The Healthy Church Staff Podcast
We're all about helping create a healthy, positive, and spiritually positive environment for church staff members and leadership teams.
The Healthy Church Staff Podcast
Half Your Staff Wants to Leave: The Flight Risk Crisis Nobody's Talking About
In this episode, Todd Rhoades discusses the alarming statistic that 51% of church staff are seriously considering leaving their positions, based on the newly released annual Church Staff Health Assessment Report. Todd highlights key discoveries from the report, focusing on 'flight risk' and the factors driving church staff to contemplate leaving. He urges church leaders to engage in genuine conversations with their staff to address potential concerns and improve staff retention.• 51% of church staff have considered leaving their positions in the past year.• High flight risk in specific roles: Creative arts staff (75%), associate pastors (69%), worship pastors (64%), and senior pastors (48%).• Tenure affects flight risk: 32% of first-year staff consider leaving versus 59% at the three to five-year mark.• Church staff may not publicly disclose their consideration to leave.• Leaders should have real conversations with at-risk staff to address concerns.• The report offers 10 key insights into church staff health.
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Here's a number that should stop every pastor, every executive pastor, every church leader in their track. And here it is. 51% of church staff have thought seriously about leaving their position in the past year. Not someday, not eventually, in the past 12 months. More than half the people in your staff meeting this week have imagined a future without your church. And here's the thing they're not going to tell you. Hi there. My name is Todd Rhodes. I'm one of the co-founders over at ChemistryStaffing.com, and I am your host right here on the Healthy Church Staff Podcast. And today we are releasing our annual Church Staff Health Assessment Report for the nation or the United States and Canada. And at the end of the podcast, I'll tell you how you can get your free copy, your free download of this report and hint, man, if you are a geek about numbers, this report's about 200 pages. And you'll be able to geek out to your heart's delight. If you just want the executive summary, it's in the first part of the page. But we found 10 different discoveries from our church staff health assessment this year. And actually, going back three years, we've done the same assessment. We found 10 really insightful discoveries. And for the next two weeks, each day I'm going to take one discovery and unpack that for you. And then you can download the report. I'll give you the link here at the end. Here's discovery number one. And that is what we're calling flight risk. The numbers actually are worse than what you think. And I touched at it at the top of the podcast. 51% of church staff, and we surveyed just this past year about 1,200 of them. 51% of all of those 1,200 people say that they have seriously considered leaving their church. Another 44% said, or part of that 51%, 44% say they would consider an offer from another church if another offer came along. And only 38%, about 38% are firmly anchored, saying, nope, I haven't thought about it. I'm going to be here. That means for every three staff members, only one is fully committed to staying. And the other two, one foot out the door, or at least open or peeking through that window. So some roles, this is affecting more than others. For example, we found that with creative art staff, there's about a 75% flight risk. Three out of four of creative art staffs that took our assessment this year have said that they're open to looking. 75%. Associate pastors, 69%. Worship pastors, 64%. Now listen, senior pastors, only 48%. Only 48% of senior pastors are open to leaving. So what does that mean? There's about a 25 point gap, a 25-point gap between the view from the top of the org chart and the view from second chair, between senior pastor and associate pastor. The people supporting the vision are far less healthy than the people that are casting it, at least in how they're reporting it out. Here's another insight that we found that tenure matters more than you'd expect. Staff that are in their first year, and again, these are brand new, fresh numbers. Staff that are in their first year at your church, only 32% have thought about leaving. That still seems high to me, but only 32%. But by years three to five, that number jumps from 32% to 59%. And this is exactly when they become your most valuable. They know your systems, your people, your culture. And statistically, six and ten are thinking about walking away at that three to five year mark. You're losing people at the moment your investment starts to pay off. And here's my insight number four for this discovery is they won't tell you until it's too late. The staff are not going to come in and announce that they're weighing their options. Usually, usually. Usually they process privately and they talk to their spouse, not their supervisor. They smile in meetings, they hit their deadlines, they lead on Sunday, and they're quietly updating the resume. And the resignation letter isn't the beginning of the departure, it's the end of their departure. And by the time you hear about it, they've already decided. All right, so here's the bottom line for today with this first discovery. The question isn't whether some of your staff have considered leaving. And that's whether you're a really healthy church or your church is a dumpster fire. The question isn't whether or not some of your church staff have considered leaving. The question is which ones, why, and what are you doing about it before it's too late? So here is the action step for today. Have one real conversation with a staff member that you've worried about losing. You probably know from your staff, maybe who's on the bubble. Have a conversation, not a performance review, just a genuine, hey, how do you really do it? type of a conversation. And maybe ask something. I always tell you not to ask questions you don't want to hear the answers to, but perhaps ask a question like this: what's one frustration that you've stopped mentioning because you just think nothing's gonna change? And then actually listen and actually do something. Okay, so this light risk that we've identified, it's not really changed a lot over the past three years, but man, it is something, and it's the reason why people like me, at chemistry staffing, get to serve churches, because a lot of people transition from one position to another. I honestly, I wish that wasn't the case. I wish everyone was, believe me, I really do. I wish everyone was in a healthy and vibrant ministry situation, but it that's just not the case. This is just one of 10 things, 10 really big discoveries that we found out this year. And here's what we've done for you. We've compiled everything into a free 200 plus page report. You're like, Todd, I'm not gonna read 200 pages. It's indexed really nicely. There are gonna be pages that you're gonna want to gloss over, but there's gonna be other pages that, man, they're gonna speak to you and your church and your situation. All the data, all the trends, all the practical insights, and here's the link where you can download it. Just go to churchstaffhealth.com. Churchstaffhealth.com. Your staff's health is your church's health, and it's worth paying attention to. And what have you got to lose? It's a free report. You can download it at churchstaffhealth.com. I'd love to have your feedback once you get that report and you download it. I'd love to hear your feedback on this year's assessment results. And you can do that. Give me your feedback anytime. Podcast at chemistry staffing.com. Now, tomorrow we are going to be back here on the podcast, and we're going to talk to talk about discovery number two. And this one's a big one. So I hope you'll come back tomorrow. I hope you come back for the next couple of weeks because every day we're going to talk about a different discovery that we've learned. Tomorrow we're going to talk about what I'm calling the three to five year wall. And that's the teaser for tomorrow. Come back and you'll learn about what we have learned from you about what we're calling the three to five year wall. All right, that's it for today. Hope you have a great day. Have a wonderful time reading the report as well. I think you'll really enjoy it. Church Staff Hell dot community.
