The Healthy Church Staff Podcast
We're all about helping create a healthy, positive, and spiritually positive environment for church staff members and leadership teams.
The Healthy Church Staff Podcast
The Real Cost of a Bad Hire: Why Getting It Right Matters
What if your church's next hire could cost you not just financially, but also in team morale and cultural harmony? Join me, Todd Rhoades, on the Healthy Church Staff Podcast, as I tackle the critical issue of the hidden costs of a bad hire in church staffing. This episode promises to shed light on how a poor hiring decision can wreak havoc on your budget, with replacement costs soaring up to 200% of an employee's salary. More than just numbers, we'll explore the profound impact on team dynamics, where a wrong fit can cause staff to walk on eggshells, leading to a steep decline in productivity and ministry effectiveness.
We'll also delve into the cultural repercussions that can arise when new hires clash with your church's established values and mission. Hear a compelling story about a church that faced upheaval after hiring a worship pastor who didn't share their vision, resulting in significant volunteer turnover. If you're part of a search team or elder board, this conversation will offer invaluable insights and practical advice on maintaining a harmonious church culture. Ensure your staffing decisions bolster your ministry's long-term health by understanding the true cost of a bad hire and how to prevent it.
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Hi there, welcome to the Healthy Church Staff Podcast. I'm Todd Rhodes, your host for the podcast, also one of the co-founders of overchemistrystaffingcom. Hopefully I am your trusting navigator on this crazy journey of hiring and staffing and building healthier church staff teams. Today is episode number 243 of the Healthy Church Staff podcast and we started it on January 1st. We've been going every Monday through Friday for five to ten minutes here and I've really enjoyed so far our time together and hopefully you've enjoyed listening and go along with my tirades from time to time.
Speaker 1:All right, today we're continuing on our series kind of year-end considerations for hiring. If you are at a church that is looking at your budget or looking at hiring for 2025. So today we're talking about something that doesn't get really I think I work with a lot of churches in the area of staffing doesn't get enough attention and that's really the cost of a bad hire. Okay, I know what you're thinking, todd. I don't really think about bad hires. We're focused on getting it right and I get that. But here's the truth. A bad hire doesn't just affect your budget and it will affect your budget big time, but it affects your team and your culture and your ministry effectiveness in ways that are hard to bounce back from. So today we're going to unpack the true cost of a bad hire and, even more importantly, how you can avoid making one.
Speaker 1:Let's start with the obvious money. A bad hire can cost your church tens of thousands of dollars between salary and benefits and onboarding costs and eventually replacing the person. It is a big financial hit. If you've ever hired, made a bad hire and just about everybody I know has, just about every church I know has at some point that it's a big financial hit. One study even estimates that the cost of replacing an employee can be anywhere from 50 to 200 percent of their annual salary. So if you hired a pastor and say it at $60,000 a year and it didn't work out, you could be looking at $30,000 or more to recover, and that's $30,000 of you not paying anybody. That's $30,000 of lost time and momentum and manpower.
Speaker 1:But it's not just about the money. Let me say this here, though when I talk to search teams and elder boards and search committees across the country at churches, this is probably their number one fear. It's why they hire chemistry staffing. A lot of times it's the fear of man. We just can't screw this up. We can't make a bad hire, and it's not just about the money. But people are saying and telling us all the time we really need some outside help, some outside eyes and ears to help us to know if, to see things that we don't see, so that we don't make a bad decision. All right, so we already talked about money, but that's just part of it.
Speaker 1:Okay, a bad hire, the ripple effects of a bad hire can be absolutely devastating and if you've ever been a part of a church or you've ever done a bad hire, this to be true, it can. I'm just mentioned three ways here, really quickly, that the ripple effects beyond the money. First is team morale. Imagine that you hire somebody who's not a good fit. Within six months, your staff's walking on eggshells what was a bad hire? Maybe they know it was a bad hire, the person you hired. Maybe they don't, according to how self-aware they are. But your staff knows that it was a bad hire and conflicts start to arise, people start to get frustrated, productivity just absolutely tanks.
