Your volunteers work hard, but without tracking their hours, it can feel like your program’s incredible impact goes unnoticed.
Logging volunteer hours is essential to measuring the success of your program, but capturing every volunteer hour is easier said than done. The truth is, plenty of volunteer programs just aren’t getting the data they need.
Not sure how to get started tracking your hours, or looking for a better way? We’re in your corner. We’ll discuss the common volunteer hours tracking challenges, plus proven solutions for encouraging your volunteers to log their hours.
If you’re a volunteer leader, you need to be tracking your volunteer hours. Here’s why:
Top Reasons to Log Volunteer Hours
You know why you need better volunteer data, but actually logging volunteer hours isn’t always a walk in the park…
You want to recruit more volunteers and grow your program. But the more volunteers and volunteer locations you have, the more complicated tracking volunteer data becomes.
Here are some of the most common challenges volunteer programs of all sizes face when it comes to logging volunteer time:
Here’s what’s really behind these challenges…
The Board is asking for volunteer program data. But you’re not sure where to start. You might be asking: What data do I even need? What’s the best way to collect volunteer hours? How do I present these hours to stakeholders?
Answering these questions can seem overwhelming, but we’ll break it all down!
Know you need to track volunteer hours, but not sure what other data you should be collecting? Check out our How-to Guide on Assessing, Collecting, and Leveraging your Volunteer Program Data!
You ask volunteers to log their hours at the beginning and end of each shift. That’s great! But there’s still a lot of work to be done on your end.
Thumbing through paper logs, manually entering data, staring at spreadsheets. The headaches, the papercuts! The whole process is painfully inefficient. Even if you’ve roped in a volunteer to transfer your paper sign-in sheets, there’s a better, more impactful use for your time and your volunteers’ time.
Are you finding that your volunteers just aren’t logging their hours despite your many reminder emails?
Asking your volunteers to log their own hours requires them to remember to do so and then follow the process you’ve put in place. If this is the case, you may have too many steps in place. Not to mention, some of your most loyal volunteers don’t love change and are less than eager to follow your process—especially if it involved technology.
If you’re asking volunteers to log their own hours, it has to be convenient and comfortable for them.
A volunteer forgot to sign in.
Someone brought a friend along.
You don’t yet have a process for logging volunteer hours so you just kind of estimate.
These are all common reasons your volunteer hours may be inaccurate.
If your program is still logging volunteers on paper sign-in sheets (or not at all), you may be selling yourself short.
But why is it important that your volunteer hours are accurate?
The funding and resources allocated to your program may depend on the volunteer hours logged or volunteer impact reported. But with inefficient processes vulnerable to human error, dozens (even hundreds) of missing volunteer hours can lead to lost funds.
Keeping track of volunteer time across an entire organization can be especially challenging for larger organizations with varied volunteer programs. If this sounds familiar, your big challenge is getting everyone on the same page.
Let’s say you’re a food bank with several collection locations across your community with lots of different types of volunteers, from drivers to student groups. You probably have several volunteer leaders on-site, too!
Different types of volunteers require different types of data collection. Plus, every program might have a unique process for logging hours!
There is a better way (don’t worry, we won’t leave you wondering).
You’ve heard of volunteer management software and volunteer apps that make logging volunteer hours a breeze. But you worry they’re just too far beyond your program’s budget.
There are plenty of great solutions designed for every size volunteer program and smaller budgets! These tools range in capabilities, from free web-based sign-up sheets to simple, affordable volunteer scheduling software to more robust volunteer management systems.
We’ll help you determine the best method for tracking volunteer impact based on your organization’s needs…
You know you need to track volunteer hours. But how do you know you’re doing it right? What does successful volunteer hours tracking even look like?
Successful hours tracking means that you’re capturing all the critical data you need using a process that is both efficient and scalable.
So what’s the secret sauce to logging volunteer hours successfully? Here’s our winning formula:
Let’s discuss each of these components, which make up your ultimate hours-logging solution (we promise)!
Logging hours is more than just a tech challenge, there’s also the element of people power!
To get volunteers to remember to log their hours and want to do it, you’ll need these three ingredients:
The most important ingredient to getting the volunteer hours you need is capturing your volunteers’ attention!
It’s a bit of a no-brainer, but volunteer engagement is one of the most challenging volunteer management practices to master especially because the whole concept of volunteer engagement can be somewhat nebulous and tricky to gauge.
We won’t dive into the volunteer engagement nitty-gritty here, but we can point you to our full list of helpful resources to boost your volunteer engagement and grow your impact:
Simply put, when volunteers are engaged, they’re more likely to spend time with your organization…and then log that time!
You can’t force your volunteers to do anything. After all, they’re giving you time for free. However, you really need them to log their hours.
So, how do you motivate volunteers to keep track of their time?
If you suspect your volunteers are lacking motivation, try these tips for size:
Incentivize!
Sometimes all your volunteers need is a little incentive. What better way to incentivize logging hours than to invite some healthy competition? Run a competition for most hours logged in a month. Offer a prize, such as a gift card to a favorite local eatery.
You can also feature a Volunteer of the Month on your website, social media channels, or in your newsletter. A little recognition for their time can go a long way in encouraging volunteers to log it!
Volunteers Need to Know Why
Some of your volunteers may not log their hours because they don’t know why it’s important to your organization. When asking volunteers to log their hours, try communicating the importance of their time and specifically how their hours lead to better outcomes for your organization and your community.
Volunteers Need to Know How
Your volunteers will as for help if they need it, right? Not necessarily! Some of your volunteers may feel a bit embarrassed that they can’t remember how to log their hours, maybe they don’t want to bother you, or perhaps they just don’t like waiting for help.
Whatever the reason, you need to make it easy for your volunteers to find answers. Record a how-to video and keep it on your volunteer homepage. Send a friendly reminder that you’re available for help, and let them know the best way to get in touch with you. Or, offer regular in-person training to that help is always accessible (and even fun).
Logging hours is often an afterthought, especially because it can be overshadowed by the wonderful experience of volunteering itself!
But you can encourage volunteers to log hours by gaining your volunteers’ trust.
Strategies like consistently keeping your volunteers in the loop, showing appreciation, and getting to know your volunteers personally can make all the difference in gaining trust.
Ultimately, your supporters are more likely to care about your organization and its outcomes when they feel a personal connection with the people who make it great.
Another component of your winning volunteer hours tracking formula? Process.
If you want to feel less overwhelmed by the task of tracking your volunteers’ time, you need to get all your volunteers, programs, and staff on the same page. But, how?
Centralize your volunteer hours logging process.
In other words, all volunteer leaders and volunteers should use the same system for logging volunteer time. Whether your volunteers are remote or on-site, they should be following generally the same steps and entering data into the same system—whether it’s a spreadsheet or an online sign-in sheet.
The easiest time to track volunteer hours is during certain “touchpoints” with your volunteers. Determine key points in your volunteers’ journey with which you’re in contact. Once you’ve defined these touchpoints, you’ll be able to outline a clear process for logging hours:
A few more tips for your hours-logging process:
The best way to finally get your volunteers to log their hours is to invest in a better hours-tracking tool.
There are tools out there that empower volunteers to log their own hours without volunteer leaders having to hassle volunteers—and there are solutions that fit your budget.
Researching your options is key to getting the right time-tracking tool for your volunteer program. Look for options that provide free demos or trials so you can get a feel for the solution before making the investment.
A volunteer hours tracking tool can do so much for you, your volunteers, and your organization. Some of the benefits include: