Volunteer Scheduling An Elvanto Guide

Transcription

1 Volunteer Scheduling An Elvanto Guide

2 Welcome to the volunteer scheduling manual! We know that scheduling and managing volunteers can be a huge task! This manual is here to help you use Elvanto s powerful tools to help make this process faster and simpler. Let s begin! - The Elvanto Team

3 Contents Part 1 - Introduction 1 Part 2 - Setting up 2 Building departments and assigning volunteers 4 Creating Service Types and Services 6 Part 3 - Using Services 8 Using Plans 9 Scheduling Your Volunteers 10 Working with Elvanto LIVE 12 Part 4 - Working with Volunteers 13 General communication 14 Communicating schedules 16 Swapping & Replacing 18

4 Part 1 - Introduction Without volunteers, church just does not happen. This manual will step you through the main ways Elvanto can help you run your volunteer teams. It covers: Service plans Scheduling volunteers Using LIVE services Communicating with your team members While we ve done our best to make this manual as comprehensive as possible, at the end of the day it s still only intended as a guideline. We hope that this gives you a glimpse of what could be, and how you might like to set up the system to suit your ministry. Happy reading!

5 Part 2 - Setting up Elvanto is most useful to volunteer teams when it s set up well. This part will step you through how to best set up Elvanto for your church. Building Departments Departments define how your volunteers are grouped. In your music team, for example, you might have smaller groups that work together like the band, the singers, the tech team, and the backstage crew. Each of these smaller groups should be a sub-department. Volunteers are the positions inside your sub-departments. Your band might include keyboard, guitar, bass, drums, and strings.

6 Setting up Services Service Types function as a template for the different services held within your church. Your Sunday-morning service, for example, is probably at the same time every week. Its structure and volunteer list is probably similar too. Setting up a service type will save you time every week by prefilling some of those details. We recommend setting up a service type for any regular event your church runs. For example, if your Youth Group meets every Friday night, set up a service type with a typical run sheet and the necessary volunteer positions.

7 Building departments and assigning volunteers Departments help you to manage your volunteers. This page offers some tips and things to consider when building your departments. Elvanto separates your volunteers into sub-departments and departments to make rostering your volunteers easier. Depending on what positions an individual is assigned to, they will automatically be suggested for those positions. Here s how we recommend building your departments. Departments Departments are the broadest way to divide your church s volunteers. This is a great way to separate the volunteers who help out during the main service from those who volunteer for children s ministries, or those who greet people at the door. When deciding how many departments, or what departments your church has, you should consider the structure of your church. If your church has a creative ministries head and a children s ministries head, then the volunteers from these areas are probably best separated into two different departments. Departments should be used almost every Sunday. Most churches will have a Creative Ministries Department (including the musicians and production team), a Children s Ministries Department (including children s ministry volunteers), and a Hospitality or Hosting Department (including greeters, ushers, or even people to serve morning tea). Sub-departments Sub-departments are for dividing departments up into smaller groups that serve together. Your Creative Ministries Department, for example, might include sub-departments for singers, instrumentalists, sound, and drama. You don t have to use every sub-department every week. In many churches, the communion subdepartment (within the Hospitality Department) is only used from time to time. Positions Positions are fairly self-explanatory. These are the roles that your volunteers need to fill within the service. Your singers sub-department, for example, might have a Worship Leader and a Back-up Singer position. However, you might split your singers more specifically, in order to avoid harmonies clashing. In this case, your singers sub-department might have Worship Leader, Soprano, Alto, Tenor, and Bass positions.

8 When setting your positions, think about whether you expect your volunteers to do something different depending on their position. For example, you might expect one guitarist to play a lead role, and the other to play rhythm guitar. If so, have two different positions. If you expect volunteers to do basically the same thing (like ushers, or communion preparers), then make only one position and set the position in the Service Type to allow multiple volunteers for that position. Making one broad position to encompass multiple volunteers is also a good idea for churches with more obscure instruments. Trombone or saxophone players, for example, could be included in one sub-department position: Brass. For more about how to build or edit your departments, visit this page. Assigning Volunteers In order to fill Positions, you need to assign your volunteers to department positions, as well as ensuring you ve told the system they re a volunteer. Doing so will give you a list of volunteers to choose from whenever you fill a Position. To read more about how to assign volunteers, visit this page. Self-assign For some positions, you need to give every opportunity for people to volunteer. Self-assign allows people to volunteer for things from the comfort of their own homes, without having to wonder whether their friends will think they re nerdy for knowing how to run the multi-media. Before turning on Self-assign, consider whether you need to check the competency of those volunteering before they do their job. For example, people need no special skills to be able to collect the offering, whereas they need substantial training to be a worship leader. Leave Self-assign on for Offering Collectors, but turn it off for Worship Leaders. For the positions in between them (such as musicians), also consider how likely someone is to put their hand up for that position if they doubt they actually have the skill. Self-assign is on by default, but you can turn it off for Departments, Sub-departments, or individual positions. To see how to do this, visit this page.

