Why do some church staff members stay rooted while others are ready to explore new horizons? Uncover the insights from our Healthy Church Staff Assessment survey, where over a thousand church staff members shared their thoughts on job stability and openness to new opportunities. You'll gain a clear understanding of the factors that keep staff loyal and satisfied, as well as the motivations that drive them to consider new roles. Whether it's career growth, compensation, work-life balance, or personal reasons, we break down the complex landscape of church staffing in today's dynamic environment.
Join me, Todd Rhodes, as we navigate the intricate balance between staff retention and turnover. You'll hear about the compelling reasons that make 44% of church staff members contemplate a job switch, versus the 41% who are steadfast in their current roles. From high job satisfaction and alignment with church missions to geographical ties and the allure of new opportunities, this episode offers valuable insights for both church leaders and staff members aiming to foster a fulfilling and committed workplace. Plus, we’ll touch on the neutral 15%—the undecided staff members who often take a wait-and-see approach to their career moves. Don’t miss this essential discussion on ensuring future stability within your church team!
Why do some church staff members stay rooted while others are ready to explore new horizons? Uncover the insights from our Healthy Church Staff Assessment survey, where over a thousand church staff members shared their thoughts on job stability and openness to new opportunities. You'll gain a clear understanding of the factors that keep staff loyal and satisfied, as well as the motivations that drive them to consider new roles. Whether it's career growth, compensation, work-life balance, or personal reasons, we break down the complex landscape of church staffing in today's dynamic environment.
Join me, Todd Rhodes, as we navigate the intricate balance between staff retention and turnover. You'll hear about the compelling reasons that make 44% of church staff members contemplate a job switch, versus the 41% who are steadfast in their current roles. From high job satisfaction and alignment with church missions to geographical ties and the allure of new opportunities, this episode offers valuable insights for both church leaders and staff members aiming to foster a fulfilling and committed workplace. Plus, we’ll touch on the neutral 15%—the undecided staff members who often take a wait-and-see approach to their career moves. Don’t miss this essential discussion on ensuring future stability within your church team!
Hi there, welcome to the Healthy Church Staff Podcast. You have joined me, todd Rhodes, your host. I'm one of the co-founders over at chemistrystaffingcom. This week we're taking a look on the podcast about future stability and talking about, as staff members, how long will you stay, how, if you're in charge of staff, how long will your staff stay at your church and this is all coming out of the survey that we did, our Healthy Church Staff Assessment that we did last year. We're in the middle of doing one this year. I'll give you a little bit more information on that here in a second. But last year we gave a statement that we gave to everybody that filled out our Healthy Church staff assessment, which was a little over a thousand people, between a thousand and eleven hundred people and this is the statement that we gave them and asked them to reply to.
Speaker 1:
If offered a similar position in another church, I would consider the opportunity, and really that's what we want to talk about today is understanding why employees might be open to other opportunities is really crucial for fostering a loyal, committed and satisfied workplace. So what did we find? What were the findings from this? The results revealed that about 44% 43.5% of staff agreed that they would consider a position elsewhere. About 16% agreed, 27% strongly agreed, but, on the other hand, about 41% disagreed, 26% disagreeing, 15% strongly disagreeing. Okay, that's a lot of numbers. What does this mean? It means that about it's split right. About 44% would say yeah, I would look at another role About 41, 42% said no, I would not look. But it's really striking to see. It's almost an even split between those that are open to moving on and those that are committed to staying, and we talked about this a little bit yesterday. But what this suggests is that, while many staff are satisfied with their current roles, there's still a significant portion that's willing to explore other opportunities at other churches. So let's talk about that just for a second. Let's talk about on those that agree that they would consider a similar role.
Speaker 1:
Now, that could be for any number of reasons. It could be a desire for career growth. It could be we talked about this yesterday a better compensation package. It could be improved work-life balance. It could be maybe a preference for a different culture, a church culture. It could be that they want to move back closer to their parents or move back closer to their grandparents. Any number of reasons are possible for why candidates would be open to other ideas. But it's also worth note-taking that about 27% strongly agreed with the statement. That suggests a strong inclination towards exploring new opportunities, perhaps due to maybe some significant dissatisfaction with their current role.
