Every point along the volunteer journey is crucial for nonprofits to nail—a seamless, convenient, and easy volunteer experience from start to finish only serves to keep volunteers engaged and happy to continue supporting your mission.
While it seems minor, volunteer check-in is one of those crucial journey points. Learn how to check in volunteers in the most simple and streamlined way possible so you and your volunteers can save time and focus on what matters most: making an impact.
Prior to the start of an event or volunteer opportunity, be sure to clearly communicate with volunteers and staff on site about what your check-in protocol is — whether you want volunteers to use a volunteer check-in kiosk, volunteer check-in sheet, or something else. This ensures that everyone is on the same page and the process is as smooth as possible.
To do this, send out volunteer handbooks or information cheat sheets. Or, cover your volunteer check-in process during your volunteer orientation, prior to when the event starts.
At the event, you'll also want to post a volunteer check in sign that will point volunteers to where they need to check in, if required.
Nonprofit staff members are busy. That's why manually checking-in volunteers isn’t always the best option and can often create more chaos.
Instead, offer volunteers the opportunity to check themselves in right from their phones or through a volunteer app.
Not only will this be more convenient and simple for volunteers, but it will also reduce the burden on your staff.
Sometimes, nonprofits have a diverse group of volunteers and volunteer opportunities. This means that volunteer check-in might not always look the same from event to event.
When creating your check-in process, be sure to offer the ability to check in volunteers as part of groups or teams easily, so you’re not saddled with trying to adjust your process for every opportunity.
A big part of volunteer service—and volunteer check-in and check-out— is the ability to track and document the amount of hours that each volunteer or volunteer group participates in.
To simplify the process of logging hours manually, enable automatic time tracking so volunteers don’t have to fill out manual time sheets when they check in or out. Not only will this be simpler for them, but it will be administratively less burdensome for your staff, too.
Do your volunteers often forget to check in?
That's common—with so much going on, volunteers and even staff can forget to note when they arrived and began. To avoid this, offer automated communications like day-of volunteer shift reminders and day-of geo-location check-in reminder notifications.
Plus, offer easy online access to volunteer schedules and calendars, too, so volunteers can view or adjust their commitments at any time.
Volunteer check-in is just one part of the volunteer management and volunteer coordination process‚ but a crucial one at that.
With Get Connected, your nonprofit can automate and streamline all of its volunteer check-ins online with a free app, self-check-in for groups, automated time tracking, and so much more.
Learn more about Volunteer Check-in with Get Connected
Plus, nonprofits can take advantage of an entire suite of other tools—like volunteer profiles, automatic hour tracking, a volunteer mobile app, and streamlined volunteer scheduling—and handle all of their volunteer management in one place.