audience. Knowing which volunteers are continually volunteering and which ones aren’t could be incredibly insightful. Is there a particular demographic volunteering more than others? Is there a demographic that is hard to retain? This data could uncover aspects that need to change, leading onto our next point…
  • Make improvements. No volunteering programmes are perfect, but the best ones regularly review and make changes to improve. If there’s a particular demographic that isn’t returning, why?

So how do I persuade volunteers to log their hours?

  • Show them how easy it is. Showing volunteers how quickly they can log hours might help them 
  • Incentivise! Offering rewards can be a great way to get volunteers logging their hours. However, the best way to do this is to offer low-value rewards as often as possible. 
  • Intrinsic vs extrinsic motivation. Imagine this: you offer one big prize (e.g. a hoodie), after a volunteer has logged 100 hours. They log hours as a way of reaching that prize, but once they reach those 100 hours they lose motivation to log future hours – or worse, return at all. (Extrinsic motivation)
    However, if you offer small rewards such as thank you messages they will be consistently motivated by the positive way the act makes them feel. (Intrinsic motivation)

Intrinsic motivation is all about making your volunteers continually feel good about the work they’re doing and the difference they’re making, rather than working towards one particular reward. 

So how do you keep up this motivation? Giving them nice feedback is a great place to start! This will show how much you value them and will mean more to them than you may think. 

Utilising TeamKinetic to Incentivise Volunteers

Leaving Feedback

TeamKinetic allows you to leave feedback when logging a volunteer’s hours. If you forget or don’t have time to personally thank your volunteer at the end of their session, this section gives you the chance to do so. It also lets the volunteer log their own hours and leave feedback about the opportunity they joined.

Ask anyone who has volunteered – receiving feedback is a great feeling and can push volunteers to return and continue volunteering for you.

Achievement Badges

This incentive is a great way to push your volunteers to log more hours. Once a volunteer logs their hours, they will add together to create their total volunteer hours. A small way to help increase volunteers’ hours is to have achievement badges when they reach certain hour milestones.

TeamKinetic has achievement badges automatically built into the system. The achievement badge pictures and names can be customised. These badges are a great way to incentivise volunteers and get them to keep on volunteering so they can reach the next milestone.

Custom Badges

Have you ever thought about starting a ‘volunteer of the month’ award? To give your volunteers an extra incentive to volunteer more or make them feel appreciated? Yes? Keep reading, you may like what you see…

TeamKinetic allows you to create custom award badges for your volunteers. These could be ‘volunteer of the month’ or ‘volunteer of the year’. They can be absolutely anything you want and look however you want, with the fully customisable option! Once you have assigned the award to a volunteer, they will receive an email with the award in it to congratulate them. Again, this recognises the efforts your volunteers put in, helping you to retain more volunteers and hopefully gain more.

Logging hours with TeamKinetic

Logging hours with TeamKinetic is easy – as it should be on any volunteer management system. See below for the full process laid out in less than 25 seconds!

And if that’s not clear enough you can check out our full tutorial videos on logging hours as an opportunity provider and logging hours as a volunteer! 

Think it’s time to invest in volunteer management software?

You can start a free trial of TeamKinetic on our website. This will let you check out all our features for 30 days. If you like what you see, contact us to book a demo and see how we can help your organisation manage your volunteers!

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

Twitter       Facebook       LinkedIn       YouTube       Instagram       Podcast

 

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

Training Module: Setup and Configuration

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On 5th February 2021

In TeamKinetic Features, Training

TeamKinetic is a powerful volunteer management tool with a huge amount of functionality to suit every type of organisation. The key to maximising its impact on your volunteer programme is the configuration options. This training session covers a basic introduction to the different types of users and how to set up your TeamKinetic system to work specifically with your organisation. Do you want external organisations to be inducted before they can create opportunities? Do you want external organisations to be able to register at all? All these types of settings will be explained in detail during this extensive configuration training session.

Who Should Attend?

