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You Handed Them Keys and Called It Onboarding · The Healthy Church Staff Podcast

• 0:09
  SPEAKER_00: Your healthiest staff member quite probably could be the one that you just hired, not your worship pastor of eight years, not the kids director that everybody loves, the person that started last month.
• 0:22
  SPEAKER_00: We're going to talk about that here on the Healthy Church Staff Podcast.
• 0:25
  SPEAKER_00: Today, my name is Todd Rhodes, one of the co-founders over at chemistrystaffing.com.
• 0:30
  SPEAKER_00: Before we get started today, we're going to talk about church health today.
• 0:34
  SPEAKER_00: And I want to encourage you.
• 0:35
  SPEAKER_00: Yesterday, we just opened up the 2026 Church Staff Health Assessment for everyone to take.
• 0:41
  SPEAKER_00: It's absolutely free.
• 0:43
  SPEAKER_00: If you are a paid staff member at your church, I would love to have your input.
• 0:48
  SPEAKER_00: It'll take you about 10, maybe 15 minutes to go through the questions, but it's absolutely free.
• 0:54
  SPEAKER_00: And what that does is it helps us to know, gather the information that we need for our giant church staff health assessment report that we're going to submit in January.
• 1:04
  SPEAKER_00: That's going to be a report card on how church staffs are doing across the country.
• 1:07
  SPEAKER_00: So I'd love to have your input.
• 1:08
  SPEAKER_00: You can just go over to churchstaffassessment.com.
• 1:12
  SPEAKER_00: Go ahead and hit pause on the podcast right now.
• 1:14
  SPEAKER_00: Unless you're driving.
• 1:15
  SPEAKER_00: Don't hit pause if you're driving and do this right now while you're driving.
• 1:18
  SPEAKER_00: But hit pause, go over to church staff assessment and take that assessment.
• 1:22
  SPEAKER_00: Today we're going to tackle this about church staff health.
• 1:26
  SPEAKER_00: I'm going to share a little bit of what we learned in last year's church staff health assessment, just as a preview to what we might learn this year.
• 1:36
  SPEAKER_00: We're talking about the person that started last month, your newest hire.
• 1:40
  SPEAKER_00: What we found in our church staff health assessment last year was that they have a health score out of 250, and nobody ever got to 250.
• 1:48
  SPEAKER_00: So nobody's perfect.
• 1:49
  SPEAKER_00: The average health scare, the health score, somebody that's been at your church for about a month is usually nationally about 193.3.
• 2:00
  SPEAKER_00: Flight risk is about 32%.
• 2:02
  SPEAKER_00: Okay.
• 2:03
  SPEAKER_00: That still means that they're percent flight risk.
• 2:05
  SPEAKER_00: That means are they going to stay or are they going to leave?
• 2:07
  SPEAKER_00: Percent.
• 2:08
  SPEAKER_00: That's actually the best number on your team.
• 2:10
  SPEAKER_00: You say, that seems really high.
• 2:12
  SPEAKER_00: It is because they just started.
• 2:14
  SPEAKER_00: So they're just getting their, they're just getting their feels, right?
• 2:17
  SPEAKER_00: They don't know if this is a great thing.
• 2:18
  SPEAKER_00: They hope it is.
• 2:20
  SPEAKER_00: So 78% of them says this is a great thing, or 68%, but there's still 32% that they're still trying to figure out.
• 2:27
  SPEAKER_00: But here's the deal.
• 2:29
  SPEAKER_00: Those scores out of all the assessments that we did, those scores, the the people that you just hired, that's the best number on average on your whole entire team.
• 2:42
  SPEAKER_00: And you won't talk to them again until they're already gone, in some cases, about how they're doing and the church health.
• 2:50
  SPEAKER_00: That's what we're going to talk about today.
• 2:52
  SPEAKER_00: The only healthy year you get, at least to start off with, is year one.
• 2:59
  SPEAKER_00: New staff health under year one, like I said, average health score, 193.
• 3:04
  SPEAKER_00: Flight risk is 32%.
• 3:06
  SPEAKER_00: Three to five years, that 193 goes down to 176 in years three, four, and five.
