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
How to Know if Your Church is Scaring Candidates Off
We explore why promising candidates often disappear during the church hiring process and how to stop unintentionally scaring away top talent. Your hiring process communicates volumes about your church culture, and candidates assume how you hire is how you lead.
• Disorganized processes communicate disorganized churches and staff
• Today's candidates consider multiple churches simultaneously, not just one at a time
• Long delays between communications often cause candidates to lose interest or trust
• Poor follow-up, vague answers, and overselling positions are common mistakes
• Intimidating interview settings without relational warmth drive away good candidates
• Fast, clear, and kind communication keeps candidates engaged
• Keep candidates in the loop even when there are no significant updates
• Allow candidates to meet real staff members, not just decision-makers
• Be honest about challenges your church faces
• When in doubt, over-communicate with empathy and clarity
Reach out anytime with questions about staffing, hiring, or HR at podcast@chemistrystaffing.com.
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If your church is in the middle of a hiring process, do you ever wonder why sometimes great candidates aren't sticking around? In the hiring process, you find somebody that you're looking at and you're like, oh my goodness, this person is gold, they would be so great here. And you start the interview process and they just almost fleek out on you. They don't stick around. Here's the reality. Today that we're going to talk about is it might not be them, it might be you. And today we're going to unpack how some churches unintentionally scare off their top tier talent, their top potential candidates. It could be poor communication or chaotic interviews. We're going to cover what makes great candidates quietly walk away during that job search process and how to fix it. Hi there, my name is Todd Rhodes and I am one of the co-founders over Chemistry Staffing and I'm your host right here on the Healthy Church Staff podcast of which you are listening to. All right, very good, we've got a strong candidate in the process and then poof they just they disappear, they ghost you. Have you ever had that happen? Ghosted mid-process, you really were excited about a candidate and then all of a sudden they're gone. It might not be their lack of interest. It might be that your process is scaring them away. So today we're going to talk about some red flags that your church might be sending during the hiring process. And here's the thing you might not even know it. You might not even know it, okay. So here's where I want to start. Today, those people that you're talking to about possibly coming on your team, on your staff, those candidates, they're observing a lot more than what you think and actually every touch point is a signal, whether it's an email or a Zoom call or a text, or who's on the interview panel or how long you take to follow up. And many churches just aren't organized and a disorganized process, I will tell you, communicates a disorganized church. And a disorganized process communicates a disorganized staff. Cold and personal interviews communicate a cold and personal culture, and candidates assume that that you hire, how you hire, is also how you lead. So if it's sloppy or if it's slow, that's the first indication. That's why they expect that if they accept a job at your church, it's probably going to be sloppy and slow, okay, so here are some of the most common candidate scaring mistakes. So if you found yourself, you found a really great candidate. You thought you were going to have a really good conversation. You're dreaming about bringing them on your team and then all of a sudden they're gone. Here are some common candidate scaring mistakes.
Speaker 1:Okay, if you take too long and there are too long of delays between communication, you've got to keep things going. I remember 20 years ago candidates would only look at one church at a time. That's changed. They're looking at four, five, ten churches at a time. So that's one thing One church at a time. And it used to be that it was a dance right. It was a season where it could take two, three, sometimes up to six months to have conversations with a church and there were long delays. But it's not that way anymore.
Speaker 1:If there are long delays, if there is a delay, if you say you want to take the next step and then they don't hear from you for a week or two weeks, that's too long of a delay and it's going to scare them off because they think either number one, you're not interested, or two weeks, that's too long of a delay and it's going to scare them off because they think either number one, you're not interested or number two, you're not organized Okay, that's a common mistake. Long delays Another common mistake is poor follow-up or really vague answers, right. So if you say you're going to follow up and they have to follow up with you because you said, hey, I'll get back with you in a couple of days, and it's been four days, five days, either you've not followed up or you just kind of give some vague answers that don't tell them where you're at. That's another thing that's going to scare people off. Maybe you're overselling the role or under explaining challenges Candidates to read through. Good candidate is going to read through this. They're going to know if you're overselling the role because they're going to hear what you're saying and they're going to observe what's going on. Or maybe you're under explaining the challenges. Maybe they talk to other staff and they're like they hear about a challenge and it's. I didn't hear about anything in the interview. Those are things that are going to cause candidates just to back up and say I'm not sure here.
Speaker 1:Maybe you're unintentionally and I think this is usually unintentional maybe you're grilling candidates without any kind of relational, and this can happen very much in a group setting and it can happen alone on one as well, but it can also happen. I see it happen quite often in a search committee or an elder board meeting where you've got five or six elders or search team members and one candidate, it can feel like a piling on and that will scare candidates away. Or maybe on your team is relationally warm and who isn't right. Control that as much as you can. You really want to Gone are the days where it's like everybody would love to work at my church. Everybody would love to work somewhere, but maybe not your church. So make sure you take it easy on the grilling without relational warmth. Maybe and again, I don't think this is intentional, but it is a warning sign If you're making candidates guess the next step or guess what the timeline is, you should always leave every interaction with hey, here's what we're thinking is going to happen.
Speaker 1:Next we're going to have a conversation, but I'll get back with you by Tuesday or something like that. Next step thing is going to keep people on board. Okay, so here's a tip for you. Candidates aren't just answering your questions. They're asking themselves could I thrive here? Can I trust these people? Okay, those are really important questions. You're asking those questions of them, but they're also asking those questions of you, all right.
Speaker 1:And then, finally, how do you create a process that attracts instead of repels. How do you draw candidates process that attracts instead of repels? How do you draw candidates in rather than having them leave prematurely? And that's the opposite of what we were just talking about. Right, you need to be fast and clear and kind. You need to communicate well. You need to keep candidates in the loop, even if there's no update. It's not bad Even if you. Maybe you're meeting on Tuesday that you told them about got canceled and you had to reschedule it for Thursday. Let them know hey, there's been a little bit of a hiccup here. We weren't able to meet Bob, had something happen and so we had to reschedule.
Speaker 1:Even if there's no update, keep them in the loop and then let them meet real staff, not just the decision makers. Show honesty about the challenges that your church is facing and the current health state of your church and your staff, and then really put some intention into your interviews. Know what you're going to do in your interviews, because if you design interviews that reveal who they are, not just what they've done, that's going to be something that's going to keep them involved in the process. So, when in doubt, here's a simple rule that I preach over and over to churches. When in doubt, over-communicate and do it with empathy and with clarity. That alone, believe me, that alone will set your church apart from any other churches that they're talking to me. That alone will set your church apart from any other churches that they're talking to.
Speaker 1:Okay, bottom line for today Great candidates aren't just looking for a job. They're also discerning your culture and your health and your mission. They're interviewing you as much as you are interviewing them. And the truth is, if your hiring process is sending the wrong signals, you'll keep losing the very leaders that you're hoping to hire and you're going to lose the leaders that your church needs the most. All right, if you'd love to have a conversation about hiring that's what I do here in my role at chemistrystaffingcom Anything having to do with helping you find great, healthy, long-term staff or just develop a healthy staff. I would love to hear from you and start a conversation, see if there's a way that we can work together. You can reach out to me anytime podcast at chemistrystaffingcom and with any questions that you might have about staffing or hiring or firing or any of that good old PR, hr, all those initials type stuff. Reach out to me, podcast at chemistrystaffcom. All right, that's it for today. I hope you'll join me again tomorrow right here on the Healthy Church Staff. You.