Speaker 1:
I would say in our work with candidates it's about split as to the real reason and sometimes you have to dig down really deep to get to the real reason as to why somebody is looking for a new church staff role. But I would say it's almost kind of evenly distributed positively and negatively. On the positive side, yeah, you do have people that are looking for new opportunities, ways to be challenged, even the getting back closer to family. That could be a positive thing. And then there are the negative things. I don't feel respected. My compensation is low. I've got theological differences with the church I'm at. So there are all different reasons for why people are looking to leave. But let's look at reasons why they would say that I'm not.
Speaker 1:
Almost 42% disagreed with that statement, indicating that they have a really strong commitment to staying in their current positions. It could be because of high job satisfaction. It could be a sense of loyalty to the church or the community. It could be a deep alignment with the church's mission and value. It could be hey, this is just geographically, this is home, so we're not going anywhere. So that's about 41%. But there's also 15% that are like right in the middle. They're neutral. The stance could indicate kind of uncertainty about whether they one day maybe they'd look at other options. Other days they wouldn't. So mixed feelings on the current role, maybe a wait and see approach. These are the people that sometimes take three, four, five years to leave, and Sometimes they should leave earlier. They just take a long time to make a decision. These are the neutrals.
Speaker 1:
So if you're, let's talk first of all. If you're the leader of a staff, it's really important that where your staff is, do you have 40% that has one foot out the door that maybe they're just trying to figure out? Hey, do I want to stick around? Do I want to go? But they're leaning toward yeah, if I got another opportunity, I'd probably do it. Do I want to go? But they're leaning toward yeah, if I get another opportunity, I'd probably do it. And then you've got another 40% that are like no, I'm staying, this is my home, I'm not going anywhere. And then you've got the 15% or so that are like right dab in the middle, and those are the people that you can really influence.
Speaker 1:
Again, it goes back to communication. Make sure you communicate well, but you should, as a staff supervisor, as a lead pastor, as an executive pastor, as a team leader, you should know where each a good leader will know where each person is and have some open discussions about that. So that's what I would do if I was a leadership in leadership, a team leader. But what if you're a staff member and you're like, yeah, nobody's knocking down my door, but yeah, if I had other opportunities, I would consider those, and I think that's fine.
Speaker 1:
I think it's always fine to search for new opportunities, or particularly if somebody gives you a call up and says, hey, I've got this opportunity. What do you think? I think there's a part of discernment there that you should look at those things. I think there's a part of discernment there that you should look at those things. But what you need to do also is you really need to get on your knees and pray God, where do you want me? Do you want me here? Do you want me somewhere else? Are there things I'm running from here? Because if I'm running from things here, I'm going to run from things where I go as well. So those are some really hard decisions.
Speaker 1:
Do, have a resource. If you'll reach out to me and you're the staff person, you just boy, I don't know what I'm supposed to do and again, I'm in the search business, so I talk with. You're not alone. So let me say that you're not alone. A lot of people are trying to decipher and determine their future. We have a free resource and here's how I'm going to make it available to you.
Speaker 1:
It's a book called when to Leave. It's by Wade Hodges. It's a free e-book that I'd love to send you. If you're in the middle of the should I stay or should I go? Just reach out to me and say hey, todd, send me a free copy of that e-book that you mentioned on the podcast, and I will know which one you're talking about and I will get it sent out to you right away. You can just send me an email at podcast, at chemistrystaffing podcast, at chemistrystaffingcom, and I will be sure to get that out to you. But if you are a staff member trying to determine your future, I think this book would be incredibly helpful to you. If you think that would be helpful, a helpful resource for you. Just go ahead and reach out to me. I'll be glad to send that on to you and continue to listen to the Healthy Church Staff Podcast. This week we're going to continue on our discussions on future stability of staff members in the church. Thanks so much, you.