Either new administrators OR existing administrators who would like a full refresher on the configuration options available within TeamKinetic.

What does it cover?

Introduction

  • Key benefits
  • User types explained

First Steps

  • Organisation profile page
  • Changing the About Us page and T&Cs
  • Linking to social media accounts
  • Customising the look and feel of your site
  • Customising registration & volunteer profile fields
  • Configuring opportunities
  • Setting up electronic reference Forms

Users and Administrators

  • Configuring user access to your system
  • About trusted providers
  • Creating admin accounts

Communication and Information

  • Auto SMS & email communications
  • Customising emails
  • Document hub (Adding files for access by other users)

Reporting and Data

  • Setting up custom geographical areas for reporting
  • APIs and Widgets
  • Customising achievement badges & award badges

Other general settings

All the other settings that are available and what they mean for your organisation and programme.

Questions and Workshops

Any questions will be answered and workshopped in the final segment, helping you to apply what you have learnt to your own unique programme.

How do I sign up?

You can access this training from your HELP > EXTRA TRAINING menu. Purchase the number of credits you need and then click on the BOOK button and select your dates.

You can check the latest training dates from within your system. Just go to ‘Help & Support’ → ‘Extra Training’

Managing Coronavirus Vaccine Volunteers

By

On 20th January 2021

In COVID-19

Three types of coronavirus vaccine (Pfizer, AstraZeneca, and Moderna), have been approved in the UK for use on the NHS.

So far, over 3,639,309 people have been vaccinated in the UK. Additionally to this, the government have planned to have every over 18 UK citizen vaccinated by this Autumn. But until then, the government plan to have 15 million vulnerable people vaccinated by mid February. And in November it was realised the NHS would need 30,000 volunteers to help deliver the programme.

After speaking to our clients, it came to our attention that many will be simply using spreadsheets to managing their volunteers for the coronavirus vaccine, unaware of the software they could be using to help. This is where TeamKinetic can help. We offer an easy to use online system that makes managing your volunteers safe and easier.

How can we help? 

Saving Time…

When using spreadsheets to find volunteers and their contact information, it can take a lot of scrolling….and time. With TeamKinetic, it couldn’t be simpler. Our system allows you to search for a volunteer and find all their information in just a few clicks. Easy right? You can even email or text them or even set up rotas straight from the app; saving you time.

Easy Access…

Volunteers have access to their own profile in your TeamKinetic powered app. Self-service means less work for you, so if they forget any details about where they need to be and what time, they can simply log in to their profile and everything will be there with easy access. This all supported by automatic reminders about their shifts or any other requirements you may have. Saving you loads of time to support those who need a little more help.

Safety First…

Best yet, TeamKinetic is fully protected and encrypted with the most up to date security. We adhere to all GDPR regulations so you don’t need to worry about it.  Excel Spreadsheets are unsafe and are easily deleted and corrupted, what happens if your data is then stolen? TeamKinetic ensures your personal data is safe and secure and meets all legal requirements.

Hear It From Someone Else…

We recently spoke to one of our clients, Claire from Halton & St Helens Volunteer Centre. We spoke to Claire about how TeamKinetic has helped them since the start of the pandemic, to managing volunteers at their vaccination centre at St Helen’s Ruby Stadium. Here’s what she had to say about our recruitment process and communication tools…

‘I have found that the TeamKinetic support they give and app they have built to be the best way to recruit our pandemic volunteers. Since the covid-19 pandemic, it’s been a godsend really. We have noticed that other organisations have not had the ability to recruit like we can, as quickly and safely, as they don’t have this kind of support.

We have had 1500 volunteers register since the beginning of the pandemic as it is easy to get volunteers to register.

The way that TeamKinetic excels for me is the communication tools, the ability to get in touch with volunteers very quickly. We are an avid user of the community task dashboard, our volunteers very quickly pick up tasks on there, and they can chat to one another on there. So being able to text them or email them as a group or a specific cohort of volunteers is really important for us, and helps us to manage the way, when and who gets involved.

