For most organizations, the Forms module is the best place to start recruitment on VOME. In many cases, the first form a volunteer submits becomes the main entry point into the recruitment process.
This form is often presented as an Application Form, Volunteer Interest Form, or Volunteer Sign-Up Form.
When a new volunteer opens the form for the first time, they are first asked to create their VOME account by entering their First Name, Last Name, Email, Phone Number, and Password. They then continue to complete the organization’s custom form.
This first form usually serves two purposes:
it creates the volunteer’s account and profile entry point on VOME
it begins the organization’s recruitment workflow
Before setting up recruitment, decide how your organization wants to manage intake.
For example:
Will applicants be screened before moving forward?
Is the process open and public, with little to no screening?
Will volunteers complete onboarding before they are assigned?
Will volunteers later browse and register for Opportunities based on their interests?
These decisions will shape how you build your Form, onboarding flow, automations, and Opportunity setup.
For most organizations, the recommended starting point is:
Website or outreach link → VOME Form → account creation → form submission → screening/review → onboarding, Opportunity assignment, or Shift assignment
This gives you one central intake point for collecting:
profile information
screening questions
uploaded documents
digital signatures
policy acknowledgements
other custom application details
A VOME Form can be shared using a direct link, similar to a public form link.
Organizations commonly place this link:
on their website
behind a button such as Apply, Volunteer, or Get Involved
in newsletters, emails, and social posts
This is a simple way to direct volunteer traffic from your website or outreach channels into VOME.
There is no required name for this Form. Common options include:
Application Form
Volunteer Interest Form
Volunteer Sign-Up Form
Get Involved Form
Choose the name that best matches your organization’s tone and level of screening.
A Form is usually the best starting point when you want to review an applicant before moving them forward.
Your first Form can help you:
collect application details
ask screening questions
request uploaded documents
gather digital signatures
assess availability, eligibility, and interest
After reviewing the submission, the next step may be to:
assign an Onboarding Sequence
assign an Opportunity
assign a Shift
assign a Recurring Shift Schedule
The right next step depends on how your organization structures recruitment.
VOME can also display a Shift Calendar directly on a Form. This works best when your recruitment process is more public and requires little to no screening, or when you want volunteers to choose a Shift as part of the same flow as their form submission.
This setup is often a good fit for:
public events
one-time sign-up campaigns
low-screening volunteer activities
simple registration workflows
For example, the Opportunity may represent an event, while each Shift represents a specific date and time for that event. In this case, a volunteer can submit the Form and reserve a Shift at the same time.
When a volunteer submits a Form with a Shift selection, there can be two separate layers of approval:
Opportunity approval, which determines whether the volunteer becomes approved for the Opportunity
Shift approval, which determines whether the volunteer’s Shift request is confirmed
This gives admins flexibility to decide where screening should happen.
One option is to automatically approve the volunteer for the Opportunity, while still requiring admin approval for the Shift request.
This can be useful when:
the volunteer is generally eligible to participate
the admin still wants to control attendance for a specific date and time
the Opportunity is broad, but the Shift requires closer review
For example, if the Opportunity is an event and the Shift is a specific job date and time within that event, you may want to approve the volunteer for the event right away, but still review whether they should be confirmed for that specific Shift.
VOME also offers Instant Book. When Instant Book is enabled, the Shift request is automatically approved. This means the volunteer does not need to wait for an admin to confirm their reservation.
With the Shift Calendar on a Form, admins can decide where and whether they want screening to happen:
review both the Opportunity and the Shift manually
auto-approve the Opportunity but review the Shift request
auto-approve both the Opportunity and the Shift request
If both auto-approved Opportunity and Instant Book are enabled, then when the volunteer selects a Shift on the Form and submits it, they are immediately booked for that Shift and are good to go.
You do not need to include a Shift Calendar on the initial Form. If your organization does not want scheduling to be part of the first application step, you can use the Form only for recruitment, screening, and onboarding, and then assign Opportunities or Shifts later.
Once the Form is submitted, your team can move the applicant to the next step in the process.
Common next steps include:
reviewing the submission
assigning an Onboarding Sequence
assigning an Opportunity
assigning a Shift or Recurring Shift Schedule
sending follow-up instructions
Forms on VOME support automations that can streamline recruitment.
These automations are triggered by specific responses, especially for list-based questions such as single-select, multi-select, or auto-populated VOME fields.
Depending on the answer, VOME can automatically:
assign a Sequence
assign an Opportunity
assign Profile Tags
assign Sites
notify Admins about the submission
These automations are triggered when the Form is submitted, regardless of the applicant’s answers.
You can automatically:
assign Opportunities
assign Sequences
assign Sites
assign Profile Tags
send a follow-up message
That follow-up message can be used as a confirmation receipt, thank-you message, or next-steps email.
VOME offers an Auto Add to Database feature, but for most organizations, it is not a best practice to use it on the initial recruitment Form.
In many cases, it is better to wait until the applicant:
completes onboarding
has been reviewed and approved
This gives your team more control over when someone becomes part of the active Database.
However, if your organization has very little screening and accepts most applicants, enabling Auto Add to Database on the first Form may be appropriate. This can reduce manual Admin work and speed up intake.
For most organizations, recruitment on VOME works best when you:
use one main Form as the first touchpoint
share that Form through your website and outreach channels
collect only the information needed at the start
use screening and onboarding before Database decisions
use automations to reduce manual work
only include Shift selection on the Form when the process is open and low-screening
After you screen an applicant and they complete onboarding, the next step is not always to directly assign them to a specific Opportunity.
Some organizations prefer to let volunteers browse and register for Opportunities that match their interests, availability, or qualifications. This creates an Opportunity Marketplace approach, where recruitment continues at the Opportunity level.
VOME supports this through:
Opportunity visibility settings that control who can see an Opportunity
profile-based rules that help determine eligibility
recruitment rules that define how someone becomes approved for an Opportunity
We call this the Opportunity Recruitment Workflow.
To learn more, read: Recruitment workflows on VOME