9 Creating Service Types and Services Setting up Services and Service Types correctly will save you time every week. Here s a few things to consider when setting up Elvanto for your church. Service Types In your church, you probably have regular gatherings that run almost the same way each time. Service Types function as templates for each service, so you don t waste time manually setting up each occurrence. This includes: Other Service Times consider who needs to arrive early or stay late (such as musicians for a rehearsal, or cleaners for a pack down), and how long you ll need them. Volunteer Positions decide which departments, sub departments and positions are needed for your Service Type. You ll also want to know how many volunteers you want serving in each position. For example, a regular Prayer Service might not need a full compliment of musicians, just a guitar. If there was no children s team for that service type, you could hide the whole department. Service Plan/Run Sheet You ll also have the opportunity to set up a plan template for that service. To learn more about service plans, have a look at this page. Custom Reporting Statistics For each Service Type, you can generate different statistics based on the values and goals of each type. For example, you might want Commitment and Recommitment statistics, so you can use these numbers as a gauge of how effective the service was. Read more about Custom Reporting Statistics by visiting this page. Service Departments To save time rostering, set up departments for ministries used in any service type. Once they re set up, Elvanto will suggest available volunteers who can be placed into unfilled positions. To refresh yourself on setting up departments, look at this page. Adding Services Some services only occur on special dates, like Christmas. Others, however, occur regularly. For these more regular services, it s easier to add lots if you ve already set them up as a Service Type.

10 In this scenario, simply select which Service Type you re planning to add and then add their projected dates. If your service is weekly, for example, just set the first date and keep adding them. By default, the next date is a week away. It s important to get the balance right when adding services. If you only add a few each time, you ll spend a lot of extra time setting up services. However, if you add too many, you ll make more work for yourself when things in your church change. That said, if it s just a minor change (like the plan template, or the start time), you can adjust the Service Type and affect all of those services. Differing Service Formats Sometimes, certain services run a different way. For example, a Baptism, Outreach, or Communion Service might look a little different to your regular Sunday service. While these services may not happen every Sunday, they still happen fairly regularly (and when they do happen, they happen in the same way). For example, an Outreach Service (think Easter, Christmas, or Mothers Day) might start earlier, have a shorter sermon, and be followed by a special morning tea afterwards. To allow for these changes, save these outreach services as a Service Type, and add them to the calendar when they are needed. Remember also to delete the service they are replacing, if they are replacing a service you ve already scheduled.

11 Part 3 - Using Services Services help you schedule volunteers, plan services, and effectively change these plans on the fly. Service Plans Service Plans are just that- a handy way to plan your services. If you ve already set up a service type, then you only have to drag across the songs, and add any other items. Scheduling Volunteers Elvanto offers a variety of ways to schedule volunteers. You can add them to services even multiple services at a time you can put them into teams and schedule the teams on, or you can set up Elvanto to automatically schedule them on. Auto-scheduling Auto-scheduling adds volunteers into required positions in selected services. It checks volunteer availability and their assigned positions to fill the needed vacancies. Elvanto LIVE Elvanto LIVE is a production tool useful when your services are actually happening. It helps you keep track of time, and make changes while the service is happening.

12 Using Plans Giving your volunteers an idea of the big picture can help them be more effective. Here s a few tips to get the most out of Service Plans: Use headers Make your plans easier to read at-a-glance by using headers. Headers can be inserted into your service plans just like any other item. Unlike items, however, headers don t count towards the service s time constraints. They re generally used to sort the different parts of your service (think worship, the sermon and announcements) into more obvious sections. For more on how to construct Service Plans, look at this link. Use notes Notes can be attached to any song or item in a Service Plan. For items like the announcements, you can put all of the announcements in a note, and the host can come on-stage and read the announcements from the LIVE service. (For more about Elvanto LIVE, go to this link.) Notes can also be assigned to departments. Avoid boring people with information they don t need to know by selecting which department the note is for. For example, Bring out communion during this song is a note for your Hosting department; your Creative Ministries department doesn t need to know this. Give access to plans It s important to equip your volunteers with access to the information they ll need during the service. So, make sure volunteers in every department have access to what they need to know. They probably won t need editing privileges, but they ll certainly benefit from being able to view service plans and notes. For more on adjusting people s access permissions, visit this page.

