Whether you’re a small organization or a flourishing one, managing all your volunteers effectively can be a big challenge. From managing their informational data like contact details and preferences to successfully onboarding new volunteers in your organization. There are a lot of things to be managed by you as an organization to keep their volunteering journey smooth. Especially at the very beginning of their volunteering journey, when you’re onboarding new volunteers, you must make sure the process is smooth, as it sets the tone for the rest of their journey.

Therefore, relying on sheets and managing all these things manually isn’t only cumbersome but also highly prone to human errors. That’s why you, as an organization, must invest in quality volunteer management software to delegate all such monotonous work to it successfully. This way, you can ensure the work is free from errors and is also being completed right on time, as it’s automated. But choosing good software can be a bit confusing. Thus, to help you choose the best software with all the necessary features in this article, we’re going to explore some of the non-negotiable features of software.

Moreover, having good software doesn’t singlehandedly guarantee you success in managing all your onboarding and recruiting tasks smoothly. For that, you must have a well-planned and articulated volunteer onboarding checklist to make sure you’re making the right use of all the benefits of volunteer management software for necessary onboarding tasks.

Must Know Volunteer Software Features For Smooth Onboarding

1. User-Friendly Interface

One of the most important features of good software is its user-friendly interface. Imagine trying to navigate software with a cluttered layout, confusing menus, and intuitive controls. It’s like trying to find a way out of a maze in the dark. That’s why you should look for software with intuitive design, clear instructions, and easily accessible information to give your volunteers a positive onboarding impression. Furthermore, you must provide your volunteers with a smooth and uninterrupted onboarding process, as it’s considered the best way to recruit volunteers that even many big organizations swear by.

2. Customizable Volunteer Profiles

One size doesn’t fit all, especially when it comes to providing your volunteers with a fulfilling and satisfying volunteering experience. For that, you must tailor all your programs and opportunities to what your volunteers love to do, their skills, and their interests. But how would you, as an organization, know about skills and interests? That’s where your software’s features come into play again. While you’re onboarding new people in your organization, you can allow them to customize their profiles and skills so that you can give them relevant and different types of volunteer opportunities to work on.

3. Automated Communication Tools

Smooth and open communication is key to successfully onboarding new people in your organization. But manually handling all the follow-up and even onboarding emails and messages from all the volunteers can be a burdensome task for anyone. That’s why, while choosing good software for your organization, you must look for integrated communication tools in them. Using those tools, you can easily automate all the messages and notifications and send timely reminders to them. Furthermore, you can also send personalized messages to them using these tools to connect and keep them engaged.

4. Volunteer Scheduling

Volunteer scheduling is another non-negotiable feature to look for when choosing software for your organization. This feature will ensure they can easily sign up for all the upcoming events and programs as per their availability and preferences, right from their onboarding. Furthermore, you, as an organization, must know the importance of strategic shifts and timings for all the volunteers. They’re important so that you can get your work done on time and your volunteers can work as per their availability. With the help of good software, you can efficiently manage their schedules, shifts, and timings since their onboarding to ensure work is completed on time.

5. Training and Resources

For every new volunteer, you must provide training and other resources to get them familiar with your organization’s work and also equip them with other necessary skills for their role. But sending each and every person their training and resource materials personalized to their skills and roles is again pretty cumbersome. So, you must automate this task as well to keep it free from errors and ensure smooth onboarding. Therefore, look for software that can easily send all the necessary materials to them as soon as they update their role, interests, and skills on their profile.

Final Thoughts

As an organization, managing all the data and information about your volunteers can be extremely cumbersome. Furthermore, effectively handling the onboarding of all the new volunteers in your organization adds to that stress. That’s why you must invest in quality software to handle this smoothly and efficiently. We hope using the above-mentioned tips helps you choose software with the best features for your needs.