1. Recruiting and Accessing Resources on ServiceYear.org
Jonas Kane
Service Year Alliance

2. Agenda Overview of ServiceYear.org
Adding and updating recruitment info
Major updates from the past year
Finding and following up with candidates
Accessing resources

3. What is ServiceYear.org?
ServiceYear.org supports recruitment for new candidates and provides access to resources for your program and corps members
When someone lands on serviceyear.org–either from our advertising or through finding it via other channels–we also serve up content to help them determine if doing a year of service is a good fit for them to consider. If they decide it is, they can create an account to get start discovering opportunities.

4. How candidates discover and apply to opportunities

5. Candidate Preferences
When someone creates an account on serviceyear.org to look for opportunities, the first thing we prompt them to do is fill out some of their basic preferences, including focus areas they are interested in, their education level, where they are interested in serving, and when they’ll be able to start. This allows them to automatically receive suggestions for opportunities they can check out and consider applying for.

6. How do candidates find your opportunities?
1. Suggested matches based on preferences and education level
2. Filtered search of active listings
Candidates will see best matches that. Something we’ve also added recently is the ability to see alums who have served in locations/focus areas they are interested in.
Along with viewing suggested matches, candidates can also complete a filtered search of all active listings on ServiceYear.org

7. How do candidates find your opportunities?
3. You recommend a listing to candidates who could be a good fit to apply for your program.
We’ve built ServiceYear.org as a two-way marketplace, meaning that just as candidates can discover your opportunities, you can also proactively discover candidates that you want to recommend your listings to. We added a “Find Candidates” beta feature (it’s beta because we’re still testing it out and collecting feedback on how it works) that allows you to discover suggested matches for your listing. You can also complete a filtered search of all candidates who have published profiles and are actively looking for service year opportunities. When you view a candidate’s profile, you can utilize the “Recommend a Listing” button to encourage them to apply for your opportunity.

8. How do candidate’s apply?
We’ve built ServiceYear.org as a two-way marketplace, meaning that just as candidates can discover your opportunities, you can also proactively discover candidates that you want to recommend your listings to. We added a “Find Candidates” beta feature (it’s beta because we’re still testing it out and collecting feedback on how it works) that allows you to discover suggested matches for your listing. You can also complete a filtered search of all candidates who have published profiles and are actively looking for service year opportunities. When you view a candidate’s profile, you can utilize the “Recommend a Listing” button to encourage them to apply for your opportunity.

9. Major updates from the past year

10. Major Changes from Last Year
Transition from “I’m Interested” on listings to ”Apply”
Resumes required on all applications
Candidates can now add an optional statement of interest
Made this shift to introduce a higher barrier to having someone take this step (requested by a number of programs)
Along with shift in language, this was a shift toward offering more customization for what this process can look like for your organization

11. Customizing Your Application: Next Steps and URL
What do candidates need to do after submitting their Service Year application and resume?
Extra info you need them to send?
Other questions or offsite application they need to complete?
We leave it up to you if receiving a service year application and resume is enough for an initial application, or if you want to link to additional requirements. Our main guidance if you are linking elsewhere is to make sure that you are providing detailed, clear, and simple next steps that applicants need to take.

12. Coming Soon: Supplemental Questions

13. Joining and updating recruitment info

14. Joining as a new organization or user
New organization? Click the “Join” button on ServiceYear.org or go to serviceyear.org/register- organization to create a personal account and enroll your organization
New staff member? Use the same sign up path and request access to your existing organization.

15. Updating info from last year
Update your recruitment listing(s) from last year
Position Start/End Dates
Application Window
Application Instructions + URL
Application Questions (NEW)
Spot check other areas of listing and organization profile to make sure your info is still representing your programming appropriately

16. Reviewing applications and following up with candidates
Regardless of how someone gets to your listing, the basic process for applying will look the same.

17. Where to Find Applications / Applicant Info?
Notification
2. “Corps Members” section in your dashboard.

18. Where to Find Applications / Applicant Info?
3. Listing Summary Page: Quick way to see individuals for a specific listing

19. Viewing Applicant Information
The candidate details page provides quick links to:
View the candidate’s submitted application
View an individual’s resume
View an individual profile. [LinkedIn profile is also available if one was provided.]

20. Following Up with Candidates
There are three basic ways you can follow up with applicants on ServiceYear.org:
Message through ServiceYear.org
Call them
them off-platform

21. Messaging Candidates and Leads
Messaging on ServiceYear.org can either be started on your end, or can be started on the candidate/leads end. Currently, messaging is restricted to two types of relationships: “Leads,” meaning anyone you’ve recommended your listing to, and “Candidates,” meaning anyone who has actually applied to your listing.