13 Scheduling Your Volunteers Elvanto has a variety of ways to schedule your volunteers on to your services. Let s have a look at which one is best for your church? Scheduling Individuals Scheduling individuals is the simplest way to schedule volunteers on to services. You can go through services one at a time, or select multiple services on the Services page to edit them together. If you choose to edit a large number of services at once, be careful to ensure that you don t accidentally miss something while scrolling! To see how to schedule individual volunteers onto a service, look at this link. To see how to edit multiple services together, look at this link. Scheduling Teams Scheduling Teams is an optional feature, and is exactly what it sounds like. Service teams require some initial setup, but can be changed for each individual service if someone is unavailable. Scheduling teams is the best way to schedule volunteers if your church has established teams of volunteers serving together. For example, if you always have the same five people in the sound booth every week (good sound guys are hard to find!) then make them a team and save yourself the hassle of scheduling five people on every week. To see how to set up a team, have a look at this link. To see how to schedule teams on to a service, have a look at this link. Auto-scheduling Auto-scheduling automatically schedules on the person who hasn t served in that position for the longest time (if they re available). For Auto-scheduling to work at its best, you ll need to have every volunteer s unavailability before you assign the positions. Auto-scheduling is a great tool for churches who might not have volunteers dedicated to scheduling. Auto-scheduling is also very useful for smaller churches without too many volunteers.

14 That said, there s a number of circumstances where we recommend using manual scheduling instead of Auto-scheduling. For example, a department where a few couples can only volunteer if someone is free to mind the children. Auto-scheduling can t keep track of these relationships, so it s best to manually schedule to account for these relationships. To see how to use Auto-scheduling, have a look at this link. Finding the right mix Sound like your church might need a mix of these solutions? That s okay; you can use different scheduling methods for different departments and sub-departments. Volunteer Unavailability Everyone needs to take a break at some point. It s just annoying when your entire children s ministry department decides that that point is next Sunday. Prepare for these Sundays by using Unavailability well. Volunteers can access and upload their own unavailability in the Member Area, but you can also view and edit anyone s unavailability through People > Volunteers. By regularly checking unavailability, you can see when you may need to plan something different for a service, or ask one of your neighbouring churches to borrow some talent. Also, if all of your volunteers give a reason for their unavailability, you can see which ones to contact first if you re really down on numbers, and you can support anyone in your team going through a particularly tough time. To see how to register your volunteer s unavailability, visit this page.

15 Working with Elvanto LIVE Make changes on the fly, and keep track of your service times with Elvanto LIVE. To access Elvanto LIVE, simply click the LIVE button in the top corner. If you re onstage, we recommend using Dark Mode, which you can access through Settings > Dark Mode. Keeping to the Plan Elvanto LIVE gives you all the important information: where you are in the service, how long that item should go for, and when you ought to be getting on to the next item. We recommend having Elvanto LIVE open where any host, leader, or speaker can see it (or wherever the main lectern for the service is). This allows you to send them a message saying, Time s up?, if your speaker is going overtime. Making and implementing changes Let s face it- sometimes services change quickly and drastically during the service. Elvanto LIVE allows you to communicate these changes to everyone involved. While you can just navigate to the item you now wish to do, it s best to also communicate this through the Chat area so everyone knows what s happening. Therefore, we recommend strict limits on the content of this Chat. If everyone s talking about how well your football team played, then someone might miss that you re now doing Amazing Grace instead of Blessed Be Your Name. Note also that only one person can Take Control of a service. So make sure that the right person has control of the right parts by selecting Release when they are no longer in control.

16 Part 4 - Working with Volunteers Volunteers are a huge part of the life of your church. This part shows you how Elvanto will help you better communicate with your volunteers. Letting volunteers know about their schedules Further streamline your scheduling process with automatic notifications! Elvanto can automatically notify your volunteers whenever they are rostered on. Elvanto can also automatically remind volunteers to check the schedule if they haven t confirmed that they are able to do their role in the service. Contacting volunteers Elvanto offers multiple ways of contacting your volunteers through and SMS. You can contact your volunteers based on their position, their involvement in a service, or their sub-department. Added peace of mind With the Reports To feature, you ll know if anyone can t make their schedule. Reports To allows you to set up someone who your volunteers are accountable to someone who will receive an if your volunteers decline their scheduled appearances. Power to the people With Swap & Replace your volunteers can find replacements for themselves, easing the burden on you.

