The Staggering Cost of a Bad Church Hire (and How to Avoid It)

Discover the critical consequences of a bad ministry hire and learn how to avoid them in this illuminating episode of the Healthy Church Staff Podcast. Todd Rhoades, co-founder of ChemistryStaffing.com, joins us to share practical strategies for making wise hiring decisions that can save your church from significant setbacks. From loss of trust and damaged morale to financial strain and emotional toll, the impact of a poor hiring choice can be severe. We'll explore why these issues are even more pronounced in a church setting and emphasize the importance of a proactive approach to hiring. 

Gain valuable insights into developing a thorough hiring process, clearly defining roles, and involving multiple stakeholders to ensure a high-quality addition to your ministry team. Todd provides actionable steps and best practices to help you mitigate risks and stress, ultimately fostering a strong, cohesive team that aligns with your church's mission. Tune in daily from Monday to Friday for more wisdom and discernment tailored specifically for church staff needs—because a thoughtful hiring process is key to building a healthy, enduring ministry.

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

Be sure to subscribe to The Healthy Church Staff Podcast wherever you regularly listen to podcasts.

- - - - -

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

Happy Monday to you, if indeed you are listening on a Monday. If not, happy day. Glad you're here. This is the Healthy Church Staff Podcast and my name is Todd Rhodes. I'm one of the co-founders over at chemistrystaffingcom and your host here on the Healthy Church Staff Podcast and your host here on the Healthy Church Staff Podcast.

Speaker 1: 0:25

We all know the cliche that says hire slow and fire fast. But in ministry, the stakes they seem even higher. Bad hire isn't just a financial drain or a productivity hit. It can fracture trust, it can damage morale and, honestly, it can even derail your mission for years to come. But what exactly is the real cost of a bad ministry hire? That's what we're going to talk about today. And here's a tip it's not just about the salary you're paying out or the severage package that you might owe at the end of this experiment with a bad hire. It's about the ripple effects that spread throughout your church. Now, studies have shown that a bad hire can cost a company not a church, but a company up to about 30% of the employee's first year earnings. But in ministry, I think it's higher than that. I think it's higher than that. I think it's higher than 30%. And here's why A bad hire at a church sets in motion a series of consequences, five that I can think of just off the top of my head.

Speaker 1: 1:35

I'm going to go through them really quickly here. The first is loss of trust. A bad hire can erode the trust of your congregation and your church, erode the trust that they have in your leadership and decision-making abilities. If you're hiring plumber or really a lot of business-type positions, a bad hire can cost you some money, maybe up to 30% of first year's earnings. But usually it doesn't cause the trust of your whole organization to suffer, but in the church it can. A bad hire can really erode the trust of your church in your leadership and in future decision making. So loss of trust, damaged morale, is a second thing. A toxic or incompetent staff member can really poison the atmosphere of your church and demotivate your team and create a culture of negativity.

Speaker 1: 2:34

It also a bad hire will cause there a lot of times to be a disruption in ministry. When a staff member isn't pulling their weight or is actively causing some problems, it disrupts the flow of ministry and hinders your church's progress. And when you have to replace that individual, things a lot of times come to a halt. So there's a disruption in ministry, there's also a financial strain. Besides the direct costs and we've already talked about those a little bit of salary and benefits. Besides the direct costs and we've already talked about those a little bit of salary and benefits a bad hire can lead to lost giving and decreased attendance and increased conflict, all of which are going to impact your bottom line, the loss of trust and the damaged morale and the ministry disruptions. A lot of times will show themselves not only in those three areas, but also in some financial strain as that kind of trickles down. And then let's not forget the emotional toll. Dealing with a bad hire can be absolutely emotional draining for everybody involved, leading to stress and anxiety and even burnout. And just the emotional toll of having to start that whole search process to replace that person again is just pretty traumatic.

Speaker 1: 3:49

How can you avoid this ministry mishap Now? The key is to be proactive, not reactive. You don't want to rush the hiring process just to fill a vacancy, that's for sure. Instead, you need to take the time to do, I think, four things that will dramatically help you decrease the possibility that you'll make a bad hiring decision. The first is clearly define the role. Know exactly what you're looking for in terms of skills and experience and character and cultural fit. I've seen churches many times hire a person, a person, a person, a person and there's really no clear job description. There's no realistic expectation of what this role even is or how you're going to determine whether this person is doing it well or not doing it at all. So start, before you ever hire, with a clearly defined job description and know what the role is, and then, secondly, develop a thorough hiring process. Now, this needs to include multiple interviews. It needs to include reference checks and background checks. We suggest some personality assessments as well. So make it a thorough hiring process.

Speaker 1: 5:02

Don't just hire somebody, and at Chemistry, we have five different things that I'd love to share with you sometime. I know we've shared them here on the podcast from time to time, but I'd love to share them with you personally if it would be helpful. Five things that we think that you need to look for in your next candidate to best ensure that they're going to be what we call at Chemistry, a healthy, long-term fit and that's somebody that can serve in your church for at least the next five years. So make sure you develop the role clearly, define the role and develop a thorough hiring process. Third, you need to involve multiple stakeholders. So get input from your leadership team, from your key volunteers, from your staff, even potential team members of the new hire. The more people you talk to, the more people, and I'm not saying you got to talk to everybody, but make sure you do your due diligence.

Speaker 1: 5:57

And again, don't just hire somebody because you like them. That can I see that mistake happen quite often. Well, we like this person man, he just seems like a great guy, she seems so awesome and they are awesome, but they're not the right fit for the role. So make sure you involve multiple stakeholders. And lastly and this is big for churches because we like to be nice. Many churches are not nice, but we like to say that we're nice. But don't be afraid to say no. If a candidate doesn't feel right, don't settle. Don't fill the position. To fill the position, it's better to keep looking than to make a hasty decision that you'll regret later.

Speaker 1: 6:34

And here's where chemistry staffing comes in. We're not just a staffing agency, we're really a partner for you and your ministry. We'll work with you to understand your unique needs and identify your ideal candidate profile and go through that whole search process for you if you'd like us to. We also offer I've mentioned it here on the podcast in the past couple of weeks what we call a final fit assessment. If you're doing your own search and you get down to one or two candidates and you're like I would just like to do a little bit more due diligence, have somebody else take a look at this candidate, take a look at us and see if that is a good fit or what are we missing here? It's called a final fit assessment and you can reach out to me anytime podcast at chemistrystaffingcom and I can tell you a little bit more about that. But here's your bottom line A bad hire can cost your church far more than just money.

Speaker 1: 7:24

It can impact your mission, it can impact your morale and your overall effectiveness and by investing in a thoughtful and thorough hiring process you can significantly reduce your risk of making a costly hire. Now, is it 100%? You follow everything I just said to you about what to do and what not to do. Is it still? Is it 100% insurance policy that you're going to hire the right person? No, there's always risk. There's always risk, but you want to mitigate the risk as much as you can, and by doing these things, by taking these steps, you can really take a lot of the stress out of the process and you can also kind of increase I believe, dramatically the chances of hiring somebody that's going to be, as I said, a healthy, long-term family. I hope this has been helpful to you and if it has been, even if it hasn't been, give me another try. Come back tomorrow here on the Healthy Church Staff Podcast. We're here every day, monday through Friday, with words, hopefully, of wisdom and discernment for you as a church staff. Talk to you tomorrow.