People Flows allow you to set up and track the different processes that occur in your church in a systematic and step-by-step flow. An example of how you might use a People Flow could be for a process you have for people who express interest in volunteering in the church. How is this facilitated by your pastoral team or church leaders?
You might have a step which calls for a department leader to have a meeting with the person, or a step which includes an invitation to a practice night. Assigning flow administrators and actions via people flows can ensure no one gets missed within these processes, and provides an extra level of accountability.
Another example might be a process for new people. After their first service, the process might be to send them an email or make a follow-up phone call, then invite them to a church event. Your church might have a flow for new Christians, which guide them through the right courses and connect them into a small group. All this can be facilitated within People Flows.
People Flows are an awesome way to make sure that everyone who’s supposed to go through a process makes it all the way through.
What’s a People Flow?
A People Flow is a process that your church has. For example, a process you may go through with people before they get baptized, dedicate a baby, or get married. It could be the process someone goes through before being allowed to join the Children’s Ministry. It could even be the process that happens whenever someone tries to book the church hall for a function. The only thing a People Flow needs is steps to work through.
Setting Up A People Flow
First, go to ‘People’, selecting ‘Flows’ in the drop down menu. Add a new flow. The set-up page for a People Flow allows you to set someone over everything in that flow, and define who can be added to it.
Once you’ve made a flow, you’ll need to add steps. The most basic Flow may only need one step. But you can set up a People Flow with as many steps as you like, even accounting for different responses from people if a different action is required.
For any step that requires someone to do something, we recommend assigning a Step Admin. This is someone to make sure that the step isn’t getting overfilled. Depending on the amount of people in the flow, the Step Admin isn’t necessarily responsible for actioning everyone on that step. You can even assign multiple admins for a step. For example, a Hall Booking People Flow might have people who represent businesses, and people who just want to hire for a private function. Assign two admins: one for the businesspeople, and one for the private functions, so that no one ends up being overwhelmed, and both admins can work to their strengths.
For more about setting up steps in a People Flow, take a look at this link.
Using a People Flow
Once you’ve set up your People Flow and started adding people to it, you can perform action for those people. There’s two main ways to do so. The first is to select people from the People Flow individually, and perform actions as you do what’s required in the step. The next is to select – using the select all checkbox at the top left of the table – everyone in a step (you can also deselect individuals once you’ve selected everyone), and Mass Manage them as you do what’s required in the step.
Learn how to add people to a People Flow at this link.
Most processes you have in your church that involve people should be put into a People Flow. This ensures no one is missed.