What if you could significantly reduce staff turnover in your church and create a more committed, passionate team? Join me, Todd Rhoades, on the latest episode of the Healthy Church Staff Podcast, where we tackle the critical issue of staff turnover, especially in the wake of the Great Resignation. We explore the complex causes behind this trend, such as burnout, inadequate compensation, lack of support, and toxic work environments. You’ll gain practical strategies to foster a more supportive and sustainable work culture, helping you retain dedicated staff and minimize preventable turnover.
Discover how to build a thriving church team that is deeply engaged and aligned with your mission. By investing in and empowering your staff, you can enhance the impact of your ministry both within the church and the larger community. This episode is packed with insights and actionable advice aimed at nurturing a healthier and more effective church staff. Don't miss out on uncovering the keys to creating a stable and supportive church work environment!
What if you could significantly reduce staff turnover in your church and create a more committed, passionate team? Join me, Todd Rhoades, on the latest episode of the Healthy Church Staff Podcast, where we tackle the critical issue of staff turnover, especially in the wake of the Great Resignation. We explore the complex causes behind this trend, such as burnout, inadequate compensation, lack of support, and toxic work environments. You’ll gain practical strategies to foster a more supportive and sustainable work culture, helping you retain dedicated staff and minimize preventable turnover.
Discover how to build a thriving church team that is deeply engaged and aligned with your mission. By investing in and empowering your staff, you can enhance the impact of your ministry both within the church and the larger community. This episode is packed with insights and actionable advice aimed at nurturing a healthier and more effective church staff. Don't miss out on uncovering the keys to creating a stable and supportive church work environment!
Hey there, welcome to the Healthy Church Staff Podcast. My name is Todd Rhodes, one of the co-founders over at chemistrystaffingcom and also your host for the Healthy Church Staff Podcast. We're here every weekday, monday through Friday, for a healthy dose of oh I don't know hopefully some encouragement and some knowledge and all kinds of good stuff. If you're a church staff member, serve on a church staff, you've found the right place. Now today we're talking about the topic of how to navigate staff turnover in your church. Now, some turnover is natural, it's to be expected, it's even healthy. People move, they change careers, they feel called to different ministries. But here lately we've talked to the last couple years about this thing called the Great Resignation and in some churches in particular it really seems like almost a revolving door of church staff and it's spinning faster than ever before. And it's not just happening in small churches or struggling churches or congregations. Even large, well-established churches are experiencing in some cases much higher rates of staff turnover. And some have coined the term the great resignation. But that term is not only just used in the church, it's used in business and all over the place. What do I think about this trend? I live in the trenches here in the church that's used in business and all over the place. What do I think about this trend? I live in the trenches here in the church staffing world. What do I think about this and what can we do about it? Here's my words to you today. There's no single answer, of course there never is. If there was a simple answer, we'd fix it and everyone would move on.
Speaker 1:
But there are some contributing factors and I want to share with you some contributing factors of why we're seeing a big shuffle in church staff and many church staffs across the country, and then I want to give you some ways to mitigate that a little bit. Okay, so first let's look at some of the factors. The first one is burnout, and we've seen this. It's getting better here in 2024. It's getting better than it was in 2021 and 2022 after the you-know-what happened, but burnout is still a real thing. It's always been a real thing. Even before COVID it was a real thing. But burnout is really still here. It can be intense, it leads to exhaustion and disillusionment and ultimately, yeah, you just end up getting burned out. And we've seen a ton of people not just switch church jobs. A lot of them have done that, but a lot of them have just gotten out of ministry, at least for a season, although we're starting to see some of those people that have left ministry start to come back.
Speaker 1:
Burnout is absolutely a contributing factor, another contributing factor as to why there's this revolving door going on low pay and limited benefits. Now, many church staff members the last few years forever, have been underpaid and overworked. We talk to candidates all day long and we say tell us about your job. I'm part-time at my church, I'm paid for 20 hours, but it's really a full-time role. That happens all the time in the church and it just needs to stop. It can't continue to happen, if anything, with what we've gone through in the last four to five years and with what's happened in the economy. We tell churches hey, the days of hiring a $30,000 or $35,000 youth pastor are gone. You're better off to save your money and wait until you can afford to hire somebody at a more market value. The days of people staying on your staff just because they love you but they're being underpaid and overworked, those days are by and large gone, and particularly if there's limited access to any kind of benefits like health insurance, retirement savings, those kinds of things. So burnout, low pay and benefits.
