Assigning and scheduling volunteers to a program

You need to assign volunteers to a program to then be able to schedule them.

Users set up as a Billing Owner, Organisation Administrator or Volunteer Manager can do this. 

Assign Volunteers to a Program

• Login
• Go to PROGRAMS on the left hand side menu
• Select the name of the Program you want to access
• Click on the Volunteers tab
• Click on the Add volunteers button on the right hand side of the screen at the top
• Click in the Search volunteers box and search by name or go through the drop down list
• Select the volunteer you want to add
• Click on Add

If you have a large number of volunteers to add to a program, you can bulk select them and assign them to a program via the My volunteers section.

Assign Multiple Volunteers to a Program

• Login
• Go to My volunteers on the left hand side menu
• Select the volunteers you want to add to the program
• Click on Add to program 
• Select the program you want to add them to
• Click on Save

Assigning volunteers to a program role can also help group them and make it easier to schedule them.

Users set up as a Billing Owner, Organisation Administrator, Volunteer Manager or Program Coordinator can do this. 

Assign Volunteers to a Program Role

• Login
• Go to PROGRAMS on the left hand side menu
• Select the name of the Program you want to access
• Click on the Volunteers tab
• Click on the name of the volunteer you want to assign to a role
• Click on Assign role where it appears on the volunteer record under the name of the program they have been assigned to
• Search and select the role you want to assign them to and click on Save

Further information on how to set up programs and roles can be found here.

Once you have assigned volunteers to a program and a program role you will see these roles and volunteers when you go to the Schedule tab within the program.

Any unassigned volunteers you see when you go to the schedule are ones who have not been assigned roles.

Before you assign volunteers to a program you can choose to go to a program role you have set up on the schedule and set up open shifts for that role. This can help you map out your requirements if you are scheduling a large number of shifts and volunteers.

If you need to note different requirements for different days for a number of volunteers, open shifts let you easily see how many volunteers you need. Open shifts also help remind you that you need more volunteers on that day.

Users set up as a Billing Owner, Organisation Administrator, Volunteer Manager or Program Coordinator can do this. 

Setting up open shifts

• Login
• Go to PROGRAMS on the left hand side menu
• Select the name of the Program you want to access
• Click on the Schedule tab
• Find the role and open shifts section of the schedule that you want
• Schedule a shift making sure you:
• Enter the number of slots you want to create it for
• Select the role it relates to
• Select the date the shift is being scheduled for
• Enter the start and finish time
• Enter any break details
• Select if the shift repeats and how often if it does
• Add any notes you want to include for those you assign to the shift
• Add the activity/activities that relate to the role
• Select the shift status
• Click on Save

Further information on how to set up program roles and activities can be found here.

You need to make sure you add any appropriate activities to the open shift if you want this information to be included for the volunteer.

Once you have set up open shifts you can then go in and assign these open shifts to volunteers.

Assigning open shifts

• Login
• Go to PROGRAMS on the left hand side menu
• Select the name of the Program you want to access
• Click on the Schedule tab
• Click on open shift you want to assign
• Click on the edit icon in the top right of the box that pops up
• Click on Assign slot 
• Select the shift and volunteer you want to assign and click on Okay

You can repeat this process to assign more than one slot

Once you have assigned a slot the number of remaining slots for that open shift will be updated. 

If you know what volunteers you are going to put where, you can just assign them to a shift from where they appear on the schedule once you have assigned them to the program.

Users set up as a Billing Owner, Organisation Administrator, Volunteer Manager or Program Coordinator can do this. 

Scheduling volunteers for a shift

• Login
• Go to PROGRAMS on the left hand side menu
• Select the name of the Program you want to access
• Click on the Schedule tab
• Find the volunteer you want 
• Click on the date you want to schedule them for
• Schedule the shift making sure you:
• Have the right volunteer name showing as selected
• Select the role the shift relates to
• Select the date the shift is being scheduled for
• Enter the start and finish time
• Enter any break details
• Select if the shift repeats and how often if it does
• Add any notes you want to include for the volunteer you are assigning to the shift
• Add the activity/activities that relate to the role
• Select the shift status
• Click on Save

Further information on how to set up program roles and activities can be found here.

Whether you are assigning volunteers through an open shift or assigning them to a shift from where they are listed on the program schedule, you can set the status accordingly to help you easily see what shifts have been confirmed and which ones you still need volunteers to confirm. For example, if a volunteer has already agreed to the shift you can set the status to Confirmed.

Scheduling shifts that repeat

When scheduling shifts you can choose to schedule them repeatedly on a weekly, fortnightly or monthly basis if they are recurring. Whether you are setting up recurring open shifts or scheduling volunteers for a recurring shift, you can simply choose the repeat option that applies as you follow the steps above.

You can use the Email function from within a Schedule tab to send a message and schedule to volunteers by status of shift confirmed, unconfirmed etc. so they have the details of what you have scheduled them for or if you need them to come back to you to confirm the shift.

Users set up as a Billing Owner, Organisation Administrator, Volunteer Manager or Program Coordinator can do this. 

Bulk email scheduled volunteers

• Login
• Go to PROGRAMS on the left hand side menu
• Select the name of the Program you want to access
• Click on the Schedule tab
• Click on the Email button in the top right corner
• Select the date range
• Select the shift status
• Enter the message you want to send
• Click on Send

If a volunteer has been scheduled for more than one shift of this status type within the date range you have selected, they will receive one email that details all of the shifts they have been scheduled for along with your message.

Volunteers can reply to this email to come back to you to confirm their shift, ask any questions or let you know if they are no longer available.

Email an individual volunteer their schedule

• Login
• Select My Volunteers on the left hand side menu
• Click on a volunteer’s name to access their record
• Click on the Schedule tab
• Click on the Email button in the top right corner
• Select the date range
• Select the shift status
• Enter the message you want to send
• Click on Send

If the volunteer has been scheduled for more than one shift of this status type within the date range you have selected, they will receive one email that details all of the shifts they have been scheduled for along with your message.

The volunteer can then reply to this email to come back to you to confirm their shift, ask any questions or let you know if they are no longer available.

Once volunteers have replied, you can then go in and manually update the status of the shift/s. This can be done via the schedule if you have Program Coordinator access or also via an individual volunteer record if you have Billing Owner, Organisation Administrator or Volunteer Manager access.

Update shift status via schedule

• Login
• Go to PROGRAMS on the left hand side menu
• Select the name of the Program you want to access
• Click on the Schedule tab
• Click on the shift you want to update
• Click on the edit icon in the top right of the box that pops up
• Click on Edit
• Update the Shift status and click on Save

If you have a large number of volunteers and shifts on the schedule to search you can use the Ctrl + F browser keyboard shortcut to open a find box allowing you to search the current page for text. More information on browser keyboard shortcuts that can help when using INVOLVE can be found here.

You can also collapse sections of the schedule to make it easier to scroll through to the sections you want to look at. There is an arrow at the right end of the grey bar at the beginning of each section and when you click on it that section will collapse. You can then just click on that arrow again to open it up when you want to go back to it.

Update shift status via volunteer record

• Login
• Select My Volunteers on the left hand side menu
• Click on a volunteer’s name to access their record
• Click on Schedule
• Click on the shift you want to update
• Click on the edit icon in the top right of the box that pops up
• Click on Edit
• Update the Shift status and click on Save