Are you ready to harness the power of Virtual Roles to move your mission forward? Before we show you how to create and publish a virtual role in the software, let's think through types of virtual roles and few steps you can take to increase the likelihood of filling your virtual role.
Types of Virtual Roles:
Advisory vs Hands-on Work:
When thinking about the nature of the work, Virtual Roles will fall somewhere on the continuum of a pure advisory role and a hands on role. A pure advisory role would be an HR Advisor who answers questions and provides advice on a call, but does no work outside of the call. A pure hands-on role could be a webmaster who updates content and fixes broken links on your website, but doesn't provide any input into what goes on the website. Many roles will fall somewhere in between...such as graphic designer who creates a logo. The designer would work with you to understand and advise on various aspects of the logo, then do some work outside of the call to create and ultimately deliver the logo.
Ad Hoc vs Periodic Work:
When thinking about how and when the work is performed, some Virtual Roles will be on an Ad Hoc basis, meaning you will reach out to the Kingdom Consultant when you need their skills. An example of this would be a personal Tax Advisor. You probably don't need to talk to this person every week or month, but may need several calls when making a financial decision or preparing tax forms. Other roles will be periodic, meaning you would like a certain number of hours (or amount of work) done on a weekly or monthly basis. An example of this would be a Bookkeeper, who spends a few hours a week or month preparing invoices or creating journal entries.
Tips for creating your Virtual Role:
Be Flexible
We have a pool of Kingdom Consultants (KCs) who are so excited to use their skills and experience to meet ministry needs, and most of these Kingdom Consultants have full time jobs and other commitments. Thinking through your highest priority skill gaps is a great way to start.
Flexibility built into the process
Every virtual role opportunity requires both participants to (1) meet for a one-hour exploratory call to verify fit and (2) activate the role by agreeing to work together after that one-hour call. This one hour call allows you to tweak the responsibilities so that the role is a great fit for both participants.
Keep it Simple
In the teeter-totter of balancing skill and need, one tradeoff you should pay attention to is specificity of skillset. We are more likely going to match a volunteer to a role that requires more general skills than specialty skills. A virtual role titled "eCommerce Advisor" is more likely to be matched than a role titled "Squarespace eCommerce Integration with OpenTable."
🚧 Virtual roles is a recent product release by Switchboard. We are always looking for ways to improve our matching process. If your role takes longer than three weeks to match, don't hesitate to reach out to customer support. We can work with you to adjust the role so that it is more likely to attract applicants.
Start Small
Sure, you can create a virtual role that tops out at 6-10 hours per week. In reality, we find volunteers KCs prefer a smaller initial commitment that grows in commitment as you start to build a relationship collaborating together for the Kingdom.
Steps to Create, Edit and Publish a Virtual Role:
Let's get started with a quick demo of how to create your first role.
Log in to our app. You should be directed to the GCO Dashboard.
Look in the top right of your screen for the "Create Virtual Role" button.
Decide if you want to create the role yourself ("I'll Do it Myself") or enter some information and let AI do the work ("Use AI to Create).
If you are going to use AI, be prepared to answer:
What is the main problem you are trying to address?
What type of help do you need (advisory vs hands on vs a blend)
What time commitment are you requesting (hours per week or month)
An image (this will help with showing off your role to potential volunteers)
When you are satisfied, click "Save and Create Virtual Role."
Once you Create your Role you have the option to use any of the following buttons:
🚧 (current issue, see note below) Edit Role allows you to edit any of the information on the previous screens
Unlist Role indicates you are not ready to for Kingdom Consultants to to view and apply for this role. You can always toggle a role back to Listed
Delete Role allows you to delete the role. Only use this button if you are sure you will never use this role again. Otherwise, you can keep the role in an unpublished state and refer back to it or edit and publish at a later date.
Known Issues
🚧 Warning: You may encounter a few hiccups when managing your new roles
There's a couple of known issues to keep in mind as you start creating roles. These will be addressed shortly by the Switchboard team.
If you save your role and navigate back to your dashboard, you may not see your new role in the "Virtual Roles" section. To fix this, just refresh the page.
Sometimes your role will fail to save properly. The best workaround for this is to try to save the role again OR begin the process of creating a role a second time using some of the same inputs. We are working a solution for this!
Congrats on Publishing your Virtual Role! When someone applies for your role, you'll receive an email letting you it is time to View Applicants and schedule an Exploratory Call.
What to Expect Next - Virtual Roles is a new product, and we are busy recruiting Kingdom Consultants who are excited about serving for more hours in a longer term relationship. Unlike our 1 Hour Consult Connections which are typically filled within a day or two, Virtual Roles tend to take a little longer! Please be patient as we recruit and promote your role. If you'd like to increase the odds of filling your role, please reach out to us! We can provide you with a link you can include in your next newsletter. Who better to help you than those who are already passionate about supporting your ministry?!