Volunteer Training and Onboarding with LearnDash

Volunteers are the lifeblood of any nonprofit organization. They bring passion, dedication, and a genuine desire to make a difference in the world. In this article, we’ll explore how you can leverage the LearnDash platform to create a seamless and engaging volunteer training and onboarding experience.

LearnDash is the most powerful learning management system for WordPress and empowers you to create professional and engaging courses in just a few clicks. Whether you’re coordinating event volunteers or building a team of dedicated staff volunteers, the process of onboarding and training these invaluable individuals is key to ensuring their engagement and maximizing their impact.

Volunteer Impact on Nonprofit Organizations

Volunteers give the gift of time and skill(s) to your nonprofit organization and their impact is often outsized – many organizations would struggle to fulfill their missions without volunteers.

Some of the ways volunteers impact nonprofit organizations include:

• Amplifying impact: Volunteers often bring fresh perspectives, innovative ideas, and diverse talents that can enhance the effectiveness of your initiatives. By leveraging their time, skills, and resources, you can extend the reach of your programs and services.
• Expanding capacity: Volunteers provide an invaluable resource by expanding your organization’s capacity to serve your community. They can fill essential roles, tackle additional projects, and help meet the growing demands of your programs, enabling you to make a more significant impact.
• Fostering support: Engaged volunteers become brand ambassadors, spreading awareness about your organization’s mission and attracting more support from their networks. Their dedication and enthusiasm inspire others to get involved, building a strong community of supporters around your nonprofit.
• Cultivating skills and networks: Volunteers gain hands-on experience, learn new techniques, and improve their abilities through practical application. Additionally, volunteering often facilitates networking opportunities, enabling volunteers to connect with like-minded individuals, industry professionals, and potential career opportunities.

By recognizing the value of volunteers and investing in volunteer training and onboarding, you can create a fulfilling and empowering experience that will attract, retain, and maximize the potential of these dedicated individuals.

The Importance of Volunteer Training and Onboarding

Properly training and onboarding your volunteers is essential to their success and to the overall impact they have on your nonprofit organization. By investing in comprehensive volunteer training, you are empowering your volunteers to fill their roles with confidence and to effectively contribute to your organization’s mission.

By prioritizing training, your nonprofit will enjoy increased volunteer retention, long-term commitments, and deeper volunteer relationships. Additionally, proper training ensures a unified approach, promotes best practices, enhances trust and credibility, equips volunteers with the necessary knowledge and skills, and mitigates risks.

With LearnDash, your organization can streamline the training and onboarding process, providing a structured and engaging learning experience that sets your volunteers up for success.

Benefits of Online Volunteer Training and Onboarding

By embracing online learning, your organization can empower volunteers by providing them with convenient access to training materials and resources. The flexibility of online training saves time and allows volunteers to learn at their own pace, fostering a sense of ownership. Additionally, online volunteer training can streamline your processes, make you more efficient, and reduce administrative burdens.

With online training, nonprofits can engage their volunteers in a way that inspires action and cultivates a sense of belonging. A few more benefits of online training, for both your volunteers and your organization, include:

• Empowerment: Equip your volunteers with the resources and knowledge they need to complete their work effectively and encourage better performance.
• Efficiency: Good training improves both performance and efficiency in volunteers. It also helps to reduce high turnover rates while increasing your organization’s return on investment.
• Engagement: Increase volunteer retention by providing training that will help your volunteers build an emotional connection to your work and build the confidence they need to succeed.
• Community: The community benefits from volunteers who are prepared to work. Make sure your volunteers are familiar with the needs of the community and individuals they may serve, and teach them how to engage with sensitive or challenging situations.

Training and onboarding your volunteers with LearnDash can be a game-changer for your organization and the folks who give their time to it. You can unlock a world of possibilities while maximizing your efficiency, fostering a strong sense of community, driving engagement, and empowering your volunteers to make a lasting impact.

What to Consider When Creating Your Training

From defining clear objectives to multimedia-rich content, there are many ways to ensure that you are creating successful and engaging volunteer training experience. Let’s explore the essential things you should consider when utilizing LearnDash to develop your training programs.

• Technology: Would your volunteers benefit from having blended learning or online learning only? Consider adding videos, quizzes, certificates, etc. to utilize technology and improve volunteer learning and memory.
• Set goals: Set quantifiable goals for volunteers to motivate them during the training process and beyond. Make sure the goals you set are relevant to the type of work they will perform and that they are both measurable and attainable.
• Tailored training: Understand who your average volunteer is and tailor the course content to better benefit their needs. For example, if your volunteers are older adults who are less familiar with certain software systems, you may want to incorporate that training into your materials. If your volunteers are younger, high school students, then adding some gamification could increase the learner’s retention rate.
• Volunteer feedback: Not only is this a great way for you to continue to improve your training, but it helps your volunteers feel heard.

By considering key factors, such as defining learning objectives and customizing content, you can create endless opportunities to create exceptional volunteer training and onboarding experiences.

How to Set Up Your Volunteer Training and Onboarding with LearnDash

Setting up your volunteer training and onboarding courses with LearnDash is an exciting opportunity to connect and engage with new and existing volunteers at your organization. From structuring course content to leveraging features like the Achievements add-on, we’ll guide you through the essentials to getting started.

1. Create your first course and set the course settings. Before you add your content, make sure your course settings are set appropriately.
   1. Set the Access Mode to Closed: This will allow you to manually enroll your volunteers into the appropriate course and give you the power to control their access.
   2. Set the Course Progression as Linear: By setting the course progression as Linear (default setting), the trainee will only be able to take the course in the order you’ve set up (i.e. must complete Lesson 1 before accessing Lesson 2, etc).
2. Add your content. Utilize the LearnDash features to ensure your users are comprehending the content.
   1. Video Progression: Add your videos via our Video progression feature to ensure the trainee watches the video in its entirety before they can move on to the next step.
   2. Quiz: Test your trainee’s comprehension with quizzes throughout the course, or by adding a Final Quiz (or both!).
   3. Assignments: Add Assignments to your training to keep your trainees engaged.
      1. Materials tab: Consider using the Materials tab in conjunction with Assignments. This allows your trainees to download a workbook or documentation which they can then complete and upload via Assignments.
   4. Certificates: Award a certificate upon completion of the course. This is a great way to award your trainee and could be the necessary documentation they need to start volunteering.
   5. Achievements: Consider adding Achievements to incorporate gamification into your training.
3. Create a Profile page. Having a dedicated profile page for your volunteers makes it easy for them to keep track of the courses they need to complete, their progress, easily re-print their certificates, etc.
   1. Use the LearnDash Profile Block to quickly create a profile page for your users.
4. Be informed. Set up Notifications to notify the site Admin, Group Leader, or individual when a trainee passes a course or fails a quiz. You can also set up notifications to be sent to the trainee based on certain triggers.
   1. You may want to set up a notification to be sent to the trainee once they’ve passed the course. This could inform them of the next steps they need to take.
5. Now you’re ready to start registering and enrolling your volunteers! Once you’ve created your training, simply start registering and enrolling your volunteers into the appropriate courses.
   1. If you plan to register the volunteers yourself, simply go to Users >Add New and enter their personal information. This is also where you can easily enroll them in whatever courses you wish.

Learn More Live

Join Camber, Amanda, and Addison for a live conversation about how volunteers impact your organization, volunteer retention, and volunteer training with LearnDash. We’ll be live on July 26th at 2 p.m. No need to register – just click the “Notify Me” button and you’re all set!