Speaker 1:
Third is a lack of support and appreciation. Some churches are great at showing support and appreciation. Some churches aren't, and the churches that aren't have, for the most part, higher rates of turnover. Church leaders many times feel lonely and isolated and undervalued, and if there's not adequate support from their supervisors, from their pastors, from their boards or from their congregation, they just get tired and they move on. Fourth thing conflict and dysfunction. Oh boy, toxic work environments, personality clashes, power struggles. If you've got a really talented person on your team, a really high capacity person on your team, and half of their job is dealing with conflict and dysfunction, chances are they're going to be looking for the door here sooner rather than later. They're not going to stay on your team long term. And then, finally, changing cultural values, and we've seen this particularly in spades in the last three or four years. Younger generations of workers, young staff people are prioritizing family and work-life balance and personal growth and social impact more than previous generations. So that work-life balance thing is huge, particularly for younger generations.
Speaker 1:
All right, so what do you do? If you're a church leader, if you're in charge of hiring staff for your church or you're in charge of the staff team. You're a senior pastor and you've got a few staff members. What do you do to address these issues? How do you create a more sustainable work environment for your staff? I've got five suggestions here, and this isn't just a switch you can flip on. Some of this really deals with culture and DNA, so it's not something that you can start today and it just immediately everybody stays. That's never the case. But by putting these five things into practice over time, you will build a team that not only loves your church and loves being a part of your team, but will stay there hopefully a little bit more longer term.
Speaker 1:
Now, there's always still going to be going back to the first point I made. There's always still going to be some of that healthy, natural turnover, and that's okay. What we're trying to do is to mitigate the turnover from people that are burned out or aren't getting paid enough or don't feel supported or just dealing with a dysfunction or need more healthy life balance okay. So what can we do? First of all, number one, prioritize staff care. Invest in your staff and in their well-being. That includes offering a competitive salary and comprehensive benefits. I know it's tough, but that's part of what you need to do in order to keep good staff, because they will go someplace that does offer competitive salary or competitive benefits. Offer them priorities and opportunities for professional development as well. Maybe that's a conference or a workshop or some mentoring, those kind of things. So prioritize your staff care.
Speaker 1:
Second of all, foster a healthy culture. Create a positive, supportive and collaborative work environment where everyone feels valued and respected. I hear it all the time. I just don't feel valued here anymore. I feel like I've done everything I can and I can't do anymore. So foster a healthy culture. That's number two.
Speaker 1:
Number three encourage open communication. And man some churches the communication. I say it all the time. Communication is key and in order for you to have a good staff, you need to have open communication. So establish channels for feedback. What do you do? What does a staff member do when they have a concern? What do they do when they have an idea? What do they do when there's conflict? How do you address that conflict constructively? How do you have a safe space for people not only to share their ideas and their concerns, safe space for people not only to share their ideas and their concerns, but where is there a safe space where they can try new things and if it fails, it's okay, we tried it, we won't do it that way again, but we'll try something different. How do you have that open communication and area where it's safe and it feels warm and inviting and homey?
Speaker 1:
Okay, number four empower and equip your team. Give your staff members where you can Give them authority Yep, I said it, hand off some of that authority, so it's not all at the top level. Give them some authority, give them some resources. If they need some training or some help or some mentoring, give them that so that they can do their jobs effectively. If one of the reasons people leave oftentimes is that they don't feel like they've been empowered or equipped to do their job, that could be financially, it could be just knowledge-wise, it could be support, team-wise. But empower and equip your team as much as you can. And then, lastly, celebrate successes, celebrate milestones, recognize and appreciate your staff's hard work and contributions. Sometimes we're going at the speed of light and we just don't. We just had a big win and we don't take time to celebrate your wins.
Speaker 1:
So here's your bottom line Staff turnover. Man, it's complex. There are no easy solutions. It's not an on-off switch, but by addressing some of these root causes and creating a healthier and more supportive work environment, you can, over time, reduce turnover. You can attract that's going to help you attract and retain your top talent. And it's going to help you attract and retain your top talent and it's going to help you build a stronger and more effective ministry team.
Speaker 1:
Hey, if you are struggling with staff turnover or want to learn how to create a thriving work environment in your church, I would encourage you to reach out to me. You can catch me anytime. Podcast at chemistrystaffingcom. Podcast at chemistrystaffingcom. Podcast at chemistrystaffingcom. I'm here to help you build a team that's passionate, engaged and committed to your church's mission. Remember, as I leave you here today, your staff is one of your most valuable assets. Invest in them as much as you can, care for them, empower them to do their best work and together, as a team, you can build an industry that truly makes a difference in your church and in your community and, ultimately, in the world. Thanks so much for listening. We'll be back here tomorrow on the healthy church staff podcast. Until then, have a great day.