When applied well, volunteer engagement can solve some of the greatest challenges that nonprofits...
In many ways, managing volunteers is more challenging than paid staff. Volunteers often work on their own time and terms, which means there’s a lot of logistical complexity to things like scheduling and timetable management.
Disorganization is one of the major impediments to growth for charities, nonprofits, and other organizations that rely on volunteers. A lack of streamlined management slows down every process, leads to confusion, and generally prevents growth from happening as fast as it should.
Streamlining your volunteer management process and implementing efficient practices could be a fast track to growth for your organization in 2024. But where do you start and how can you tailor the process to your team?
Let’s take a look at some best practices (and how Golden volunteer management software can help).
Steps to streamline your volunteer management process
Identify the highs and lows of the current process
The aim of streamlining is not to rework your entire operation. Rather, it’s to pare it down, making it leaner, more agile, and more efficient.
With that in mind, it’s essential to focus on the right areas to change—and to do this, you need to identify the highs and lows of your current process.
For example, you may have a fantastic scheduling process but need help managing recruitment. Identifying this will show you that you should focus your efforts on streamlining and optimizing your recruitment process.
Similarly, you may find that your recruitment system is clunky and struggles to sync with your Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP) platform. Changing this is a relatively simple thing to do, but it could significantly impact the efficiency of your recruitment and onboarding process.
For example, Golden volunteer management software will automatically update your ERP or CRM systems via real time integrations.
Follow a timeline and set budget
Streamlining your processes is much easier when working to a set timeline and budget. Vagueness is the enemy of streamlining, and setting a timeline and budget using a time sheets software gives you clear parameters and time-bound goals to work with.
Establish what you want to achieve and when you want to achieve it. Make sure you assign a realistic budget, too. You may find that you have to adjust your strategy to fit in with your budget, which is why it’s always best to know what budget and timeframe you’re working with before you begin.
Carry this mindset beyond the streamlining process, and use it when managing volunteers. Make sure everyone works to a clearly defined timescale and that your budget realistically covers everything you want to achieve.
This will ensure that there is no ambiguity in your volunteer strategy. Whether your volunteers are in the UK or the US, everyone will know what they are doing, when they are doing it, and the tools and resources at their disposal. This kind of clarity is vital for streamlined and efficient management.
Optimize the registration process
A robust volunteer recruitment plan can have a significant impact on your management efforts.
Start by optimizing your recruiting system, investing in dedicated software that can streamline your registration process. Look for an easy-to-use system that provides a smooth, positive experience for each potential candidate, whether you’re recruiting locally or expanding internationally.
By providing a platform for people to search for volunteer opportunities, view branded videos, and apply from their chosen device, you give a positive first impression of your brand.
At the same time, the system should benefit your team by seamlessly gathering all necessary data from potential volunteers and incorporating it into your system.
Ideally, your recruitment system should sync with things like your ERP software, volunteer database, CRM, and other relevant systems. That’s what Golden does, and it makes your recruitment and management processes more holistic and effective across the organization.
Once you’ve found the right software, consider the data you need to gather. What do you need to know to onboard new volunteers? What questions do you need to ask? What information do prospective volunteers need and at what stages in their onboarding? Are you providing location-specific information for volunteers in the UK, US, or elsewhere?
It’s also worth thinking about group registration. Sometimes, people like to register for volunteer programs in a group or as part of an organization. Enabling group registration is a great way to streamline the onboarding process in these cases.
Obtain feedback from volunteers
The volunteers you manage doubtless have ideas about what’s working and what isn’t. They may also be able to provide insight into streamlining and optimization solutions for your volunteer management.
The great thing about volunteers is that they usually care deeply for your mission. After all, they wouldn’t invest their time and energy into volunteering if they didn’t! So, they will often be more than willing to offer feedback that could improve your operation and their volunteering experience.
Ask volunteers how you could better streamline your management system through questionnaires or interviews.
Of course, you don’t have to formalize the feedback process. Being open to criticism and advice and generally listening to your volunteers can yield great results. Talk with volunteers throughout their work experience, establish positive relationships, and let your volunteers know that their feedback is always appreciated—at any time and in any format.
Grant recognition and rewards to volunteers
Volunteer appreciation isn’t just a professional or friendly thing to do. It can also have a substantial positive impact on your volunteer management processes.
After all, it’s much easier to manage a happy team that feels valued. Volunteers are kind, well-intentioned people who will gladly give up their time for your organization or mission. But they don’t want to feel like employees working for someone who doesn’t recognize or respect them. So it’s essential that they get recognition for their time and efforts.
With Golden, you can easily track contributions and make sure your volunteers know how much you appreciate their work by rewarding good efforts. This will create a positive volunteer environment, engage people in your cause, encourage hard work, and generally make your volunteers much easier to manage.
Provide continuous training and support
It goes without saying that your operations will be much smoother and more streamlined if volunteers feel confident in their role and empowered to make decisions. WIth that in mind, it’s essential to provide transparent role descriptions, offer regular training sessions, and provide ongoing support.
Doing so prevents errors, enables people to work faster, imbues volunteers with confidence in what they are doing, and furnishes them with the knowledge they need to use their initiative.
Continuously supporting and training volunteers is also essential for empowering volunteers. Empowered volunteers are much better at things like fundraising and outreach, because they are confident in what they are doing and feel able to make well-informed decisions.
Make sure that you provide continuous upskilling for all volunteers, not just new ones. Set up a support system that enables volunteers to get extra training and advice whenever needed.
Keep technology and tools up-to-date
The right technology and tools can make your volunteer management process much smoother.
For example, a good enterprise resource planning solution can collate all your volunteer management data and tools under a single platform, making it a lot quicker and easier to get the data you need, set up workflows, onboard new volunteers, and more. This makes for a far more streamlined operation than would otherwise be possible.
However, technology and tools constantly change and update. It’s not long before shiny new software becomes slow, clunky, and out of step with newer or more recently updated platforms.
So, be sure that you are always up-to-date with your tools and technology. Download updates whenever they are available, and keep your finger on the technological pulse.
Review and improve the process regularly
Even the most streamlined management process can degrade over time. As new methods, technologies, and events arise, you may find that what has worked in the past is no longer effective.
So, make sure you regularly review your volunteer management process and make adjustments where improvements are needed. With the right software, you can easily monitor your operations, integrate data from other systems, and use analytics for further insights.
Key takeaways
Volunteer management is not an exact science. Because volunteers have more independence and agency than employees, it can be hard to manage them in a streamlined way. You must work around their availability, abilities, and needs, which isn’t always easy.
However, with the right tools and techniques, you can streamline your volunteer management process for growth in 2024. With modern tools and technology, a solid culture of recognition, an optimized registration process, and a more strategic approach, you can create a slick, streamlined operation that will help your organization scale in the years to come.
If you want to retain your volunteers, it’s crucial to understand your volunteers’ needs. With a streamlined volunteer management system like Golden, it will be much easier to balance those needs with the needs of your organization.
Ultimately, streamlining your volunteer management processes will benefit everyone, from your organization and the people it benefits to the volunteers who make everything happen.