When we knew we had to ramp up for the Vaccine, it was straightforward to promote, recruit, track training and deploy the volunteers as all the volunteers and the managment tools were right there in the app’

The Community Action Network that covers Bournemouth, Dorset and Pool, started using TeamKinetic in the break between Christmas and New Year and went live with over 1200 volunteers on the 7th of January. TeamKinetic have specialised in rapid deployment so you can get on with focusing on the important job of getting people vaccinated.

Join The TeamKinetic Family Today…

To find out more about TeamKinetic, feel free to call us on 0161 914 5757 or email our Director of Sales at chris@teamkinetic.co.uk. 

Alternatively, take a look at our website to find out more and start your FREE trial today! Or, read through our social media pages for more tips and tricks – Twitter, Facebook, LinkedIn and YouTube. 

We hope you enjoy our system!

 

Training Module: Using TeamKinetic to manage your volunteer programme.

By

On 20th November 2020

In TeamKinetic Features, Training

An exciting, in-depth look at how to use TeamKinetic on a day-to-day basis to run your volunteer programme. Partly hands-on, your tutor will talk you through setting up opportunities and allow you to see the system from different users perspectives. At the end of this training session, you will have a good understanding of how each user interacts with the system and how to communicate and manage your volunteers and service providers.

Who Should Attend?

Either new employees who have taken over the role of administrator OR existing administrators who would like a refresher of all the main functionality.

What does it cover?

Volunteer Life Cycle

A practical session where attendees will experience the system from each users perspective covering the following:

  • Registering as a provider
  • [As a provider/admin] Creating an opportunity
  • Registering as a volunteer
  • [As a volunteer] Joining the opportunity
  • [As a provider/admin] Managing and communicating with volunteers on the opportunity

Managing Volunteers

  • Searching for volunteer/s
  • Search filters explained
  • Adding volunteers without an email address
  • Inviting volunteers onto the system
  • Criminal checks
  • Volunteer groups
  • Meetings and Inductions

Recognition and Rewards

  • Achievement badges
  • OpenBadges
  • HourTrades

Managing Opportunities

  • standardising activity tags
  • Shared opportunities
  • References
  • Events
  • Accreditation badges

Reporting and Insight

  • Reporting library explained
  • Exporting information

Effective Communication

  • Notifications
  • Volunteer news
  • Sending volunteers an email or text
  • Volunteer/Provider bulk emails

How to get Help

  • Support tickets
  • Contextual help

Questions and Workshops

Any questions will be answered and workshopped in the final segment, helping you to apply what you have learnt to your own unique programme.

How do I sign up?

You can access this training from your HELP > EXTRA TRAINING menu. Purchase the number of credits you need and then click on the BOOK button and select your course and dates.

You can check the latest training dates from within your system. Just go to ‘Help & Support’ → ‘Extra Training’

Managing Micro Volunteering

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On 12th October 2020

In COVID-19, News & Views, Volunteer Management

Micro-volunteering is the idea of volunteering in ‘short bursts’. This means volunteering in short and convenient ways, at times and places which suit everybody’s schedule. What makes micro-volunteering different from standard volunteering is that it can be done online or face-to-face, and doesn’t require any long term commitment. This means that the volunteer also doesn’t have to go through an application or training process first. Micro-volunteering is perfect for both volunteers and organisations! It has the potential to attract a wider diversity and greater number of people, including individuals who wouldn’t have got involved otherwise due to conflicting schedules. 

Examples of micro-volunteering include:

  • Delivering supplies to those isolating from covid-19
  • Signing online petitions
  • Writing blogs
  • Retweeting and posting relevant content to social media
  • Two minute litter pick
  • Buying a homeless person food or a hot drink
  • Researching and completing online surveys
  • Donate old clothes and goods to a charity shop

Remember this..?

Going Beyond the Ice Bucket Challenge | Ipsos

Remember when the ALS Ice Bucket Challenge went viral in the summer of 2014? Where everyone, including big celebrities like Mark Zuckerberg, would tip a bucket of ice water over their head to raise awareness of Amyotrophic Lateral Sclerosis (ALS).