Speaker 1:A bad hire doesn't just impact the person in the role, it affects the entire team, your whole staff. Let's be honest once morale starts slipping, it's really tough to get that back. So money, team morale it can do some cultural damage as well. Culture is one of those things that takes years to build and minutes to break. If you bring in somebody whose values or leadership style don't align with your church's culture, it can create a lot of tension. I once worked with a church that hired a worship pastor who didn't share their vision for team collaboration and within a year, half the volunteer band had quit and it took almost two years to rebuild that ministry. It can do some real cultural damage. And then, lastly and boy, I could talk about this all day, but let me just give you one more Cost of a bad hire Money, team morale, cultural damage, lost momentum.
Speaker 1:Now, this is a sneaky one, right. A bad hire can derail your ministry momentum. Instead of focusing on reaching and growing within your community, you're stuck dealing with internal issues, with conflict resolution, reassigning tasks and eventually restarting the hiring process all over again. It's exhausting and it's deflating and it will take your eye off the ball and you will lose momentum. So why do bad hires happen? You can ask this all the time, todd. Why do bad hires happen? A few just really quickly. Again. I could talk on this all day, but you would get bored really quickly. I'm sure I would be interested in myself, but you would be bored.
Speaker 1:Why do bad hires happen? Three common culprits. Number one church's rush to the process. Hey, we need somebody now and we just we got to hire somebody now, we got to fill the hole now. So you cut corners and you hire somebody that maybe you knew, maybe you didn't know, but just wasn't going to be a good long-term fit. So don't rush the process, going along with that, ignoring red flags. You see some potential issues before you hire the person during the interview process, but you convince yourself it'll work out, they'll work out, it'll all be okay. Yeah, yeah, it's going to be good. Spoiler alert it usually isn't. They usually don't work out. It's usually a bad hire.
Speaker 1:If you ignore red flags that you see before you make the offer. It's going to come back to bite you and I won't tell you where it's going to bite you, but it's going to bite you hard, okay. Bite you, and I won't tell you where it's going to bite you, but it's going to bite you hard, okay. And then, finally, poor fit. The candidate that you hire might be skilled, but their theology or their culture or their personality doesn't align with your team, and we're going to talk about that to the culture and theology and personality piece and the chemistry piece here in the next week here on the podcast. So keep listening.
Speaker 1:The good news these pitfalls are absolutely avoidable if you take your time and you approach hiring with intention. Okay, so here's your practical bottom line. Okay, for today, a bad hire is far more expensive. It's far more expensive financially and emotionally and spiritually than waiting for the right person. So here's your action step.
Speaker 1:If you're in the middle of a hiring process, take a step back and ask yourself am I rushing this? Am I ignoring any red flags? Have I clearly defined what a good fit looks like for this role? And if you're not in a hiring process right now, use this time to prepare for the future. Create a profile of what a healthy team member looks like for your church. When time, when the time does come to hire, you'll have a much clearer picture of who you're looking for. And hey, if this topic hits a little close to home, I'd love to chat. Whether you're in the middle of a tricky hire or you've just come out of a bad experience, I'd love to help. Just shoot me an, an email. Catch me anytime. Podcast at chemistrystaffingcom. Podcast at chemistrystaffingcom. And again, if you haven't already hit, subscribe to this podcast so you don't miss tomorrow's episode.
Speaker 1:Tomorrow we're diving. We're going to start diving into those five key areas that we use at Chemistry Staffing with every church that we work with and every candidate that we work with. Five key areas you won't want to miss it. Five key areas that every church and every candidate need to agree on. And tomorrow we're going to start with theology. Trust me, you won't want to miss it. Okay, that's it for today. Remember, hiring is one of the most important decisions you'll make for your church and man. You just got to get it right. Take your time, trust the process, don't settle. If you need some help, reach out Again. Podcastandchemistrystaffingcom. I'd love to have a conversation with you. All right, thanks for spending a few minutes with me today. I appreciate you and I will see you here on the podcast, or at least you'll get to listen to me here on the podcast, right here again. Have a great day.
