The following question came from one of our listserves

 

A quick question on hiring staff from within the church...

 

We're a new church, 9 months old, running about 170 on Sunday mornings, and now getting ready to hire a part-time administrative assistant.

 

I was planning to hire one of the women who has been volunteering her time to help with administrative duties. I spoke with her yesterday about the job, and she would love to do it. (She has past experience, etc. She meets all my qualifications...)

 

While talking, she suggested the possibility of people's feelings being hurt within the congregation if we don't announce that we're hiring someone for this position and ask for applications, just in case there are people out there who would be interested. Who knows, maybe one of them would be better suited for the task. At the very least, no one would feel like this woman got the job because she had "insider knowledge" or something. (She's part of the launch team that helped us start the church. They live in the town 15 minutes away where our parent church is located. Much -- not all -- of our leadership is still made up of people from this launch team.) These were her thoughts...

 

What do you think? Should I just go ahead and hire this woman, moving her up from volunteer to part-time status (kind of the model for home-growing your staff)? Or should I open it up for applications from people in the congregation?

 

Response From Jim Griffith

 

There's a big difference between a "launch team" volunteer and an "employee." Make no mistake: this will change your expectations and relationship. Should this not work out, can you afford to lose this woman & her family as a member of your launch team?

Administrative "duties" and "assistant" convey two very different ideas. Are you clear about the behavior she's currently doing as what you're going to need going forward? For example, will she be managing volunteers or doing more task-oriented details?

A yellow flag for me is her concern about how others will feel? Thisdoesn't sound like a person who's an administrator? (Disclaimer: remember, I'm very paranoid about these things!)

Open applications is ALWAYS a bad idea - avoid like the plague. If you want a major diversion of energy on your part, go for it.