Well, this was a perfect example of micro-volunteering. While this wasn’t classified as your ‘typical’ volunteering, it engaged people all over the world and encouraged them to donate their time and resources into raising awareness of ALS. This viral challenge raised $116 million over two years from people engaging in this challenge who previously might not have got involved if it wasn’t for micro-volunteering.

How has COVID-19 impacted this?

The rates of micro-volunteering will have naturally increased from COVID-19. This comes from people having too much spare time and wanting to use their time to help others during such a negative time.

COVID-19 has made the majority of the population go into self isolation to protect themselves and to protect others. This then meant many volunteers had the suspend their volunteering duties- this is where micro-volunteering comes into play! Micro-volunteering has allowed volunteers to continue their contributions whilst isolating at home. For example, VolunteerScotland has seen 60,000 people come forward as a response to COVID-19, prepared to help in the most difficult of times- and this is just Scotland!

 

The future of micro-volunteering…

Micro-volunteering is only going to continue to grow, especially considering the current climate, and this is something we need to encourage. It’s simple, without micro-volunteering there would be less people volunteering their time- especially during COVID-19. 

One of the biggest barriers to volunteering is people not having the time. Work commitments is the biggest barrier at (49%), with people ‘doing other things with their spare time’ closely following (35%), and child commitments following at (23%). Micro- volunteering allows people to contribute to volunteering around their schedule. This can even be sharing something on social media to raise awareness.

With COVID-19 now also causing volunteering barriers, micro-volunteering has come to the rescue. Micro-volunteering has allowed volunteers who are self isolating to continue to contribute to a cause from the safety of their home. This could prove to be the future for many volunteers who may not feel safe to return to face-to-face volunteering for a while. This then allows organisations to continue to receive volunteer support, despite the current COVID-19 situation.

How can you encourage micro volunteering with TeamKinetic?

During the peak of the COVID pandemic, we added an entirely new feature set around micro community volunteering. It includes a new admin and provider management page. Your volunteers also have access to their own progressive web app, allowing them to join micro volunteering tasks and record their progress using their phone.

Step 1 – Enable the community tasks feature from your super admin options menu

As you can see above, there are a few options available. Remember to give access to your volunteers and allow them to download the web app in order to access your community tasks.

Step 2 – Add your community tasks

Select ‘Community Tasks’ from the ‘Opportunities & Providers’ menu. Once you have enabled them in the super admin options menu.

Hit the big GREEN plus button to add your first community task.

There are some important things to know when adding your community tasks;

  1. All the data you add in the red section is visible publicly to your volunteers.
  2. The first set of data in the yellow section headed ‘Private Data’ is never revealed to volunteers.
  3. The second set of data in the yellow section headed ‘Data Shown to Assigned Volunteers’ is only revealed to the volunteer that applies and is accepted for the task.

You can describe the task here and provide a location for the recipient. This is as well as restricting which volunteers have access to see and pick up these tasks. You can restrict by their ID check, criminal check status, and whether they are linked to the assigned provider or not.

All your volunteers that have logged into the web app will receive notifications when new tasks are added. This will either be in the app for Android/Chrome devices or via email for iOS devices.

Step 3 – Get your volunteers completing the tasks

By enabling access to volunteers in the super admin options menu, your volunteers can login at ICanHelp.teamkinetic.co.uk. Additionally, by switching on the relevant options, you can also select to advertise the web app to your volunteers when they login on their dashboard.

When they login they will see a familiar mobile app interface and can search and select community tasks and apply to join.

Once they have applied you will see their application in your admin community tasks management page. From there you can assign them to the task. The volunteer will receive a notification that they have been assigned a task and can then view the full details in the app. Once they have completed the task, the volunteer can then update the status within the app.

It’s a super easy and fast way to encourage participation with those small micro-volunteering activities in your community. This will also help to build lasting connections.

