7 Warning Signs to Watch for When Hiring Church Staff

Spotting the right candidate for your church staff can be challenging, but what if you could master the art of hiring with ease? In this episode of the Healthy Church Staff Podcast, Todd Rhoades, co-founder of Chemistry Staffing, unpacks seven critical red flags to watch for in potential hires. From applicants who bash former employers to those with spotty resumes or questionable references, Todd shares actionable insights to help you avoid costly hiring mistakes.

Is your candidate overly focused on salary and perks? Discover why this could be a serious misalignment with your church's mission. Todd emphasizes understanding a candidate's past experiences without being swayed by their charisma. Whether you're a pastor, part of a leadership team, or on a search committee, these essential tips will guide you in ensuring that your new team members truly resonate with your church's values and vision. Tune in to safeguard your hiring process with these indispensable strategies!

Have questions or comments? Send to podcast@chemistrystaffing.com

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Is Your Church Hiring?
If your church is searching for a new staff member, reach out to Todd for a conversation on how he might be able to help.

Are You Looking for a New Ministry Role?
If you are open to a new church role in the next few months, add your free resume and profile at ChemistryStaffing.com.

Transcript

Speaker 1: 0:07

Hey there, todd Rhodes. Here I'm your host for the Healthy Church Staff Podcast and one of the co-founders over at chemistrystaffingcom. Today, we're going to ask you to put on your detective hat and we're going to dive together into the world of hiring. Red flags those subtle warning signs that you can signal, as you're interviewing people, a potential hiring disaster if you leave these red flags unchecked. Now, hiring the right people is crucial for any organization, but it's especially important in the church. We're not just looking for employers. We're looking for ministry partners and people that share our passion and our values and our commitment and our philosophy of ministry and our theology. There are so many things that go into hiring a really great church staff member, but sometimes into hiring a really great church staff member. But sometimes the most charming and charismatic candidates are the ones that get hired because we just really like them. They laugh at our jokes, we laugh at their jokes, but sometimes the most charming and charismatic candidates can turn out to be bad hires and big headaches. So that's why it's important to be aware of these red flags. I've counted seven of them that can signal a potential bad hire. So what are they? What are some of the warning signs to watch out for. This is important if you're on a search committee, if you're a pastor, if you're on a leadership team and you're interviewing candidates. Here's some of the things seven of them I'm going to go through very quickly red flag things that you need to watch for. If any of these things rear their ugly head, it's at least worth taking a second look and stepping back and saying, okay, that was at the very least very interesting. Okay, number one negative talk about previous employers. If a candidate constantly complains about their former church or their former boss, it could be a sign of a lack of personal responsibility or a tendency to blame others for their problems. All right, so let's start here. Many times you will interview candidates that have had a bad experience or are coming out of a bad experience. That's understandable. What you need to watch for is what is their tone? How are they talking? If they're just totally railing on their previous boss or their previous employer and you can tell this, because here's what they'll do They'll go on and on and they'll go into great detail about how they were wronged or how this person didn't do a good job. There are ways to communicate past disappointments or past employment or past boss experiences that weren't good, that don't totally decimate the person they're talking about or the church they're talking about. So honesty is huge here. But ongoing negative and if you can sense that it's still raw and they're talking negatively, that's a red flag. Because here's why it's a red flag because three years they could be doing the same thing to another church about you. Okay. So just consider anything that they're saying about their previous employer, their previous church, could be maybe said about you in the future. That can give you a different perspective. Okay, so negative talk number one.

Speaker 1: 3:35

Number two inconsistent resume or references. If there's gaps in the employment history, if there's conflicting information from references or a lack of references altogether, this can raise some concerns, particularly gaps. I've got some stories that I could tell you about gaps in resumes that if you don't ask that gap question, hey, I noticed you finished this ministry job in 2021 and you didn't start your next one until 2023. What were you doing for those 18 months If you don't ask that question? First of all, if you don't ask the question, you're not going to get the answer, but a lot of times you need to ask that question. There could have been a moral failure. There could have been burnout, there could have been some marriage issues that caused that person to get out of ministry for a year and a half, or there's a gap. So make sure that you ask those questions. Peel back the layers of the onions and see if there's any inconsistency in their resume or in their references.