• 3:11
  SPEAKER_00: Flight risk goes from 32% on average, maybe not at your church, but on average in years three, four, and five, that flight risk goes from 32% in year one to 59% in years three, four, and five.
• 3:25
  SPEAKER_00: That's a 17-point health drop and a 27-point jump in flight risk.
• 3:32
  SPEAKER_00: So what I want to talk about today is you don't have to lose them in year four because year four got hard.
• 3:39
  SPEAKER_00: You lose them in year four because you spend the only healthy year on autopilot, and that's year one.
• 3:45
  SPEAKER_00: So that's what we're going to talk about today.
• 3:47
  SPEAKER_00: In business, outside the church, in business, a new director usually gets a 90-day kind of an onboarding plan.
• 3:54
  SPEAKER_00: They usually get a sponsor or kind of a mentor and a little bit of a scorecard.
• 3:59
  SPEAKER_00: In the church, though, here's how we do it a lot of times.
• 4:03
  SPEAKER_00: We give a new associate a kind of a closet as an office and maybe a Sunday introduction if they're lucky.
• 4:08
  SPEAKER_00: And then you go back to your real job because you've got stuff that needs to get done.
• 4:13
  SPEAKER_00: But that is not really what it looks like if you put yourself in the seat of the new staff member.
• 4:20
  SPEAKER_00: You gave them a badge, you gave them a login, you gave them a little bit of information, maybe a copy of last year's calendar.
• 4:28
  SPEAKER_00: You probably gave them a tour of the building, you put the announcement on, you said, Hey, we're so glad you're here.
• 4:34
  SPEAKER_00: And then from their eyes, you just disappeared.
• 4:38
  SPEAKER_00: You're off doing your own senior pastor thing or executive pastor thing or whatever.
• 4:42
  SPEAKER_00: There's no 30-day check-in, there's no 60-day check-in, there's no 90-day check-in.
• 4:46
  SPEAKER_00: And know that you do check in.
• 4:48
  SPEAKER_00: But I'm saying there's no kind of process, there's no formal onboarding process.
• 4:53
  SPEAKER_00: So that not only you know how this person is fitting in and doing in their job, but the new employee doesn't have any kind of guidance on how they're doing or how they're fitting in either.
• 5:04
  SPEAKER_00: And this no picture of what winning looks like is a real problem.
• 5:08
  SPEAKER_00: If there's no conversation after Sunday, number two, then you need to have a conversation ongoing.
• 5:16
  SPEAKER_00: The kids' director you hired in March shouldn't be guessing how they're doing in October.
• 5:22
  SPEAKER_00: And 39% of staff in our survey say that role expectations were never really clearly communicated when they started.
• 5:31
  SPEAKER_00: 39%.
• 5:32
  SPEAKER_00: You hired them almost, think of it like this, you hired them almost into a fog.
• 5:37
  SPEAKER_00: Now, I know you weren't trying to abandon them.
• 5:40
  SPEAKER_00: I know you weren't trying, you're probably trying not to hover, you want to give them some space.
• 5:44
  SPEAKER_00: You don't want to, you don't want to tell them exactly how to do everything because you want them, you hired them for their expertise.
• 5:51
  SPEAKER_00: You wanted to give them that space to find their footing, and that that's reasonable, that's decent.
• 5:56
  SPEAKER_00: But if you give them that space without any kind of a map, that's not freedom at all.
• 6:01
  SPEAKER_00: It's just kind of almost neglect.
• 6:05
  SPEAKER_00: So here's what I want you to remember today.
• 6:07
  SPEAKER_00: You're spending probably the healthiest year, that first year, on autopilot.
• 6:13
  SPEAKER_00: And this is the only window where they're still hope hopeful.
• 6:17
  SPEAKER_00: This is where they say the first five years of a child's life, they form so much of who they're going to be as an adult.
• 6:23
  SPEAKER_00: That happens in the first year of a staff member being on your staff.
• 6:28
  SPEAKER_00: They still believe you, right?
• 6:29
  SPEAKER_00: They still think this church might be different.
• 6:32
  SPEAKER_00: And you're using that window to catch them up on the backlog that you hired them to fix.