Don’t hesitate to get in touch or open a support ticket if you need more help setting up your community tasks. You can chat to us through our website or directly email us at chris@teamkinetic.co.uk.

 

Happy International Day of Charity

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On 4th September 2020

In Charity

Every year, charities all over the world are using their resources to help support and provide hope to people in need. Now, today is the day we show our appreciation to all charities out there for the amazing work they do on a day-to-day basis. That’s why today’s blog post is all about saying THANK YOU and showing our appreciation of our charity clients!

First up…

British Blind Sport

British Blind Sport prides itself on making a visible difference through sport as we know that taking the first step into participating in a sporting or recreational activity can change lives for the better

– Alaina MacGregor, Chief Executive Officer

British Blind Sport is an amazing charity that helps the blind and partially sighted people get active and play sports. They encourage adults and children to participate in activities of all levels, from grassroots to the Paralympic Games. They believe that sporting opportunities should be available to everybody. It has been proven that sport can enhance the lives of people with visual impairments by improving their health and increasing their social interaction.

And you can help today in so many different ways. Have a look today to see how you can make a real difference through British Blind Sport by clicking here.

Dreams Come True

Dreams Come True are the only dreams granting charity that fulfils the dreams of children and young adults with such a wide range of medical conditions, locations and ages.

Dreams Come True exist to make the dreams of children and young adults come true; everyone has a dream, but the unfortunate reality is that some have less time to realise their dream. This is why Dreams Come True believe that having one moment where children can forget about the troubles they are currently facing, is a moment that they and their families get to treasure forever.

However, they can’t make any of this happen without support of others. Find out how you can help Dreams Come True today by clicking here!

Groundwork London

Groundwork London have the vision of a city where all communities are vibrant, healthy and safe. Where londoners feel empowered to come together and overcome the challenges they face, wherever they live, and whatever the circumstances or background. However, London continues to face many serious challenges. When these challenges are combined with reductions in public funding and services, it’s usually those who are most disadvantaged that are affected the most. That is why Groundwork designs projects to support these individuals and communities.

Every year they make an incredible impact on people and places in London. Last year they worked with communities across London to create and improve close to 1.9 million square metres of public parks, playgrounds, housing estates, community gardens, nature reserves, roof gardens and many more of London’s valuable public open spaces. 

They offer amazing support and advice, which you can find out about now by clicking here.

Into Games

Into-games is a wonderful charity which supports people finding rewarding careers in the games industry. Their projects connect education and industry while providing guidance for learners from primary school upwards. They do this to ensure that a career in the games sector is more accessible to a wider range of young people.

With Into-games, you can find a career, build a game, go to an event, get a mentor, and find opportunities with just a click of a button! Find out for yourself here.

Pankhurst Trust

The Pankhurst Trust was formed in 2014 as a merger between The Pankhurst Trust, which ran The Pankhurst Museum, and Manchester Women’s Aid. 

They aim to promote the equality of women, to help women suffering or at risk from domestic abuse, and to secure The Pankhurst Museum for public benefit.

This incredible charity work to ensure the powerful story of the women who won the vote continues to inspire us all to challenge gender inequality, and to ensure that those suffering domestic violence and abuse get the confidential help they need.

You can get involved today with The Pankhurst Trust by volunteering, fundraising, or donating.

Seashell Trust

The Seashell Trust is a charity dedicated to providing a creative, happy and secure environment for children and young people with complex and severe learning disabilities which include little or no language abilities. they have expert specialist teachers, care staff, onsite therapy team, assistive technologists, swimming teachers and sports coaches. All to allow their students to learn to express themselves, engage with the world, become more independent and live safe, creative and fulfilling lives.

You can start to work or volunteer for The Seashell Trust today by clicking here!

Willowbrook Hospice

Willowbrook Hospice is an independent charity established by local people to build and raise a specialist palliative care unit. Since the hospice opened in 1997, they have cared for over 9000 patients. During this time their services have grown so much that they now receive approximately 1000 patient referrals a year.

