Why Most Parishes Struggle to Hire (And the System That Changes It) - Ep. 188

In this episode, I go over how a simple hiring system parishes can use to find the best talen for the role. The key here is using paid ads to force people to see the hiring flyer, leading to way more applicants. More applicants means better qualified hires.

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Transcript

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What's going on, everyone? Hope everyone's having a great Wednesday. In this episode, I want to touch on kind of like a tactical episode on how to hire for Catholic parishes. Because I was recently talking to a client and they or not a client, a prospective client. Um, they were thinking of joining, and the majority of the conversation was him ranting about the like secretary at the office, the parish secretary is like, well, she doesn't understand, blah, blah, blah. And first off, like, you know, you're in charge. So if you really don't like her, just fire her and get someone else. But a lot of people don't fire people because they're worried about filling the role. It's almost like, well, they're doing okay. We've gotten comfortable, so I'll just deal with it. Because I don't want to go through the rigmarole of hiring. What I want to do is go over a tactical way to hire that you can uh delegate to a staff member for the majority. I always recommend the pastor does like the final interview. But this way gets you a very qualified person, very qualified, probably better than whatever system you're using. I would set aside 500 bucks, not even 300 bucks. I you don't need much, but this is what I would do. So I would run a Facebook and Instagram ad to the local area around the parish. Maybe how far do people drive to go to work? 25 minutes. And what we're gonna do is have basically just like a static image. You know, don't get too crazy. You don't have to make a video from the pre from the pastor or whatever. Just a simple image. And the image is asking someone to apply to work for the parish. So let's say it's four parish secretary. Here's the thing though: a 25-mile radius, um, as you go each incremental mile that goes out is exponentially more people. So a five-mile radius might be 10,000 people, 25-mile radius might be 100,000 people or 200, depending on population density. The point is you have plenty of people that are going to see it, which means you can be really specific on the expectations for the role. Because what usually happens, you get some parish secretary because so-and-so knews Sharon, and then Sharon is like, well, I can spare a few hours, but we're done with that. We can reach a lot more people, and so we're allowed to be more specific. So a few things they should be. I you actually can't um disqualify based on age. That is that is a protected class, unfortunately. But we can put things in the job description that necessitate a younger person or that would very likely bring a younger person. They don't need to be 18, you know, but we don't want him 70. All right, because there's just too much change in technology, there's too much stuff going on. You got to be on top of things nowadays. Um, so a couple things. The ad says, hey, you know, apply to like, do you want to help serve your parish community? Apply for parish secretary or office manager or business manager, whatever the role is. And then the ad has in the in the text below the ad, that's where you put the requirements. And we're putting requirements that are pretty elite. So it's gonna be things like excellent communication skills, willing to learn, social media, AI, excellent email. Like we're putting all these things that like a 70-year-old would be like, What? I can't do all that. Good, get out. You're not meant for this role. It's okay because you might think, well, we can't afford someone that good. You totally can, because people are always willing to take a cut and pay for a more fulfilling job. Either sell your soul, make a bunch of money, don't sell your soul, make a moderate income. Those are always the choices in the workload workforce. So you're fine. You will find people, especially if they get to work at a church, it's it's fulfilling. So, anyway, but really, I know maybe I can put something together like a free PDF fund. I mean, I help, I'm starting to help churches hire. That's going to be one of my services. So I'll have all this in like three, four months. But I'm just telling you like the high level of what to do. Really clear expectations, able to work, you know, seven to five or always respond to the 24 hours. Just all the things that frustrate you about your current role, like put that in there as you're not allowed to do as the requirements. And then when they click the ad, it goes to something called an instant form. Meta already has like an embedded, like it's its own form. So like they tap the ad, a little form pops up for their name, their email, and they can fill out the questions to apply. And you guessed it, Meta natively integrates all of that data into a Google Sheet. So it's