17 General communication Volunteer teams are like families, and families thrive with good communication. Here s how Elvanto makes communicating easier. Contacting your volunteers There s a few avenues for contacting your volunteers through Elvanto, and each is best for different circumstances. Generally If you just want to say something to one of your departments (or any number of sub-departments), the best way to do so is through People. Start a search, selecting Departments as the main criteria, and choose whichever Departments, Sub-departments, or Positions you wish to contact. Once you ve found those you want to contact, click the Contact People button up the top. For a step-by-step guide to searching people in Elvanto, visit this page. For a step-by-step guide to contacting people through Elvanto, visit this page. Services With Elvanto, contacting volunteers for a particular service is easy! Simply go to the service that the volunteers are rostered on for, and click the Contact Volunteers button up the top. You ll then be given options on who you want to contact, and whether to use or SMS. This is particularly useful, for example, if you need to let your communion team know that there s been a mistake: they re actually on next week. For a walkthrough of how to contact people in a service, visit this page. Leaders If you ve appointed Leadership Positions in your Departments, you can easily search for your leaders using a People Search. Once you ve found those you want to contact, click the Contact People button up the top. To see how to appoint certain Positions as Leadership Positions, visit this page.

18 Message templates If you find that you keep sending the same again and again, set up a template. Note that Elvanto does not currently offer custom SMS templates, only and letter templates. To see how to make a template, visit this page.

19 Communicating schedules A large part of being a volunteer is simply showing up! Here s how Elvanto can make sure that happens? Automatic notifications Take human forgetfulness out of the equation by automatically notifying volunteers when they re on. Note that your volunteers can turn off these notifications, and also note that spam filters might begin to block these messages if they are too frequent! Learn how to set up these notifications at this page. If someone in your volunteer team is not receiving these notifications, it might be because they ve turned off Receive scheduling s in their personal information (or unsubscribed). If this person wants to be re-added to the list, you ll have to edit their personal information from the People area. Simply check the appropriate boxes below their address, or phone number. Automatic reminders Automatic reminders work in a similar way to Schedule Notifications, in that they re set-and-forget. However, Reminders counts back a number of days from the service, and s any volunteers that have not confirmed or declined their rostered position. Learn how to set up these reminders at this page. Like Schedule Notifications, Reminders can be turned off by your volunteers. If they want to be readded to this process, you ll need to edit their personal information through People. Reports Tos Reports To s are a great way to catch those volunteers who, having turned off and SMS communication, might otherwise slip through the cracks. Reports To s will notify someone whenever a person confirms or declines their position (confirms are optional). This allows you to keep track of any late withdrawals and anyone who might not know that they re rostered on. You can set up Reports To s for any Department, Sub-department or Position. If there s someone who especially needs to know they re on, you can also set up Reports To s through an individual s Account tab in their Profile page. For example, if you re welcoming a new volunteer into your ministry, you should set up their Account so that they report to you. Whenever this volunteer confirms their involvement in a service, you ll get an and be able to support them as necessary.

20 Learn how to set up Reports To capabilities at this page.

21 Swapping & Replacing Sometimes your volunteers just can t make a service you re rostered them on for. That normally means a lot more work for you. Elvanto empowers your volunteers to swap with someone, or have themselves replaced. How it works Swaps Swapping with someone is exactly as it sounds: someone asks another rostered volunteer to do their turn, in exchange for returning the favour at a later date. Swaps will only succeed if the volunteer accepts the unavailable person s request. Replacement Replacing is similar, but when they ask someone else to take their turn, they re not promising to return the favor. Replace looks at replacing the unavailable person with another volunteer who is not rostered but is eligible to be rostered on that position. For both swapping and replacing, anyone can send requests to as many people as possible at once. Unsuccessful requests If a request is unsuccessful, the person making the request will be sent an . A request will be unsuccessful if all people decline, or if the request runs out of time. Visit this page for a comprehensive walkthrough of swapping and replacing. Setting the boundaries In order to avoid chaos, Swap & Replace is best managed within limits that you can change. To update the restrictions of Swap & Replace, go to Settings > Services > Roster. Prevention and Cancellation Because sudden changes to your volunteers on the day can be a little chaotic, use Prevention and/or Cancellation to limit how soon changes can be made. The prevention setting stops volunteers from making any requests: if they try to swap or be replaced inside this time period, they will automatically fail their request. Cancellation stops any pending requests at a point so many hours/days before a service.

22 For example, if your church has prevention set to 48 hours before a service, and cancellation set to 24 hours, someone wanting to be replaced a week in advance may not find a replacement until the day before the service, but that replacement would succeed, as long as it was not within 24 hours of the service. But a person attempting to swap the day before a service would not be able to. Note that these settings are for your whole church, and cannot (yet) be adjusted for different Service Types. Department-wide settings Department settings allow you to turn on/off Swap, Replace, or both for any department.

23 Volunteer Scheduling An Elvanto Guide 2018 Elvanto Pty Ltd Updated on 24th November, 2017 We want you to be able to use this guide for training, so feel free to distribute as a whole or in part as needed.