It's the middle of July. If you are church staff and have already been on your summer vacation, then my guess is you're beginning to stress about recruiting volunteers for the fall ministry season. Am I right?
If so, here's some help. If it looks familiar, it's a redo of a blog I did last November to introduce a series on how to use church software to build an effective volunteer system. This one, though, links to detailed articles on each topic.
We built Churchteams to be the one place you can do it all. But, if you don't use our software, you'll find these steps helpful no matter what tools you use to track them.
Register to join our team for a Volunteer Briefing: August 3rd, 1 Central.
There are seven steps to an effective, wholistic volunteer system. Click on the title of each part to learn more. We start with simply finding people.
- Recruit. Just as "America runs on Dunkin", so churches run on volunteers. The cup of coffee for waking up volunteers should be your church database. Use registrations and reports to get you going on your volunteer search.
- Interview. Once you've identified them, you need a way to connect with potential volunteers to hear their story and share expectations. Use groups to see everyone at this stage of the process at once. Then record what you learned and schedule a follow-up using notes
- Verify. Background checks are essential for many volunteer ministries especially those that involve children. In Churchteams you can add an option to a registration or email a link for volunteers to complete the necessary form. We even have a method to help you track references.
- Train. From the interview group, move qualified people to another group for training. From here send email or text reminders of live meetings, track attendance, or launch a virtual training workflow.
- Schedule. Once trained, transfer new volunteers to the team on which they will serve. Use the Service Volunteers feature to create schedules to invite and remind volunteers of the details of their service.
- Track. Use All Check through Text-to-Church for volunteers to check themselves and their family into everything they are doing during a service. This will capture their attendance. (This article will welcome you to Christmas in July.)
- Care. Attendance gives you data to measure the amount of time people are giving to serving. It also helps you recognize consistency and especially inconsistency that can be a flag that pastoral care is needed. Notes are a great resource for tracking interactions and scheduling ongoing volunteer care. Our email and texting features are state of the art for staying in touch.
Don't stress and don't back away from the challenge that comes with getting volunteers for ministry. Instead, put a clear process in place and then work the process. Want more?
Register to join our team for a Volunteer Briefing: August 3rd, 1 Central.