all like already done. So you just run the ad, press publish, and then your your Google Sheet will just start to fill up with applications. It's really nice. So anyway, um that is that is like the foundation. Now you have all these people coming through on the Google She have an admin. There's three levels to an interview. First one is pre-qualifying. So scan, putting some questions in there that clearly, if they answer wrong, are not a good fit. For example, you can't hire based on Catholicism. Oh, wait, yeah, you can. You're a nonprofit. So you can ask the religion, that would help. Um, actually, you might be able to discriminate based on age because you're a nonprofit too. For profit can't. I know you can't for religion, but um anyway. Are you Catholic? That would be good. Don't hire anyone that's not Catholic. Um, how willing are you to learn new technology like AI, uh GPT prompts, or uh social media? Anything under a seven out of 10, don't hire them. So, what you're first gonna do is go through that. Let's say 100 people applied, which is pretty reasonable. 100 people apply. I would not hire anyone personally over 65. I would not hire anyone who's not willing a seven out of 10 or more to learn new technology. Um, I would even maybe go higher than that. And then uh maybe just some other things, their experience, just like do a gut check, each person, and then you'll probably cut through like half. Half are just nope, you're not a good fit for the role. So, with those, let's say you have 50 people left. What I would do, it depends on how many people you have. If it's a lot of people, do a group interview. So everyone gets sent two different email them all, say, hey, welcome. You made the first round of the interview. We're gonna do a group interview. It's gonna be a zoom call. All of you can show up at two times or do two zoom calls this time or this, pick your time, show up. All right, now you're in the Zoom call. Now you can really figure out a lot based on just chatting with someone and how they show up on camera. So if there's some old lady and the camera's angled and she's looking down and she's confused, not a good fit. But if she's like 33, looks professional, understands, answers the questions promptly, great, she can move on to the next round. And in the group interview, you're just chatting with them for like two sentences. You're like, hey, what would you do if a parishioner came in and they were super angry? Sarah, go. And you just see what they say, and you'll get gut checks with everyone. Cancel everyone after that. It wasn't a good feeling. And now you have probably like 30 people that are really solid. And then you can start the true interviews. And that would be just 15-minute to 20-minute interviews one-on-one, where you're getting to know them, figuring out their mindset, their expectations, their desires for the role, all of that. Guys, this is so much better than like pretty much any other system because most people don't, most organizations don't like have a top of funnel for hiring. The top of funnel, the thing that brings in the applications. No one, no one really has that. This is it. Facebook and Instagram ad to a wide radius. Okay, because people are willing to drive for work. So, anyway, that that's what you do. That's how I find people, that's how successful companies find people, that's how parishes can find people. Um, if you're wondering about the pricing, right now it's about a thousand views, ten bucks for a thousand views on Meta. So, you know, it's not it's not that expensive. If you need to just market to a local area, like a town or a couple neighboring towns, um, 300 would reach everyone. So, yeah, that's how you do it. Telling you guys, this is the sauce. Because don't you want that? Don't you want like a business manager who's like, I don't know, like has my mindset. Like, yeah, of course I'm on top of AI. Like, I study it all the time. I think of ways we could use it for the parish while also maintaining the the the truth and the tradition of the church. Um, yeah, I keep on top of social media. That's obviously our main engine to reach young adults. Like, I'm very organized, I'm on top of email, I'm always looking for new systems to make things more efficient for the parish. Don't you want someone with that mindset? Instead of like Cheryl, the 70-year-old who's like, well, this is how we've always done it. Like, no, that's like uh it's hurting the organization. You're only as good as your worst person. And I'm not saying Cheryl doesn't have a place, but at the end of the day, man, like we're shepherding souls, we're bringing people to Christ. The team that's doing that should be elite. And the main reason it's not elite team members usually is because of the system, the hiring system. So there's a hiring system for you. It'll work. Promise. So hey, if you need help doing that, just go to chapalaunch.com and book a free consultation with me. Happy to see if I can help. Um, so hope that was helpful. If it was, drop a like and I'll see you all in the next episode. Thank you. God bless.