The volunteers at Willowbrook Hospice are an essential part of their team. They have event been awarded the Queen’s Award for Voluntary Service. You can join their award winning team today by clicking here. Or read about upcoming fundraising events or how you can fundraise yourself by clicking here.

So, we wanted to say…

From everyone at TeamKinetic, we thank you for the amazing work you all do every day of the year. We love working with you and providing you with volunteer management software to make running your organisation and volunteers that bit easier!

On another note, some of you reading this may not be using TeamKinetic, and might want to know what the big deal is? 

From £19 per month, TeamKinetic can help you to:

  • Expand your volunteer force with no limit on the number of volunteers you can have.
  • Create individual volunteer profiles.
  • Provide instant real-time reports.
  • Create and manage multiple opportunities.
  • Expand your volunteer reach through Facebook and Twitter.
  • Keep your volunteer’s personal data safe

But don’t just take our word for it, start your FREE trial with us today or simple book in for a demo by emailing chris@teamkinetic.co.uk

Reducing The Scare For Social Care

By

On 7th August 2020

In Charity, COVID-19, News & Views

How is COVID-19 affecting social care charities and what they can do to manage volunteers during and after the pandemic.

English and American notes with masks

COVID-19 has impacted us all in different ways. For charities, this impact has resulted in a significant loss of income with ‘only 60% of the public [saying] they’ve given to charity in the last 3 months, down from 69% in January this year’. Social care charities have been particularly hard hit. As not only have they seen a reduction in income but people are more reliant on their services during this pandemic.

Pandemic to TeamKinetic

As lockdown has started to ease many organisations are starting to explore how their volunteers can return to their roles. For social care organisations this comes with some specific risks that need to be carefully assessed and managed before volunteers can return fully. Here at TeamKinetic we have been looking at how our technology might be useful in managing and mitigating some of these risks. 

PPE

Many roles involve close personal contact for your volunteers so appropriate PPE is necessary. It is essential for volunteers to wear their PPE if their is a potential of working in close proximity or going to people’s houses. Although we cannot provide this, we can make it easier for you to make your volunteers aware of when to wear and how to wear. This can be done through training which can be made mandatory before a volunteer joins an opportunity. The training can include information on where volunteers would need to wear PPE and also demonstrations on how to wear them correctly. 

House visits may be a possibility for some of your volunteers, so risk assessments can also be uploaded on to each opportunity. 

Recruiting New Volunteers

64 – 75 year olds are the age group most likely to volunteer but since the pandemic started there has been a huge decrease in this number, with this age group more at risk if they catch the virus. Volunteers will be less likely to return to their volunteering roles because of this, meaning there will be less people available to undertake the essential work your organisation needs to do. 

You may be worried about recruiting new volunteers but with our software the on boarding process is simplified. Once a volunteer registers there profile will be available to view and they can begin to complete any training for join opportunities. This then allows you to track their training or provide additional online support, all of this done through the web. 

Our research also demonstrates TeamKinetic is more effecting at recruiting younger volunteers. This could be down to our digital tools that let you share to social media or the fact young volunteers like a digital approach. 

Spending Money More Effectively

At a time when there may be a shortage of cash, it’s important to invest it in technology that can offer significant return on investment. Volunteers have never been more important. So, investing in a good volunteer management software will increase your volunteer retention and should lead to significant efficiencies in how you deploy and manage your volunteers workforce. “This sounds expensive though” you say, but what if I told you there is a more affordable software? 

TeamKinetic Can Help

TeamKinetic volunteer management software is free for 30 days. Starting a free trial is easy, just go to our website to get started! Our system can help you create volunteering opportunities, recruit volunteers, and unite you with your community. 

For example, the introduction of our community task dashboard makes it even easier to create COVID-related volunteering opportunities to help the vulnerable people in your community.

Don’t hesitate to reach out on social media! You can find us on Twitter, Facebook, LinkedIn and YouTube. You’ll see examples of the features we have to offer and some of the people we already work with.

