How Digital Champions helped us bring in new technology
During the COVID-19 pandemic, the British Red Cross set up a support line which had a purpose of supporting those vulnerable and at risk of loneliness because of shielding or lockdown measures imposed by the UK Government. To do this, we used a team of volunteers who were dispersed and trained in providing psychosocial support over the phone. These dedicated individuals were used to working in one room with handsets on desks and supervisors merely a raised hand away.
In the social distancing reality we found ourselves in, this wasn’t an option so we needed to set up a new support line where call handlers could take calls from home using their own equipment. For this, we had to consider how they received the call, entered the information from the call to a central location and ensure they were able to access support when required.
Fast forward to project meeting stand up and we were discussing the tough decision to delay our database being implemented. The team had achieved a lot rapidly, and we also worked hard to make an “out of the box” solution as simple as possible whilst also adhering to our internal information security policies.
In enters Digital Champions.
When I suggested the use of Digital Champions at our project meeting, there were a lot of blank faces. It wasn’t a role we had used before, but as we faced an uphill battle to launch the database, we all agreed to explore it further. I had seen Digital Champions used in another charity with success and was confident we could shape the role to fit our need.
The role of the Digital Champion
We adopted the Digital Champion role as a peer who can provide coaching, support and communicate the reason for the change. Champions were provided training in how to support colleagues through change, practical ways of overcoming resistance and ongoing updates on the practicalities of using the system. There was a team who provided the training sessions to all of our support line volunteers and the Digital Champion role was to go beyond the training on a more individual level. Our Digital Champions worked similar to change agent networks, which are used in other programmes.
Why did we use these roles?
I believe that the support provided by another peer can be strong and effective. It is common for changes like this to be seen as being imposed upon the users from a central team of staff. By using volunteer operators, we could support the workforce in a more meaningful way. They are trusted individuals within their community and also increased our capacity to provide more tailored support.
“The digital champions are volunteers, doing the same role as the operators they support. They understand the role, and the nature of the cases received.”
“Really good to have peer support which is easily accessible for any queries.”
Why did we focus so much on change management?
Individuals are wired to be apprehensive to change and everyone responds in very different ways. What could be seen as a desirable, easy to use system to one person, could be seen differently by others. We will always try our hardest to design systems that are easy to use, but change goes beyond that. Just being told “we will be using a new tool” can make some people very anxious.
This is where Digital Champions proved their worth. We trained them to understand commonly used change management models and could relate these to the reactions of their peers. It meant they could tailor their approach to the situation and support people as individuals on their journey.
Lessons that we learned
When we recently surveyed our volunteers, one thing stood out. Digital Champions were worth their weight in gold! I couldn’t be more grateful for everything they did. Not only did they go above and beyond, but the people they were there to help really appreciated it.
That said, it took a lot of work. Some of our Digital Champions spent hours on the phone supporting and coaching the support line operators in the new processes and system. One call in particular lasted three hours! In the future we would want to bring more people on to the team to help spread the load.
Another lesson we learned was more of a reminder: there is a huge amount of power in individual peer to peer support. It works. The champions tailored their approach to people and that came up time and time again in the feedback.
Huge thanks to the Digital Champions who gave up their time to help their fellow volunteers. They really made a difference and were a pleasure to work with.
You can also check out Harry Trimble’s blog about making an online manual for the support line.
