Volunteers in Altru Part 1: Leveraging Screening Plans

Over the next month, we will have series of blog posts all related to Volunteer Management in Altru. We hope you'll enjoy them. This is the first installment in that series.

One of the components I find interesting in the Volunteer module in Altru is the screening plan feature. This is because it reflects the overall functionality of the volunteer module – it has a level of flexibility that you can fine tune to match the features available to the needs of your organization.

So what is a screening plan? Basically it is the ability for you to confirm that a prospective volunteer has completed all the necessary steps to be eligible for certain assignments. A screening plan allows you to define those steps and keep track as the volunteer completes them.

Connecting Volunteer Jobs to Screening Plans
Let us first look at how screening plans relate to the volunteer jobs on offer. Every volunteer job is connected to a single volunteer type. A volunteer type is the capacity in which volunteers assist your organization. So, multiple volunteer jobs may be associated with a single volunteer type. We then connect this volunteer type to a single screening plan. This way you can see how a variety of volunteer jobs, all connected to a single volunteer type, link to a screening plan. Please note that you can also assign multiple volunteer types to a common screening plan as the sample screenshots below show. We can see a volunteer job connected to a specific volunteer type and in turn how multiple volunteer types can be associated with a single screening plan.




Connecting Volunteers to Screening Plans
When we assign a volunteer type to a volunteer’s record, Altru will automatically connect the screening plan associated with that volunteer type to this constituent’s record. As we can assign multiple volunteer types to a constituent, we have a catalog of screening plans for that constituent. We can keep track of the volunteer’s progress through the screening plan by clicking on the screening plan link and updating the status of a particular step (application form, interview, training materials, etc.) in the screening plan.
As they complete the screening plan, their status changes from Pending to Active and they qualify for jobs connected to that screening plan.

Managing Multiple Screening Plans
It is not unusual that volunteer recruitment be “seasonal.” This can result in a formal (or informal) cohort of volunteers completing various steps of their screening plan together. Altru has a convenient feature in Screenings and Expirations found within the Volunteer section on the Volunteer page. We can pull the list of volunteers that are connected to a particular screening plan, identify who is past due and update their status within this display making it easier to manage multiple screening plan status at one time.


Collaborating on Setting up Screening Plan Components
It is helpful if all the offices that use volunteers collaborate to determine all three components related to screening plans:  Volunteer Types, Screening Plan Steps, and Screening Plans. This allows for the avoidance of any unnecessary duplication and helps to also deliver operational efficiency.