Posted by: J. Hamner on: September 26, 2008
Below is a statement written by Jenelen Dulemba, Director of Volunteer Services at St. Elizabeth Medical Center in Kentucky.
Our electronic epiphany was gradual but clear, we were not going to be able to expand/increase our Volunteer program and initiatives without either increasing staff or decreasing the workload. We were drowning in paper and paperwork. We knew that there were Volunteer database programs out there that would allow us to go “paperless”, but would that work for us?
We did our due diligence, researched the different programs and did a couple of “field trips” to other hospitals who were up and running. We had lots of concerns and trepidation…. is it secure? what happens to all the paper we have? how will we “file” things? what will the volunteers think? will they adjust? can/will new volunteers apply online? will there be mutiny? And the big one … can WE master it?
Through it all, Jamine kept encouraging us and quite frankly inspiring us (or at least her empty file drawers inspired us). So we took the plunge and went “paperless” with Volgistics in January 2008 and it has gone amazingly smooth! Some of the things we were so concerned about just never materialized.
That’s not to say that we didn’t have some bumps along the way or that we haven’t felt overwhelmed, wondering if we can get our “heads around it all”- but between Volgistics email “help” and Jamine’s willingness to share her expertise, we feel supported.
We have seen immediate program management benefits such as applications and hours not needing to be manually entered; reports can be generated automatically and emailed to you; with a couple of clicks you can know who is currently signed in and volunteering. Volgistics has allowed us to get out of the scheduling business – especially wonderful for services such as No One Dies Alone which depends on calling volunteers when a need arises – and now we truly know who is available. By using the scheduling function, we can clearly see where our openings are. We can easily generate and then email a new volunteer schedule and information to the area coordinator – without “typing” anything in! True improvements to our services.
We are poised to take advantage of the online position description option to assist us with recruiting. More and more individuals are checking out their options online before they contact any office, and this will give us an edge. Volgistics has helped us streamline and improve management, and we just continue to see the power and potential of this system.
We were afraid this new high tech stuff would scare people away and it hasn’t. It has allowed us to communicate more frequently with select groups of volunteers – and so i would hope “improved our relationship with them” because we more efficiently and more quickly get information they need on their sign in screen or email. I think for the more saavy individuals this is great because they can log hours from home – etc. It is potentially helping us to capture more of our Health Ministry hours. This system has allowed them to capture more data (lives touched) and also is helping with a Blood Pressure grant our Women’s Health has.
Oh, I just thought of a specific example. We have one volunteer that volunteers in the ED but has an erratic work schedule. He was going to have to quit but we have it set up now where he can get online and check the openings in the ED and schedule himself at different times so that it works for both of us. (We have not enable everyone and every position to self schedule – we are phasing that in as we go).
