The Candidate You Let Get Away

When great candidates disappear from your church's hiring process, it's rarely about salary or location. Top-tier ministry candidates evaluate your church's communication, vision clarity, and culture before deciding whether to continue pursuing a role.

• Churches lose candidates through long gaps in communication
• Vague or inconsistent messaging about the role or hiring process raises red flags
• Overly rigid interviews that feel like interrogations drive people away
• Not involving real staff members in the process isolates candidates
• Top candidates often won't explain why they're walking away—they simply vanish
• Communicate often, even if just to say you haven't forgotten about them
• Show candidates your real culture by introducing them to future teammates
• Be honest about both challenges and opportunities at your church
• Clarify timelines and ensure candidates feel guided through the process
• Remember that your best candidates have options and are looking for a place they can trust

Respond to me with feedback at podcast@chemistrystaffing.com. Check out my new book "Silent Alarm" about today's church staffing climate at chemistrystaffing.com/silentalarm.

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

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Are You Looking for a New Ministry Role?
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Chapters

• 0:00 Why Great Candidates Disappear
• 1:14 Common Ways Churches Lose Candidates
• 4:01 How To Keep Top Talent Engaged
• 5:59 Building Trust In Your Hiring Process

Transcript

Speaker 1: 0:07

Ever wonder why the best candidates don't stick around in your search process? Here's a little secret it's not always about the salary or the location. Sometimes, great people walk away from your role because of what they see or what they don't see in your process. Hi there, my name is Todd Rhodes. I'm one of the co-founders over at chemistrystaffingcom and you're listening to the Healthy Church Staff Podcast. You had them, at least you thought you did. The resume was solid, the interview felt great, they said all the right things. You were really excited about potentially hiring this person onto your church staff team and then all of a sudden, poof, they vanished. Welcome to every church's worst staffing nightmare losing the right person halfway through the process.

Speaker 1: 0:57

And today we're going to talk about what might be happening to you and how to stop letting those top tier candidates slip away. All right, let's start here, okay, because this is really the starting point. Today's candidates are looking for more than just a job. They're not just evaluating the role, they're evaluating you and high caliber potential staff members for your church are asking things like do these leaders communicate well? Does this church have clarity on its vision and its values? Are they going to help me set up to succeed. Is this a place where I can trust with my family and my future? And honestly, if they can't answer those type of questions clearly or if the answer feels like it could be a no, they walk, they walk.

Speaker 1: 1:54

So churches accidentally lose great candidates and you might not even realize how this is happening, but here are some common ways that you can lose really great candidates. The first is there's long gaps in your communication. I always tell churches hey, you need to, at the end of every conversation with every candidate that you're serious about, you need to tell them what the next step is. And that gap between your conversation you're having and the next conversation I suggest should not ever be longer than two weeks, but usually a week or even less. Hey, we're going to get back with you in this, or this is what it looks like going forward. Those long gaps in communication where you go longer than two weeks or you say, hey, I'll get back to you on Monday and then you never do until Thursday or Friday, those long gaps communicate. Another reason is just vague or some inconsistent messaging about either the role that you're hiring or the hiring process itself. If they're not sure what those steps are, they're going to be very leery because they're going to think if they don't know what the next steps are now and I'm on their staff I'm afraid they're not going to know what the next steps are then either.

Speaker 1: 3:08

Maybe your interviews are overly rigid and they just come across as very I don't know interviewee. We always say at chemistry staffing we want our interviews to be more of a conversation rather than an interrogation. Okay. So if your interviews come across very rigid and almost like an interrogation, with absolutely no warmth, that's going to communicate and that's going to push people away, and maybe you're not involving real staff or peers in the process. This happens a lot at churches, where you'll talk with a search team, but they isolate you with them. They don't let you talk to other people on the team, and sometimes I'll just say that. I'll say it this way If candidates feel like they have to chase you for the next step, there's a high probability that they're going to walk Top.

Speaker 1: 4:02

This is the bottom line, though Maybe the most important thing that you can remember from today's podcast. Top candidates often won't tell you why they walked or why they're not interested anymore. Again, this could be somebody that you're really excited about and you think you're into them, you think they're into you, and then they just walk away. They usually won't tell you why they walked, they just vanish, all right. So, todd, thanks for making my day here.

Speaker 1: 4:29

What can I do differently, starting now? Maybe you're in a search right now. What can you do differently to make sure that you don't lose really good candidates? The first thing and this is we just talked about this communicate often, even if it's just to say, hey, haven't forgotten about you. Hey, if you say I'm going to get back with you Monday and you don't have the information that you needed to get back with them, get back with them on Monday and say, hey, it's going to take me a couple extra days, haven't forgotten about you. Here's what's going on. Okay, that's number one is communicate often. Number two show them the real culture, pull back the curtain. Introduce them to their future teammates not just the people on the search team or the elders or the senior pastor and be as honest as you can about the good and the bad and the ugly and the hard and the hopeful. Okay, and make sure that you're going back with communication. Make sure you clarify the timelines. Make sure that they feel guided, not ghosted.

Speaker 1: 5:34

Here's the bottom line. Your best candidates have options. This is extremely true today. If they're a really good candidate, guess what? They're probably already talking to a couple of other churches. They have options and they're not just looking to serve. They don't just want to be on a staff or your staff. They're looking for some place where they can fit and some place that they can trust. So if you're losing great candidates, it's probably not because they weren't a great fit. It might be because your process quite possibly made them feel like they weren't wanted. I hope that's been helpful for you today. You can respond to me and give me some feedback. Podcast at chemistrystaffingcom Just wrote a book called Silent Alarm that you can pick up a copy. It talks a lot about staffing climate in today's churches and you can get that as well at chemistrystaffingcom. Slash silent alarm. All right, I'd love to hear from you Podcasting Chemistry Staffing and we'll be right back here again with you tomorrow here on the Health and Truth Stuff Podcast. Have a great day you.