The Scottish Council for Voluntary Organisations is the membership organisation for Scotland's charities, voluntary organisations and social enterprises. Charity registered in Scotland SC003558. Registered office Mansfield Traquair Centre, 15 Mansfield Place, Edinburgh EH3 6BB.
The role of the Digital Motivator
A Digital Motivator is someone who is passionate about digital inclusion and wants everyone to be able to benefit from the digital world. They take a lead in role making their organisation more digitally confident, and support colleagues to become Digital Champions.
Who can be a Digital Motivator?
Digital Motivators are usually managers, team leaders, or anyone who is able to bring about change. However, your exact job title doesn’t matter, it’s more about your own individual attributes.
Qualities of a Digital Motivator might include:
- Knowledge and passion about why digital skills matter
- Ability to inspire others
- Commitment to ongoing learning and sharing
- Ability to gain the support of others to develop Digital Champions
- Ability to shape, influence and lead activities
"Digital is not about job title or role, it’s about personal attributes - a motivator, encourager, persuaded!"
Digita Motivator
What do they do?
The specific tasks undertaken by a Digital Motivator will vary, and this may be determined by the size and structure of your organisation. The primary purpose is to build momentum and enthusiasm for developing digital skills as part of a change process.
Key tasks a Digital Motivator might do include:
- Identify and recruit staff/volunteers who would make excellent Digital Champions
- Support Digital Champions to access learning opportunities
- Help co-deliver Digital Champion training and on-boarding
- Share success stories and highlight the positive impact of Digital Champions
- Express enthusiasm about new digital tools and platforms
There is no ‘right’ way to structure your change process, it will look differently in each organisation, and not all organisations will have all 4 roles – some can be interchangeable.
Senior Manager/Sponsor: With any change process, it’s really important that there is support from the top. This can help to secure resources and support the culture you’re trying to create. This could be a Trustee, Chief Executive, Director or Head of Department.
Digital Lead: The Digital Lead is the person who is responsible for managing all the activity linked to your digital skills work. They will create the structure for your activities, recruit Digital Motivators, report progress to Senior Management, and secure any resources you need. The Digital Lead may be someone in a management role, or in smaller organisations the Digital Lead might also be the Senior Manager/Sponsor.
Digital Motivator: The Digital Motivator is a change-maker. They build support for digital skills development and recruit Digital Champions. In larger organisations you may have multiple Digital Motivators spread across different departments. In smaller organisations there may only be one Digital Motivator who is also the Digital Lead.
Digital Champion: Digital Champions are usually frontline staff or volunteers who are confident in their own digital skills and have a passion for helping others. They are the vehicle for delivering digital skills support to other colleagues or to people who access your services.
Example:
A Council is introducing a new platform for managing inbound queries. The Director of Customer Services initiates a Digital Champions programme to support adoption (Senior Manager/Sponsor). The Head of Customer services is appointed the Digital Lead and she is responsible for planning the Digital Champions programme. She recruits a cohort of 10 Digital Motivators from different departments across the Council, including Housing Services, Health and Care, and Travel and Parking. The Digital Motivators are a mix of Team Leaders and Senior Officers. These Digital Motivators introduce the programme to their respective departments and begin recruiting frontline staff as Digital Champions. This approach means that the programme can cascade down to all parts of the Council.
Example:
Linda is a Learning and Development Coordinator in a small charity. She has recognised that some staff don’t have all the skills they need to deliver services digitally. She submits her monthly update to the Board of Trustees highlighting this as an issue and they agree a Digital Champion programme as a course of action. Linda is responsible for planning out the activity and recruiting some staff to act as Digital Champions. She is acting as both the Digital Lead and the Digital Motivator. Her Board of Trustees are her Sponsor.