If you have any questions call us on 0161 914 5757 or visit our website to chat to us online.

Volunteer Managers in the ‘New Normal’

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On 27th July 2020

In News & Views, Volunteer Management

Four months on from when the pandemic’s first case started and how life has changed! Shops, pubs, restaurants, cinemas and some attractions are finally starting to reopen with COVID-19 safety measures in place. Although an end appears to be in sight (fingers crossed there is no second wave), we are going to have to adapt to what has become the ‘new normal’ for the foreseeable future. What does this mean for volunteer managers?

1. Expect fewer former volunteers

Previously, the volunteer community was largely depended on the older generation. These volunteers have since decreased due to COVID-19 and the urgency to self-isolate. Before COVID-19, an estimated 10 million volunteered at least once a month. Initial findings have suggested that this figure has now halved. This is because many of the former volunteers are now classified as high risk. Meaning they have suspending their volunteering duties to shield or because they no longer feel safe. The knock on effect of this will potentially put millions of older or vulnerable people at risk from the loss of their social relationships by giving up volunteering.

What should volunteer managers do? We think volunteer managers should ensure they are still communicating with all volunteers who are now self-isolating. This can be sending updates in engaging newsletters, or by setting up group video calls to ensure former volunteers still get some form of interaction with their friends. You could also start offering volunteering from home so volunteers can still get involved in helping others, and stay connected.

With TeamKinetic, you can stay in touch with your volunteers through email or text straight through our system. You can also create amazing newsletters using our built in email tools to keep volunteers who are shielding up to date.

2. Target Youths for Volunteering

Another impact of COVID-19 is more young people getting involved in volunteering. Many have wanted to help their local community in hope to reach a sense of normality in life and to help keep people safe. This has seen volunteer levels dramatically shift nationally for the first time since WW2. This change in patterns gives the volunteer sector hope that the number of young people will continue to increase in what had previously been an older volunteer community.

Volunteer managers should continue to try and engage younger volunteers in the ‘new normal’, especially students while schools and universities are closed or online. A key resource to engage younger volunteers is technology. Volunteer managers might consider technology that will allow young people to easily sign up for volunteering opportunities on their phone or laptop.

Here at TeamKinetic, you can take full control on engaging your younger volunteers. Our software is available as a native app from the app store and as a responsive design; meaning you can access the system on any device. This allows the younger generation the find new and exciting volunteering opportunities from one click. Also, did we mention we offer reward systems so you can continue to engage your volunteers?

3. Communication is Key

COVID-19 has undoubtedly caused confusion and uncertainty among the population. This includes volunteers, making the need for communication and transparency in the ‘new normal’ essential for volunteers to feel safe.

With volunteer rates increasing quickly, volunteer managers need to be on top of communication. This includes communicating important COVID-19 information. This is especially important when former volunteers are ready to return to their duties. Volunteer managers need to communicate with volunteers about how their roles might have changed, opportunities available, and ensure they are fully comfortable returning. This all needs to be communicated in an efficient and easy manor.

With TeamKinetic, we ensure you can communicate with your volunteers all from one software, allowing easy communication with volunteers instantly! Also, did we mention this can be done through email or text straight from your dashboard? And to make it even better, you can schedule any texts you want to send!

4. Training is Essential

To help new and returning volunteers feel safe and comfortable volunteering again, training is a must. Volunteer managers should communicate to volunteers the importance of the new way of working. This could be achieved through training or induction days, to help them understand new rules around hygiene and social distancing. These elements may also affect returning volunteers old volunteering roles, so training may be beneficial for volunteers to understand the changes around their roles. This is to ensure they feel safe and make an informed decision about the possibility of returning to volunteering.

When setting up training for volunteers, TeamKinetic allows effective communication. With our software you can easily update volunteers through email, text, or even newsletter to inform them of training and induction days.

