The Healthy Church Staff Podcast
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The Healthy Church Staff Podcast
The Hidden Cost of Cheap Benefits (And Why Your Staff Notice)
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Hi there, welcome to the Healthy Church Staff Podcast. My name is Todd Rhodes. I'm your host and one of the co-founders of Temperature Staffing.com. And I'm really glad that you joined me today. We're going to talk about benefits. That's alright. Salary and benefits packages. And we are right smack dab in the middle of a 10-part series. We started last week. Got we're halfway through. We've got five more this week. 10-part series on the top 10 discoveries that we derived from this year's church staff health assessment. Over the last three years, we've had about 3,400 church staff members take the assessment. It's 50 questions. Maybe you took it, maybe you didn't. But what we've done is we've compiled all of that data, not just from the past year, but also from the last three years, and we found 10 different discoveries that we're talking about. We're breaking each one down on one episode of the podcast. And today we're on discovery number six, and we're calling that the benefits gap. And this one is going to reframe, I think, some of the whole compensation conversation that a lot of churches are having. Okay, every organization has a weakest link. And for churches, it's crystal clear. Compensation and benefits score about 68.5%. And that's dead last across all of the seven categories that we measure in the annual church staff health assessment. But here's the surprising thing, okay? It's not the salary that's dragging the score down. You'd think it would be, but it's not. Staff are more satisfied with their pay, with their salary, than what they are with the benefits. Matter of fact, benefit satisfaction scores about 3.26 out of five. And only one in three staff members, about one in three staff members, about a third of staff members, are dissatisfied when it comes to their benefits package. And they're more unhappy about their benefits package than they are about their salary package. So it's not necessarily even a money problem, it's more of a security problem. And so I'm I've got four four things I want to talk to you, four insights on this discovery. First one is it could be that we've just been having the wrong conversation, right? When churches talk about compensation, we almost always talk about salary. And I've been in the board meetings too. The question is: can we give raises? How do we compare with other churches? But the salary satisfaction score is about 3.46, benefit satisfaction scores lower, 3.26. So a little bit of a gap there. But that tells us something that might just really be important. Most church staff have made peace with the modern paychecks, the modest paychecks, right? They didn't enter ministry for the money. What they've not made peace with is the uncertainty about their family's security. And that's where the benefits come in. The health insurance, the retirement, the stuff that lets you sleep at night. And that's where churches are starting to really fall, not just starting to, they have been really falling short. And that brings me to insight number two. We talk about the kind of the real cost of the benefits gap, right? 30% of staff are dissatisfied with their benefits package. Many churches just the reality is we've not kept up, we've not kept the pace with what secular employers offer. Um your church your staff member's spouse's co-worker has a 401k match. They have good health coverage, they have dental insurance. Your staff member maybe a prayer and a hope that nothing goes wrong. And that creates a really a tangible daily cost to serving in ministry because every medical bill, every retirement statement, every insurance premium reminds them of that gap. Now it's not resentment, it's math. And the math is really stressful, which brings me to point number three. Benefits communicate something that salaries don't. Okay. Salaries, they just say, hey, here's what we can pay you for your work. Okay. Benefits, on the other hand, say, hey, we care about your future and your family and your security. And when benefits are thin or are non-existent, the unspoken message that your church is giving to your staff is, hey, we love you, but you're on your own. Now listen, many churches genuinely can't afford robust benefits packages, okay? I get that. I get that. And it's tight everywhere. But the silence around it even makes it worse, though. Staff aren't just dealing with inac inadequate benefits, they're dealing with it alone. It's no conversation, no acknowledgement, no even admission that there's some kind of a gap there. It's just a gap, and that gap grows every single year if you don't keep up with it. So, last thing, what can churches actually do? You're like, Todd, what do you think? We've got a Brink truck, we're just gonna back it up and give everybody benefits. You can get a benefit. You get I'm just kidding. But what do you actually do? Because yeah, money is tight. First of all, just acknowledge it, acknowledge the gap. Don't pretend that it doesn't exist. Have honest conversations about what you can and what you can't provide as a church. Honest conversation. They might not agree, and but at least you're having the conversation. It's not silence. And then explore some creative options. There are health sharing ministries. If you can't afford bona fide health care plan, there are retirement matching options, even at small percentages, uh, maybe some HSA contributions. And if you can provide benefits, provide information, help staff understand what some of the options are and connect them with resources, some financial planning, some marketplace alternatives, and especially if you're in a smaller church. Maybe you can consider pooling with some other churches for some group rates. Something, here's the idea I want to get across to you. Something is better than nothing. And having the conversation is better than not having the conversation. Acknowledgement is better than silence. Okay, so here's the bottom line on discovery number six, the benefits gap. The benefits gap isn't just a line item problem, it's a security problem. Your staff aren't asking to get rich. They didn't get into ministry to get rich. What they're asking you for is they're asking to feel like their family's protected. And when that security is missing, believe me, it affects everything. So what are your action steps on this? What can you do? First thing you can do is review your benefits package this month. When's the last time you actually looked at it? I'm on calls all the time with churches that are getting ready to hire somebody and I'll say what's your benefits package look like? Not sure. Do you offer matching? I think so. Ron, do we do we offer matching? So when was the last time you looked at it? Maybe you don't even know what it is. You need to know what it is, you need to know what the baseline is, and then have one honest conversation with staff about the gap. What you can offer, what you can't, or at least start that conversation maybe with your board. Be creative. Find maybe one creative alternative they haven't considered. Maybe it's a pool plan, maybe it's health sharing, maybe it's giving somebody some additional pay time off. Maybe it's paying for a family membership to the Y that doesn't cost all that much in the big scheme of things. I don't know, but find something that shares, hey, we pay you this much, but we value you your benefits for you and your family. Here's one way that we can help close the gap. This is helpful for you. This is something that just it's been kind of screaming louder and louder every year, and it's really something that churches need to take into consideration. It's looking at not just salary, but also the benefits. This is just one of six discoveries that we made in this year's Church Staff Health Assessment. We've compiled everything, absolutely everything, into a 200-plus page report. It's a free PDF download. You can get it right now. Just go over to churchstaffhealth.com. All the data, all the trends, all the practical insights, absolutely free over at churchstaffhealth.com. Your staff can handle modest salaries. The question is whether or not they can handle the insecurity that might be there because of their benefits package. That's it for today. I'd love to hear your comments. You can email me anytime, podcast at chemistry staffing.com. All right, be back tomorrow. Tomorrow we're going to talk about discovery number seven, has to do with vacation. So that's the teaser for tomorrow. Hope you come back and join me tomorrow right here on the health insurance web.
