You can create and manage shifts for all missions. This means you can create a series of shifts that are made available to volunteers in the app who have accepted that mission. Volunteers can claim shifts, and then staff can oversee all shifts in the dashboard.
Use the links below to jump to the section you wish to learn about.
Enabling shifts on mission templates
Not all of your missions will incorporate shifts. For those missions that will need this, you will need to add the volunteer scheduling option to the mission template.
Open the relevant mission template
Open the 'Volunteer Scheduling' Tab
Enable 'Shifts management'
You can also choose to enable the check-in/check-out feature here
This is not the final step, you will then need to create your shift series...
Shift Specific Settings
When creating a new mission, in the final step before publishing, you’ll see some additional shift-specific settings that you can choose to enable.
(For existing missions, click into the mission, and then into the 'Additional settings' tab on the left-hand side).
Limit how many future shifts a volunteer can book in this mission: here, you can set the maximum number of shifts a volunteer can book in for this mission
Require volunteers to scan a QR code to check in:
If you have the Check-in/Check-out function enabled, you can choose whether you'd like to generate a QR code for your volunteers to scan onsite.
You'll have the option to configure QR code check-ins at either the shift or mission level.
Mission level: A single QR code is generated for the entire mission.
Shift level (existing behaviour): A unique QR code is generated for each individual shift.
Buffer option to prevent volunteers from booking overlapping shifts:
You can now prevent volunteers from booking overlapping shifts. When this feature is enabled, volunteers won’t be able to schedule a shift that conflicts with another shift they already have.
Important: This restriction applies not only to shifts within the same mission but also to shifts on other missions or missions the volunteer might have with other Volunteero organisations through the app.
When publishing multiple missions at the same time and preventing overlap, you can now add a buffer period to allow slight overlap at the start or end of shifts.
You can define the buffer duration (e.g. 20 minutes) to better control scheduling flexibility.
For volunteers, an error message will appear like this:
When assigning volunteers manually, any conflicting shifts will be indicated with a warning icon. Staff can still override the restriction and assign the volunteer if needed.
Prevent volunteers from leaving shifts close to start time: If a volunteer tries to leave during the restricted timeframe, they will see a warning message, see below, and will not be able to leave.
They are instructed to contact the organisation if they need to exit the shift. Volunteers who joined within this timeframe are granted a 1-hour grace period to leave, in case of accidental bookings.
Creating a shift series
Now that you have turned on volunteer scheduling for the mission template, find a mission that you'd like to create a shift series for. Open the mission and click the sub page on the left-hand side titled Volunteer Shifts.
Next, you press the button on the top right of the page labelled "Add Shifts"
Configure shift preferences
Title
Keep this informative, e.g., morning/ afternoon or role type
Volunteer Limit
How many volunteers do you need for this shift?
Please note that the volunteer limit cannot be higher than the mission volunteer limit.
Description
Provide extra information relating to the shift here.
Recurrence
Now you need to set up the times and recurrence.
Note: that if you have numerous shifts in a day, you should create a series for each, e.g. Morning Session and Afternoon Session. Always keep them separated where possible. This will be easier to manage if you need to mass assign volunteers to one day only.
Approval
Toggle on request approval for the shift.
A note, regarding approval, there is the functionality to have an approval toggle on at both the mission and shift level. If you need to have an approval toggle on, and plan to use shift, then we recommend only having this on at the shift level (or the mission level) as it is a better staff user and volunteer experience.
Show attending volunteers in the app
Allow your volunteers to see the names of who else is on the shift already.
Finally, review and create shifts. Once this is done, they will show in the volunteer app, and volunteers will be able to join them or request to join.
Editing and deleting shifts
In order to view your shift series, you can either access it through the mission itself or on the scheduled shifts tab on the mission page.
Below is the view you should see.
When you make changes to a shift, it will prompt you as to whether you want to apply this change to a single shift or the full series.
Oversight and managing approvals
The easiest way to oversee all of your shifts is by viewing the scheduled shifts tab on the mission page.
Each short will show how many volunteers you have vs how many you need, e.g. 1/3. The colour coding is as follows:
Red - No approved volunteers on the shift
Orange - You have some approved volunteers, but the shift is not filled
Green - You have the full amount of approved volunteers
An icon will appear if you have pending volunteers for a shift. Click into the relevant shift to approve or deny the request.
Please note that the volunteer will not show in the numbers unless they are approved.
In order to approve pending volunteers, find the relevant shift, open it and click on the volunteer tab. Just press the arrow next to their name to deny or approve.
The view should look something like the one below.
Assigning Volunteers
Click into your shift of choice and into the all volunteers section, you can then assign volunteers to your shift.
View Overall Mission Shift Booking and Attendance
You can view a summary of each volunteer’s shift booking and attendance within a mission, including how many shifts they’ve booked, attended, missed, or cancelled.
Please note: attendance data is only available if the check-in/check-out feature is enabled.
For a more detailed breakdown of each status and how this data is calculated, please refer to this article.
Video Tutorial
If you require any further assistance, please use the support chat or email support@volunteero.org to ask a question to our friendly support team. We will be happy to help!