For more information on volunteer management software visit our website or call 0161 914 5747

A Year Well Spent

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On 3rd July 2020

In News & Views

I’m writing this blog with three days left working at TeamKinetic. It’s been a year full of learning, personal growth, and questionable tea bag choices (Yorkshire is best, obviously). When I got the call back in March last year telling me that I’d gotten the job I was nervous but excited. I had no idea what to expect, but stepping into the office for the first time in July, my nerves were calmed by the friendly faces of the team! 

New Challenges = New Memories

Going from university, which is heavily theory based, into a full-time job was a challenge but I loved it! Now I sit here, exactly a year after my first day, it’s clear to me that anyone at university should strongly consider taking a placement year. The experience I’ve gained over the past 52 weeks is incredible. From volunteering at the LFC Foundation to visiting Nightstop Greater Manchester, I’ve also been introduced to a first-hand view of the tireless hard work that goes on in the third sector. 

I think my best experience while working at TeamKinetic was attending AVM’s National Conference in London. I got to talk to current and potential customers about what TeamKinetic has to offer – something that was a totally new experience for me. As someone who’s only been to London to watch Sheffield United lose at Wembley, it was nice to have a more positive memory to associate with the city!

Honourable mentions:

  • Those days when Steve would bring his VR headset into the office for us all to have a play with at lunch.

Here’s Milo having a fight with an invisible man… I think he’s winning. 

The ‘Team’ Behind TeamKinetic

A personal highlight has been working alongside Chris, Steve, and Rolf. Thanks for making work so enjoyable and supporting me and my professional growth this past year. Contributing towards the growth of TeamKinetic for the past year has been an absolute pleasure.

Also spending my placement year alongside someone else from the university made settling in that much easier, so I want to say a big thank you to Milo too. 

I’d like to wish the best of luck to Sammy and Chloe who will be taking over from myself and Milo, you can find out more about them by reading their introduction blogs below! 

Introducing TeamKinetic: Sammy Reid – Dropping the Poms

Introducing TeamKinetic: Chloe – All about creativity

If you’re ever in need of volunteer management software, I can’t recommend better people to get it from! 

Milo James: Going Out In Flames

By

On 2nd July 2020

In News & Views

Pictured above is a visible representation of how I picture myself leaving TeamKinetic on my last day.

Unfortunately for me, this is not quite accurate. And I don’t plan on any casual arson…

But this is officially my last and final blog for TeamKinetic, which has come around a lot faster than I ever could have imagined. TeamKinetic has mirrored a second home for me over the last year. You might even say, a home from home, with most weeks having spent more time with colleges than I had done with my actual family.

At The Beginning Of Time

Like starting any new job, initiation is always needed. You know the usual.

Chris (director): Here are the toilets, this is what to do in case of a fire, oh and do you like roller coasters?

Me: Erm… yeah sure, obviously lying not willing to let the other team members down, and completely ruin the works outing.

All I’m going to say is, never EVER again.

When starting any new job there are always initial uncertainties (some more terrifying than others). Will I be able to fulfil the job role? What if I hate my boss? What if he hates me? What if I don’t know the answer to something? All these little things almost fester in the mind. For me personally, I’m not a huge worrier and have a laid back approach to life. What will be, will be. However, I’m only human and these little things did bother me in the initial few weeks.

But I soon found my footing and so the journey began.

The Journey

Once I had found my inner confidence I was soon able to achieve more than I thought I initially could with TeamKinetic. Working alongside my trusty more literate colleague Alex, I or we were able to take on all the challenges which lay ahead. But I’m not here to bore you with the specific’s of all our adventures. So instead here’s a visual montage of a few things we have been involved with.

Between us

  • Over 100 blogs published
  • Consistent development of TeamKinetics SEO
  • Many many hours spent editing videos
  • Campaign planning our brains out…
  • Email, after email, after email
  • And many office laughs and giggles to accompany

In The End

Like any good story, the end is always near. But it’s been a great story to live.

Huge thanks to Chris, Steve and Rolf for having me.

And do give TeamKinetic volunteer management software a good look around, what they’ve developed over the years is actually pretty good!

They don’t talk about this though.

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