The Healthy Church Staff Podcast
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The Healthy Church Staff Podcast
You're Waiting Too Long to Make the Hire
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Deliberation is a good thing until it becomes paralysis. Today, on the Healthy Church Staff Podcast, I'm going to dig into the danger of dragging your feet during the hiring process. Thoughtful leadership is wise, but waiting too long can cause your best candidates to disappear, your team to suffer, can cause your best candidates to disappear, your team to suffer and your church to stall. Here's how to fix it before it costs you another hire. Hi there, my name is Todd Rhodes. I'm one of the co-founders over at chemistrystaffingcom and your host right here every day, monday through Friday, on the Healthy Church Staff Podcast. All right, you're trying to be wise, I get it. You want to get it right, that's perfect. So you slow down the hiring process until you slow it down so much that your top candidate moves on and your team gets frustrated because you haven't hired anybody and your open role becomes a revolving door.
Speaker 1:Today we're going to talk about the real cost of dragging your feet when it comes to hiring, especially the way things are right now, which is it's very much a candidate's market. There are many more churches that are hiring than there are candidates that are looking for roles, so you can't really afford to drag your feet. So let's talk about that. Let's unpack some things today and hopefully this will be helpful for you. First of all, thoughtfulness is not the same as progress. Okay. So taking time to pray and discuss and evaluate, that is smart. Okay. But endless meetings, circular conversations, decision delays, that's not discernment, that's indecision with a halo. Okay, you paint some spiritual language on it, you paint that turd, but you're not going to make a decision because you're scared to make a decision. So thoughtfulness is not the same as progress. Churches sometimes make the mistake of hiring very slowly for spiritual maturity, but in reality, slow decisions often reflect more fear and lack of clarity or maybe even some leadership misalignment, okay. So thoughtfulness, while it's great, it's not the same as progress. You need to make sure that you continue in your role of making a decision, okay.
Speaker 1:My next point is that top candidates are not waiting forever. The best people. If you find somebody that you think fits your church and fits this role, if they're a really good candidate, they're probably in high demand and that means they're applying elsewhere. They're discerning multiple opportunities. We talk to candidates all the time that have two offers on the table and they're talking to us about the possibility of a different role. Lots of opportunities out there, and the longer you wait with this kind of climate in the church staffing marketplace or workplace, the more likely that your perfect candidate, or the candidate that you really, the more likely it is that he or she is going to accept a role somewhere else. The more doubts they develop about your church, the more energy your internal loses while you're waiting.
Speaker 1:Okay, so clarity and communications go a long way. Even just letting a candidate know your timeline and sticking to it, that makes a big difference. So you have to communicate, but you need to keep in the back of your head that top candidates. Once you find a top candidate, you need to move, because they are not going to wait around forever, and this is different If you've not hired for a few years. This is different than it used to be, just because of the current climate in hiring in churches.
Speaker 1:Okay, so how do you decide to move faster and yet not rush it? Okay, it's a fine line sometimes. How do you decide to move faster, but but not rush it? All right. So build a clear decision-making framework. Who's even involved in the hiring decisions If you don't know that it's going to create a lag?
Speaker 1:Okay, so who's answering these questions. Who's involved in the hiring decision? What questions must be answered before you hire? Maybe you've had two interviews Some churches. You're like on your fourth interview and you still can't make the decision. What do you need to know? That you don't know what questions must be answered before you hire? You got to answer that question and how long should each step take? You need to have that mapped out beforehand and you need to move things through as quickly as you can. Use deadlines as tools, not pressure points. Keep your communication flowing with both your internal team and your candidates. If things break down and timelines that were promised all of a sudden get longer, you will lose candidates. So decide with prayerful confidence, not reactionary panic or fear-based delay. Okay, so here's the bottom line for today. Here's the final thought Discernment doesn't mean that you're dragging your feet.
Speaker 1:The longer you hesitate, the more likely you are to miss the right person. So I don't want you to rush, and we always tell churches when we take them candidates from chemistry staffing. We don't want you to rush, but we want you to be intentional. Once you've got a fish on the hook, you don't just put the pole down and go eat your picnic lunch Once you have a candidate that's interested, you're going to try and do the best you can to get the fish Okay. That means discernment, that means great communication and it means moving the ball down the field regularly. Don't let this get away from you. You need to continue. Once you find the right person, you need to continue to try and figure out whether or not you're going to actually hire them or let them go.
Speaker 1:All right, I hope this has been helpful to you, because I know this is something that comes up a lot of times when we talk to churches is okay. So what should our process look like? How long should this take? Once we have a candidate, how do we know that we are doing the right thing so that we don't lose candidates? One of the biggest ways you lose candidates is by taking your time or dragging your feet. They're going to sniff that up really quickly.
Speaker 1:I'd love to hear your thoughts and comments. Pushback criticism praises any of that stuff you can send me anytime. I read all of your emails podcast at chemistrystaffingcom and if there's any way that I can help you and your church in your staffing needs or creating a healthy staff culture at your church, reach out to me. I'd love to have a conversation and see if there's some way that we might be able to work together. All right, thanks so much. Reach out to me podcast at chemistrystaffingcom and I'll be right back here tomorrow with another episode of the Healthy Church Staff Podcast. Hope you have a great day.
