Smart Church Management

Employee Self Appraisal – You Might Be Surprised By What You Learn!

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Feedback is an important key to learning. And, managers learn from employees who can be honest about the work environment.

One way to learn this valuable information is by simply asking the question.

Many organizations use employee self appraisals as a tool to gather feedback information for managers.

While a little scary to administer, this tool can reveal employee perceptions about the workplace, how it is managed and provide suggestions that could be used to improve the worker experience. Read the Full Article →

2019 Average Salary Increase Projections

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Churches that have the resources to hire employees strive to have engaged employees by providing a great place to work. One of the key indicators of engaged employee is competitive compensation. To keep salaries competitive, you will need to determine the annual average cost of living raise.

Churches use personnel committees to help determine appropriate and fair compensation for church staff. Read the Full Article →

Tuition Assistance Program – 6 Things to Consider For Your Policy

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With unemployment rates at historical lows, some employers may use a tuition assistance program as a tool to attract, engage and retain employees.

I am an advocate for employer educational assistance because I benefited from such a program early in my career.

The healthcare organization I worked for offered a generous tuition assistance program that allowed me to finish an undergraduate degree. Read the Full Article →

Severance Pay Package – 6 Things to Consider

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The economy is booming, unemployment is low but there may be times when you should consider offering an employee a severance pay package.

Churches in particular, should at least consider offering severance pay to an employee who leaves involuntarily because of the reality that most church employees don’t qualify for unemployment benefits.

A severance pay package can help bridge the gap in pay for church employees who leave employment involuntarily. Read the Full Article →

Termination Checklist Template – 6 Points to Include in Your Termination Checklist

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Employee turnover is often difficult, particularly for a church. Regardless of the reason for an employee leaving, there are several things that need to be done. A tool that can help you is a termination checklist.

If you read this site much you know that we are all about using checklists to help manage churches because these tools can help us stay focused and get everything that is required done. Read the Full Article →

8 Tips For Creating And Implementing A Church Employee Policy Manual

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One of the important documents every ministry should have on its shelf is a church employee policy manual.

Churches that have the resources to pay employees should strive to create environments that attract the best and the brightest.

These ministries that value their employees take the time to create policies, procedures and compensation strategies that create a healthy work environment.

Part of that process is writing down those policies, procedures and benefits so that employees can understand what is expected of them and what they can expect as an employee of the ministry. This is often referred to a church employee policy manual or handbook. Read the Full Article →

4 Resources To Help You Create Church Salary Ranges

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Most people work for a ministry because they feel called to do so. However, these people have the expectation that they will receive fair compensation. A church salary range can help.

So what is fair compensation? And how do you determine what to pay people?

Determining pay can be a particularly difficult for a startup church because they don’t have the resources to do salary comps or to pay someone to help them. Read the Full Article →

7 Questions to Consider When Writing A Church Job Description

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Employees go to work with the intention of doing a good job. Knowing what the specifics of their job is helps them to do just that. Ministries create systems to help manage employees and the church job description is part of that system.

Employees need to know what is expected of them and who to go to with questions or concerns. Read the Full Article →

Pastor or Boss – Do you Know When to Change Hats?

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Being responsible for the oversight of a church congregation can be very challenging because of the tender balance between pastoring and pursuing a shared vision.

Church leaders are sometimes challenged with knowing when to operate in one of two roles – pastor or boss.

When asked how to respond to different management issues, I ask leaders the question – Is this a boss issue or a pastor issue? Read the Full Article →

6 Things to Consider When Terminating A Pastor

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I was recently speaking to someone who was telling me a very sad story about how their church had to let a pastor go. The church was experiencing some financial challenges that resulted in a decision to reduce expenses by terminating a pastor.

My acquaintance shared with me that the pastor was notified of his termination by the staff accountant and had no conversations with the senior pastor (his boss) . Read the Full Article →