• 6:38
  SPEAKER_00: So feeling valued is probably the largest gap between staff who thrive and staff who struggle.
• 6:44
  SPEAKER_00: You can't feel valued by a church that only talks to you when something's on fire.
• 6:49
  SPEAKER_00: Your worship pastor doesn't need another hallway.
• 6:52
  SPEAKER_00: Talk as you're passing them.
• 6:54
  SPEAKER_00: Hey, how are you settling in there?
• 6:56
  SPEAKER_00: How's it going?
• 6:57
  SPEAKER_00: They need you to name the job description and actually walk with them on how they're doing.
• 7:03
  SPEAKER_00: So, what would it look like if you actually, for a brand new hire, if you actually used your one to your advantage, not uh uh a 30, 60, 90 day glance work that hallway talk, but seriously, uh a 30, 60, 90 day plan that you can actually work with them.
• 7:24
  SPEAKER_00: Day 30.
• 7:24
  SPEAKER_00: Hey, it's just a simple check-in.
• 7:26
  SPEAKER_00: But let's just sit down.
• 7:27
  SPEAKER_00: Maybe you take them out to coffee.
• 7:29
  SPEAKER_00: Hey, are you how you doing?
• 7:30
  SPEAKER_00: You've been here a month.
• 7:32
  SPEAKER_00: How you doing?
• 7:32
  SPEAKER_00: Are you clear on the work?
• 7:34
  SPEAKER_00: Not the PDF, not the job description.
• 7:36
  SPEAKER_00: Are you clear on the work?
• 7:37
  SPEAKER_00: Do you feel like you've gotten good directive on what you need?
• 7:41
  SPEAKER_00: Is there anything else that you need?
• 7:43
  SPEAKER_00: That's day 30, day 60.
• 7:45
  SPEAKER_00: Do they know what good looks like in your church?
• 7:49
  SPEAKER_00: Right?
• 7:50
  SPEAKER_00: Do they know what's where you've given them the tools on day 30, day 60?
• 7:54
  SPEAKER_00: Do they know what your expectations are?
• 7:56
  SPEAKER_00: Do they know what good looks like?
• 7:58
  SPEAKER_00: Do they know what great looks like?
• 7:59
  SPEAKER_00: Do they know what they're being measured on?
• 8:01
  SPEAKER_00: And then on day 90, again, not it doesn't have to be like this is a 90-day review.
• 8:07
  SPEAKER_00: This is a take them out to coffee and say, hey, you've been here.
• 8:10
  SPEAKER_00: You've been here three months.
• 8:11
  SPEAKER_00: Can you believe you've been here three months?
• 8:13
  SPEAKER_00: Hey, what n name a win that you think has happened in the first 90 days.
• 8:18
  SPEAKER_00: Hi in other words, how you doing?
• 8:20
  SPEAKER_00: Again, what can we help you with?
• 8:23
  SPEAKER_00: What's unclear?
• 8:24
  SPEAKER_00: What can we provide for you?
• 8:26
  SPEAKER_00: That's it.
• 8:28
  SPEAKER_00: That's it.
• 8:28
  SPEAKER_00: It's not a buddy system.
• 8:30
  SPEAKER_00: It's not a micromanagement system.
• 8:34
  SPEAKER_00: It's not coffee with whoever's free on Thursday.
• 8:38
  SPEAKER_00: It's a first chair conversation between whoever this employee reports to and the employee, the staff member.
• 8:47
  SPEAKER_00: If you wouldn't launch a second campus without a 90-day plan, then don't launch a human that way for crying out.
• 8:54
  SPEAKER_00: Okay?
• 8:54
  SPEAKER_00: Corporate onboarding treats the first 90 days almost like a product launch, and you treat it like a tour of the copier.
• 9:02
  SPEAKER_00: Here's the question I think a lot of us are avoiding, and I want to put it on the table for you today, especially if you're getting ready to hire staff or you just hired a staff person.
• 9:12
  SPEAKER_00: When is the last time you sat down with a person that you hired and asked them what success looks like from their chair?
• 9:21
  SPEAKER_00: Not not just how you settle it in, that's a hallway conversation.
