Church life requires: Character, Competency, and Chemistry.
Clarity Evangelist:What would you say is the single biggest challenge in hiring a key staff person?William:Getting chemistry right.I’m sure most of your readers have heard the big three factors in hiring, the “three c’s”: Character, Competency, and Chemistry. Those certainly hold true as the top three checkboxes to mark off when looking at a candidate. Most of our clients in executive search are really smart churches. So the candidates we bring in are usually top drawer in character and competency. But chemistry ends up being the deal-maker or deal-breaker.Justin:Chemistry almost always ends up being the variable that has to be watched the closest. It’s the cause of more bad hires, and the reason for more good hires, than anything I see.Clarity Evangelist:What can churches do to get the chemistry piece right?William:As Socrates said, “Know thyself.”Good hiring begins with a thorough understanding of the church culture.We end up spending a large portion of our time in executive search learning our client’s culture, dna, and putting our ministry experience to use.This will sound like a plug for your business, but honestly, the churches we work with that have been through a process like Auxano’s have a much easier time figuring out who will work in their culture, and a much higher success rate in hiring.Justin:Another practical way to really start understanding the dynamic within your own staff would be to do exit interviews with those that leave. Whether they have been let go or are being called to move on, there are some great nuggets of wisdom that you can draw out of those interviews. You’d be surprised at how few churches actually do these.Clarity Evangelist:William, I’ve read and heard about the recent merger between you and HelpStaff.me. I assume your mission to create connection between ministry and people hasn’t changed. So how does this merger help current and potential church clients?William:Yes, we are still focused on creating connections between ministry and people. And our strategy will continue to center on executive searches, succession planning, and helping churches and ministries find their top staff.But since we’ve been blessed to unite with Justin Lathrop and HelpStaff.me, our strategy will expand a bit. They’ve been outstanding at mid-level searches including associate pastors, ministry and programming staff.Justin:
We thought for a while about simply referring business to one another, but then it dawned on us that by coming together, we can now serve any church, of any size, with any opening. We can now say without exception, we’re about “staffing the Church.”