Speaker 1: 4:31

Okay, number three an overemphasis on personal gain. If a candidate seems more interested in the salary or the perks or the benefits of the job rather than the ministry itself, it could be a sign that their priorities maybe aren't aligned with their church's vision. We get this quite often with candidates where the first thing they will ask us is because we're being an advocate for the church at Chemistry Staffing first thing, any candidate that leads with can you tell me how much this church pays? Is a red flag for us. Now, it could be that they've been stung in the past and that they just don't want to get too far down the road, but leading, if you're a candidate and you lead with that, that could be a very big red flag. The other big red flag we have is people that want to move to a church and the first thing they ask is salary or the other thing. The first thing that they say is I'm really interested because I've got family or I've got friends or I've got somebody close to this location. So if they're looking and the question we just ask there, it's a very simple question is if this church wasn't located in this city, would you still be interested in this role? And it's either usually an immediate yes, absolutely I would be. I love this church and its mission. Or, to be honest, that's really that's the big draw. It's back closer to home, or it's back closer to my family or whatever. So we've talked about three so far negative talk inconsistent resume references and number three overemphasis on personal gain. We've got I need to keep going here We've got four more.

Speaker 1: 6:02

Number four unwillingness to submit to authority. Church staff members need to be able to work collaborative and respect the leadership structure, and a candidate who seems resistant to authority or unwilling to take direction could be a source of conflict down the road. You can tell this. They won't come out and tell you that they're unwilling to submit to authority but, as you have them, tell their story, their past story of their past roles at churches or their past emotional experience. This is going to creep into the narrative about whether or not they respected their leadership structure, whether they worked collaboratively, whether they were resistant to authority or unwilling to take direction. Those things are going to be interwoven into their responses. So watch for those.

Speaker 1: 6:49

Number five a lack of emotional security. Ministry can be stressful. It can be demanding. So look for candidates who demonstrate that emotional intelligence, the self-awareness and the ability to handle conflict in a healthy way. Again, maybe this isn't a question specifically that you're going to ask, but weaving in and out of their answers, you're going to be able to tell is this person? Do they have a good emotional and a good emotional intelligence, eq? Are they self-aware? Are they able to handle conflict in a healthy way? So that's number five. Number six do they have unrealistic expectations? Some candidates may have maybe an idealized view of ministry or unrealistic expectations about the role. Make sure they understand what the demands of the job are and that they're prepared for the challenges that they may face. Maybe they're just naive and again, you'll find these answers out as you talk to them. And then finally, number seven red flag is poor communication skills. Clear and effective communication is essential for any team member, but especially for those in ministry. So if a candidate struggles to communicate clearly. If they can't listen actively or respond to feedback, it could be a red flag about how effective they would be in the role. Hopefully, everybody, when they're going through a job interview, is on their best behavior and they're going to be at the top of their communication game. So watch how they communicate, watch how they listen, watch how they treat their spouse in and out of interviews. How do they respond to you via written communication through email before, during and after the interviews All those are really important. Now let me say this Spotting a red flag is something that, once you spot, then you can ask the questions to determine whether or not we tend to call them yellow flags more than red flags.

Speaker 1: 8:42

Red flags are like blaring sirens going off. This is not going to. They don't believe in the virgin birth or something like. That's a red flag, but a lot of these other things we would call yellow flags, and really what you need to do is, once you identify those, is ask some clarifying questions to see if you can turn that yellow flag into a green flag or maybe even into a red flag, and if it's a red flag, then it's a no-go.

Speaker 1: 9:00

Sometimes there's a reasonable explanation for, or an opportunity for growth on the candidate. But it's really important to take these warning signs in and take them seriously and to dig deeper and identify any of these underlying issues. Okay, here's the bottom line I'm going over today. I get passionate about this, but that's okay. Hopefully you're still here If you're still here. Here's the bottom line. Hiring the right people for your church is an investment in the future of your church and by being aware of these red flags, these seven red flags, and conducting a really thorough process, you can really increase your chances of finding the right person.

Speaker 1: 9:38

If you need some help, again, I've mentioned Final Fin Analysis. I'm just a firm believer in that service that we provide at Chemistry. It is when, if you're doing the search on your own and you find one or two candidates that you think you know this could be the guy, this could be the gal, we can come alongside and partner with you at Chemistry Staffing, do some due diligence on the candidates, do an additional set of interviews short interviews to determine whether or not any of these seven red flags are there. If we identify any of those, we're really good at identifying red and yellow flags, but if you would like more information, it's called a Final Fit Analysis. You can reach out to me anytime. Podcast at chemistrystaffingcom. We'd love to help you. And it's Friday. If you're listening to this podcast on the day it's coming out, it's Friday, the rest of the day off. I don't know, maybe you can't do that, but enjoy your weekend regardless, okay, and we'll be back here again on Monday for the next episode of the Healthy Church Staff Podcast. Have a great weekend.