• 9:25
  SPEAKER_00: The real one is what do you still not know?
• 9:28
  SPEAKER_00: What would make you sure long term that you belong here?
• 9:33
  SPEAKER_00: If you can't remember that meeting, there wasn't one.
• 9:37
  SPEAKER_00: You handed them the keys, you call called it onboarding, and you spent the healthiest year you'll ever get with them somebody or somewhere else.
• 9:45
  SPEAKER_00: So here's the bottom line for today.
• 9:47
  SPEAKER_00: It sounds like I'm harping on everybody today.
• 9:49
  SPEAKER_00: I don't mean that, but I've seen so many onboarding processes just not happen.
• 9:55
  SPEAKER_00: And we get a call six months in from an employee that says, I'm just not even sure what's going on.
• 10:00
  SPEAKER_00: And that's I guess maybe I am harping a little bit.
• 10:02
  SPEAKER_00: If that happens, that's on you.
• 10:04
  SPEAKER_00: Right?
• 10:04
  SPEAKER_00: Here's the bottom line for today.
• 10:06
  SPEAKER_00: Year one is the healthiest year your staff member will ever have in most circumstances.
• 10:11
  SPEAKER_00: And most churches spend it just abandoning the hire.
• 10:16
  SPEAKER_00: Not intentionally, but just doing your own thing and thinking, oh, they'll come up to speed.
• 10:20
  SPEAKER_00: And they need your help.
• 10:22
  SPEAKER_00: They need your help.
• 10:24
  SPEAKER_00: So that's it for today.
• 10:26
  SPEAKER_00: I know this one stings a little bit, okay?
• 10:29
  SPEAKER_00: Might be a little ticked at Todd right now.
• 10:31
  SPEAKER_00: I get that.
• 10:32
  SPEAKER_00: I understand.
• 10:33
  SPEAKER_00: But I also know that you care you really do.
• 10:37
  SPEAKER_00: You care about the people that you hired.
• 10:39
  SPEAKER_00: And that's why you listen to this podcast in the first place.
• 10:42
  SPEAKER_00: And that's why I think if you haven't done a good onboarding plan, this is a good time to plan it before you hire somebody.
• 10:50
  SPEAKER_00: And if you've already hired somebody, it's not too late.
• 10:53
  SPEAKER_00: If they're in the first year, go back and do this retroactively.
• 10:57
  SPEAKER_00: Ask them how they're doing.
• 10:59
  SPEAKER_00: Ask them what they need.
• 11:00
  SPEAKER_00: Just have that open communication.
• 11:03
  SPEAKER_00: I recommend 3060-90 when you first hire somebody, but maybe you're past that.
• 11:08
  SPEAKER_00: It's still not too late to have those conversations.
• 11:10
  SPEAKER_00: Just don't make a big ordeal out of it.
• 11:12
  SPEAKER_00: Take them out to coffee and just have a conversation for crying out loud.
• 11:15
  SPEAKER_00: They're on your team.
• 11:16
  SPEAKER_00: They just took the job.
• 11:17
  SPEAKER_00: They want to be there.
• 11:18
  SPEAKER_00: You want them there.
• 11:19
  SPEAKER_00: Let's just make sure that they've got what they need.
• 11:21
  SPEAKER_00: All right.
• 11:22
  SPEAKER_00: Todd's now stepping down off of his high horse.
• 11:25
  SPEAKER_00: And I'm sure I will be on another high horse tomorrow, and I hope you'll join me for that.
• 11:29
  SPEAKER_00: It's always good to hear an old man ran a little bit, right?
• 11:32
  SPEAKER_00: Um get out of my system so you don't have to get it out of yours.
• 11:36
  SPEAKER_00: All right.
• 11:36
  SPEAKER_00: We will be back here tomorrow on the Healthy Church Staff Podcast.
• 11:40
  SPEAKER_00: I hope you'll join me then.
• 11:41
  SPEAKER_00: We're here every weekday.
• 11:43
  SPEAKER_00: And don't forget to go and take the Church Staff Health Assessment absolutely free.
• 11:47
  SPEAKER_00: That Church Staff Assessment dot com.