Compensation & Contentment: Finding the Right Balance

Discover how church staff members truly feel about their compensation and what leaders can do to address it! As we unpack the results of our extensive survey on church staff compensation, we'll reveal insights that may surprise you. While a good number are satisfied with their pay and benefits, there's a significant portion that doesn't share the same sentiment. Join us, Todd Rhodes and the team at chemistrystaffing.com, as we explore the nuances of financial appreciation within the church community and what it means for both staff and leadership.

In this candid discussion, we go beyond just crunching numbers. We share practical strategies for boosting staff satisfaction and morale that don't always require opening the church coffers wider. From flexible scheduling and professional development to unique perks like mental health days, we shed light on how to make your church staff feel valued and connected. Whether you're part of the satisfied majority or among those seeking more from your role, this episode has something to offer. And for church leaders, we provide guidance on fostering a rewarding work environment that acknowledges the hard work and dedication of your staff. Join the conversation and learn how to align compensation with your church's mission while ensuring your team feels truly appreciated.

Have questions or comments? Send to podcast@chemistrystaffing.com

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Transcript

Speaker 1: 0:07

Hi there, my name is Todd Rhodes. I am your host for this edition of the Healthy Church Staff Podcast, also one of the co-founders over at chemistrystaffingcom. Today we're going to start a brand new kind of mini-series in our larger series on church staff health that we've been doing for the last few weeks. We're going to be starting to talk about compensation. Oh boy, this is talking about opening up a can of worms. Todd, this is going to be let's be honest, church salaries aren't always great and we're going to be talking about compensation in these next few episodes. To be talking about compensation in these next few episodes, let's just cut to the numbers.

Speaker 1: 0:48

Okay, 58% of the respondents to our survey last year and this is from a thousand church staff that replied to us 58% feel satisfied with their pay and benefits. Okay, so that's good news. But there's a large chunk who aren't happy or feel unsure, and we're going to dig into that on today's episode, trying to respect both financial limitations of the church and the importance of fairly valuing your team as well. Okay, so let's unpack a little bit of those survey numbers. As I said mentioned, 58% feel satisfied with their compensation. It's actually honestly, probably a little bit better than I expected, but overall, about 22% feel underpaid. About another 20% are unsure. They're on the fence. In reality, that's too many key members of your team either feeling undervalued or uncertain about their compensation levels. Okay, so let's dig into both the positive responses, those that are dissatisfied and those are neutral, and what that means for you if you're in any one of those three groups, but, even more importantly, for the leaders of staff, as to how you can respond to people in each of these groups.

Speaker 1: 2:01

First, let's start with those positive people. 58% shows that something good is happening. Maybe your church pays fairly, as fairly as it can. Maybe you offer great benefits or at least good benefits. Maybe you're just really upfront with how salaries are set. But whatever it is, don't take it for granted. Reward staff for staying, tie their compensation to your church's goals and keep in mind that the culture of appreciating hard work is important. And for those people that give a positive response to this statement, that's good news for you. But let's look at the flip side of that, the negative, those that are dissatisfied, and it's important to understand that about 22%. If your staff fits into the norm and some churches pay really well, other churches pay really low, so your number could be like I say, mileage may vary on this, but overall, about 22% of church staff that we surveyed in 2023 feel that they're underpaid, and those people really do need your focus. Are your salaries below market rate? Can you improve benefits, even some low-cost benefits that you could add?

Speaker 1: 3:13

But here's the key you got to talk to these folks, be honest about your limitations, but also explore any way that you can offer a little bit, maybe in flexibility and schedule, maybe in professional development plans or funds, or even highlighting perks that aren't on their paycheck. There are ways to feel like a valuable part of the team that are not compensation related, and a lot of times, there are things that you can do as a church, that you can do as a leader. Maybe that don't add to the compensation level, but add to satisfaction levels and are even perks that will help with those things but not necessarily cost your church more money. Things like offering some additional vacation time, maybe offering I know some churches offer like a mental health day once a quarter where, hey, we don't care what you do for this one day, we just don't want you to do work, we don't want you just to lay around, but we want you to use this as a day to be well and go do something that you really enjoy doing, either by yourself or with your family. Things like that that don't cost your church anything more compensation wise no more dollars out the door, but yet do build into your staff and help them to feel a little bit more satisfied. So those are the dissatisfied people, and compensation is not a reason, not the reason, or even, I would say, working in the staff, church staff hiring area it's not even necessarily the number one reason that people leave, but if people do feel undervalued and underpaid, absolutely it's a reason for people to start looking elsewhere. So keep that in mind.

Speaker 1: 4:56

What about the neutral group, though? And this is about 20% of the people? If your staff is normal, or your church staff is in the average of our assessment that we learned last year, about 20% are neutral. So maybe they're new, maybe they don't compare their pay, maybe they simply don't know how their salary was decided or what they should be making.

Speaker 1: 5:17

Transparency is really key, really key. How you set salaries and what factors might lead to raises a lot of times will help the neutral group if they know that there's a chance that, if they continue to do well and continue to stick around on the staff that there'll be some compensation improvements in the future as the church grows or something like that. Any way that you can get them invested in kind of the church and the financial health so that they feel it's fair, that's really important. But even with a solid majority positive, no church wants anyone at least I hope you don't feeling unsure or undervalued about their pay. So it's really important if you're a leader of a church team to regularly audit your salaries against similar churches in your area. Find out what kind of averages are and, as I said, be creative. Sometimes some of the best perks and some of the things that people get most excited about are really low cost, but they can really make a huge difference in your staff feeling valued. Remember, ministry calls people but it can't pay the mortgage on calling alone and it's really a balance between mission and fairly compensating those who make that mission happen. And those positive results mean you're doing well. But don't stop improving Transparency, particularly when it comes to compensation and what your church can do or can't do. That transparency builds trust and exploring alternative benefits can show that you care and working to get salaries as fair as possible, builds the kind of team that accomplishes really those God-sized goals that your church has. It's really important that your people feel comfortable with their level of compensation.

Speaker 1: 7:09

We're going to talk about that all this week here on the Healthy Church Staff Podcast. I hope you'll continue to join. If you've not taken the Healthy Church Staff Assessment, you can do so this week. Actually, today it's only going to be open. I think can do so this week. Actually, today it's only going to be open. I think this week and next week you can go over to churchstaffassessmentcom. It's absolutely free. It'll take you about 10 or 15 minutes but I think you'll find it valuable in your church staff experience to find out how you're doing. I hope you will join us again tomorrow right here on the Healthy Church Staff Podcast. I'm Todd Rhodes. Thanks for listening.