How to help staff and volunteers embrace digital

New tech brings so many benefits – from streamlining clunky processes to accessing insightful data. Technology is always pushing us forward and there will always be more to learn.

The Charity Digital Skills Report 2023 found that 54% of charities are keen to grow digital skills and confidence amongst their staff and volunteers.

But it can be intimidating to be faced with a digital platform, especially if you haven’t had to learn something new for a while or have used the same processes for years.

So how can you equip staff and volunteers with the digital skills they need to do their job well – and to feel confident about it? Here are some ideas to help your team embrace digital.

Focus on the benefits (for everyone)

Introducing tech can bring benefits for everyone. At an organisational level, it can save time and money, connect the dots between different departments, and inspire innovation. For supporters and service users, new tools might make fundraising easier and services more accessible.

When introducing new tech, it’s important to spell out why you’re doing it and the benefits it will bring – including the benefits for staff and volunteers. That might mean making a process quicker or making it easier to collaborate with other parts of the organisation.

On an individual level, learning about one new digital tool can help people to be more open to learning about other new tech – it can diffuse some of the fear around change.

Being digitally skilled can also be helpful if and when they come to look for a new role – within your organisation, or elsewhere.

Answer any questions

Some people will be concerned about their job security, and how the implementation of a new platform or tool will impact their day-to-day role. Think through what questions might come up before launching a new product. Be prepared with clear explanations so that you help people to feel less fearful and resistant, and more supported through their learning.

Those questions might include:

• How will it bring improvements for supporters and service users?
• How will it affect staff and volunteers’ jobs?
• How will staff and volunteers be trained to use the new tech?
• What ongoing support will be available?

Build on people’s learning

If you’re planning a complete overhaul of processes, try not to do it all at once. Introducing processes one at a time can help people to become more confident in their ability to learn new ways of working, as well as giving time to get to grips with one aspect before moving onto the next.

Prioritise effective training

Putting great training in place is the key to helping people overcome any fear of new tech. The type of training you offer will depend on your budget, organisational needs, and when staff are available for training.

Luckily there are plenty of free training courses and resources available for charities. If the training you opt for is self-teaching to fit around work schedules, it’s still important that people have the time to do it within office hours, and with the support of their manager to feedback and ask any questions that crop up.   

Mentoring opportunities

Mentoring is a one-to-one relationship – with one person having more experience in a specific area than the other. This can be a great, and free, way for people to develop their digital skills, grow in confidence, and have someone on hand to ask small (and big) questions.

Mentoring can be within your organisation, helping to spread knowledge and learning within your team. Or you might want to look externally for mentors at another charity or corporate.

The Charity Mentoring Network can help with that. It connects organisations, staff, and volunteers, matching together mentors and mentees for support, development, and upskilling.  

You might also want to consider reverse mentoring – when a more senior member of the team is mentored by someone in a more junior position. It can be a great way to share digital skills, as well as giving the mentor experience of building relationships with senior leaders.

Give continuous feedback

Supporting staff and volunteers to use a new digital tool isn’t a one-off event. Inevitably, there will be teething issues with most new products or processes.

Give people the opportunity to feedback on what’s working and what’s not and offer follow-up training to pick up on areas people are unclear about or need extra support with.

Further down the line, it can be helpful to offer short refresher training. Inviting ongoing feedback will help your staff and volunteers to feel empowered by the changes, and more open to embrace any new tech that’s just round the corner. 

Find out more

Our 2024 Digital Inclusion Summit revealed how charities can help can make the digital world a safer, happier, more inclusive place, from improving access to digital devices to demystifying cyber security. Click here to watch the session recordings for free.

Our report, ‘Digital inclusion in the UK charity sector’, uncovers charity practitioners’ attitudes towards digital inclusion, including the challenges charities face in reaching out to service users and how they are making the most of the digital technology they use. Click the link in the orange box below to download the report.

Our Digital Inclusion Hub features regular articles, podcasts, and webinars to help charities reach across the digital divide. Click here to learn more.