22. Messaging Candidates and Leads
You can use the messaging feature to coordinate next steps with candidates (such as setting up an interview).
Messaging is also a way to have a personal touchpoint with candidates + leads
For Leads: This can be used as a follow up to the auto-invitation they receive
For candidates: This can be a way to invite them to learn more about your program, let them know you are interested in seeing an application

23. Keep in Mind the “Next Steps”
For candidates, remember that messaging (and following up more generally) is something you are doing to complement your “Next Steps” instructions
If they’ve followed the link you provided (optional), you’ll also see this noted on their card. You can also see when they last clicked the URL you provided.
We leave it up to you if receiving a service year application and resume is enough for an initial application, or if you want to link to additional requirements. Our main guidance if you are linking elsewhere is to make sure that you are providing detailed, clear, and simple next steps that applicants need to take.

24. Keep your dashboard up to date.
Decline any candidates you are no longer considering for the role. Enroll anyone you accept!
If helpful, you can also add internal “notes” on candidates
We leave it up to you if receiving a service year application and resume is enough for an initial application, or if you want to link to additional requirements. Our main guidance if you are linking elsewhere is to make sure that you are providing detailed, clear, and simple next steps that applicants need to take.

25. Accessing resources
In order for candidates to discover your opportunities and to utilize recruitment functionality, you’ll need to complete a one-time setup process to add your organization’s basic info.
We’re really excited about ou, we’ll also be flagging your account to have premium access to ServiceYear.org. We’re really excited

26. Your organization dashboard
When you sign up and enroll your new organization, you’ll have access to your organization dashboard. This is going to be your main navigation starting point every time you return to serviceyear.org. It’s where you’ll be able to add and update your organization information, activate your recruitment, add staff members to help manage your account; review, enroll, and decline applicants, and more.
You’ll also see a link to access the Service Year Resource Hub

27. Resource Hub
The Resource Hub contains different guides, toolkits, and webinars for service year program staff, as well as for corps members and alums. Some of this content is open access (that includes content intended for new programs, as well as content for corps members and alums), while other content is labeled as premium access (that includes content which is aimed at improving program practices, and includes guides like our Digital Recruitment Toolkit, and Campus Recruitment Guide.
Once you’ve completed your initial setup on ServiceYear.org, we’ll send you a separate login that you can use to access all of the premium resources, in addition to the free ones.
When you sign up, we’ll also add you to our mailing list, which includes our monthly Service Year Connector newsletter. This helps keep you in the loop on updates, including upcoming webinars and new resources that we’ve added.
Access via your dashboard, or by going directly to resources.serviceyear.org.

28. Searching for Resources

29. Enroll your corps members and connect them to resources
You can enroll your accepted corps members on ServiceYear.org to help connect them to resources and opportunities (such as Virtual Career and Higher Ed Fairs)
You can enroll your accepted corps members to help connect them to resources and opportunities (such as Virtual Career and Higher Ed Fairs). They’ll also have access to post about their service year, which is content that can be shared with you and on social media.
Along with enrolling your members that you recruit on platform, we also created a feature that allows you to invite all of your corps members to become enrolled with your program, so that resources/opportunities are available to all of your members. This also helps us stay in touch with them when they transition to become alums after their service.
I’ll flag that enrolling corps members is completely separate from any requirements you have through AmeriCorps; this is simply a light-level enrollment that serves as a way to help connect them to resources and the Service Year community.

30. Resources and opportunities for service year corps members

31. Use the Help Center and connect with our team
If you have questions or want to share feedback with our team while you are on the platform, you can just click the chat icon in the lower righthand corner to start a conversation. This is a great way to send feedback while we’re thinking about it-many of the features we’ve added over the past year have come directly from questions and feedback that we’ve received.
You’ll also see the ability to search our help center when you click the chat icon. Our help center can also be accessed directly by using the link in the footer of ServiceYear.org, or by going to docs.serviceyear.org. Our help center contains guides and tips to using ServiceYear.org. This is a great place to check first for common questions. The content is split into a few different collections, so you’ll notice the first couple are aimed at people applying to do a service year, while the rest are intended to help support programs using the platform.
I”ll call out two spots in the Help Center that I highly recommend checking out as you get started. The first is our the “Initial Setup” section, which has a “Quick Setup” article that runs through the basics of creating your account.
Once you’ve completed that setup, I also recommend you visit the “Recruiting on ServiceYear.org” section. This contains a series of articles that will help you maximize using the platform for recruitment.

32. Volunteer Iowa Network

33. Volunteer Iowa Network Page
“Networks” on ServiceYear.org are organizations that help support multiple host organizations, including commissions like Volunteer Iowa
These pages can provide an overview of a network via narrative, photos and/or video, and can link together content from different organization accounts
A network page is a way to link together different host organizations, their recruitment listings, and their serving corps members and alums.
A network can be comprised of any organizations on platform. The bulk of existing ones to date have been location based (either impact communities, or state service commissions), but they can be used for non-geographic networks (one example is the Corps Network).

34. Organizations and Listings

35. Corps members and alums