The Healthy Church Staff Podcast
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The Healthy Church Staff Podcast
It's Time to Rehire for That Role
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It started as a temporary cut, or maybe someone left and you never really officially replaced them, but now that role has been quietly absorbed or divided, buried, and your church is now starting to feel it. So this episode, we're going to talk about the cost of waiting too long to rehire and how to know when it's finally time to post that position again and start the rehiring process. Hi there, my name is Todd Rhodes, one of the co-founders over at chemistrystaffingcom, and today we're going to talk about rehiring, replacing, starting your search over those kind of things. So what if the role that you never really replaced is quietly costing you more than the salary ever did? The longer you go without rehiring, the more your team stretches and burns out or shifts into survival mode, and it's just not good. And today that's what we're talking about. We're talking about the staff role that seemingly disappeared and why now might be the time to bring it back.
Speaker 1:Okay, first of all, I want to talk about what happens when you don't replace someone and you divvy up whatever they were doing full time and give it to two or three other staff people. So one of the things that happens that I see all the time is it's just a slow fade of responsibility. It starts with really good intentions hey, we're going to miss Tim, but we'll all pitch in for a while. But six weeks, six months later, six years later, that temporary gap has diluted your team's focus. It shifted key responsibilities to people that were already maxed out before Tim ever left. It's lowered the quality of what used to be done really well by Tim and don't get me wrong, you didn't mean to eliminate the role permanently. Maybe you did, but chances are you're just like let's all, just let's kind of work at this and between all of us, we can handle this, but now nobody's owning any of those things that were used to be in that job description and, honestly, your ministry is starting to feel it.
Speaker 1:So there are some hidden costs, as you consider. A lot of times churches will, when a staff member leaves, they're like we can do this. Sometimes it's just money motivated. Hey, we don't need to spend that kind of money to rehire that position right now. So we think we're saving a lot of money. But there are, when you make the decision not to rehire, there are some hidden costs of not rehiring as well, and part of that is burnout and resentment among staff who've absorbed too much. I know a church that recently had two staff people leave a co-pastor and another key ministry person and instead of hiring anybody initially, they went for six months and just divvied it all up and sooner or later burnout and resentment among staff become an issue. Hey, we said we'd step up and do this for a little bit of time. But it's dude, it's been six months and I'm tired and I'm starting to get burned out. That's a hidden cost of not replacing a staff member if you really need to. Sometimes ministry areas kind of stall or they slowly decline if you don't rehire. Other times there's missed opportunities for growth or outreach or excellence and there's difficulty hiring later when the team has just learned to just get by. So those are all some of the hidden costs about not rehiring. Churches often don't measure out those hidden costs. They don't measure what they're losing by not hiring, but it's real and over time it's cumulative.
Speaker 1:So how do you know? How do you know when it's time to rehire? Here's some questions you should ask Does the role still matter to your mission? A lot of times churches don't rehire a position because they feel like we've changed and we don't really need that role anymore. But the question you need to ask later is does that role, did that role, does the role still matter to your mission? And if it does, chances are it can't be piecemealed together. Okay, another question Are you seeing consistent issues in that area?
Speaker 1:Are you seeing issues continuing to pop up now that maybe you didn't when you had a staff member over that area consistently? So, are you seeing issues pop up? Is someone currently covering it, but maybe they're doing it poorly? Maybe they're doing it, but they don't want to be doing it, they're resentful about it and they let everybody know. Maybe your team is compensating with duct tape and exhaustion because they're just trying to hold the ship together. You can only do that for so long.
Speaker 1:If you answer yes to any of those questions, it's probably time to at least consider rehiring that role. Don't wait until the wheels fall off. Go ahead, get ahead of it. Your staff and your people will thank you. All right. So here's the bottom line, here's the final thought for today.
Speaker 1:A healthy church rehires, hires and rehires with intentionality. Okay, sometimes that means rehiring for a role that never should have disappeared, and sometimes you just have to live it to experience to know that no, we really man, we really do need to hire that role again. If you're stuck, you don't know what to do. Maybe you're just taught. I don't even know anymore. Our staff has had so many iterations over the years. I'm not even sure we've got the right staff. I'm not sure that we're paying well. I'm not sure we're retaining. I'm not sure our team is healthy.
Speaker 1:Reach out to me. I would love. This is the thing that I'm passionate about Is helping churches have healthy teams, because when healthy churches have healthy teams, healthy ministry, life change happens. If there's a way that I can help you or your church through this process, reach out to me podcast at chemistrystaffingcom. Tell me your story, tell me how I might be able to help, and then let's hop on a Zoom call and just talk about maybe some ways that we can partner together. All right, you can reach out to me anytime. Podcast at chemistrystaffingcom. All right, that's it for today. Thanks so much for joining me. We'll be right back here again tomorrow. I'm here every day. You can come back every day, just you and me. Grab some Todd time together over a cup of coffee or a bottle of Ice Mountain, as I have here today. I'd love to have you join me again every Monday through Friday right here on the Healthy Church Span Podcast.
