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Human Assets
Rediscovering your ministry's greatest resource is suddenly job one.| Outcomes, Jun/Jul 2008
Human resources.
For years these two words have conjured up the image of a confined down-the-hall office where employees go for a new policy manual—and an exit interview.
Not anymore.
A different picture of human resources has emerged for today's ministry organizations. The challenge of finding, caring for, and keeping valued employees can be summed up by Chris Ihrig, director of organizational capacity development for World Vision: "As organizations drive toward a greater level of accountability, deliverables, and results, it becomes increasingly important that leaders and the cultures they create empower, invest in, and challenge the ministry's greatest resource—its people."
To better understand the key issues, concerns, and trends behind this reality, Outcomessat down with three seasoned human resources professionals who didn't hesitate to offer their knowledge, insights, and unvarnished opinions about hr's changing role and responsibility in the Christian nonprofit world.
The Researcher
Al Lopus, President and Cofounder, Best Christian Workplaces Institute
In the six years since you cofounded the Best Christian Workplaces Institute, your organization has surveyed more than 65,000 employees in 376 Christian nonprofits to help them identify core strengths and possible improvement priorities. Based on survey results, what is the biggest hr-related issue confronting ministries today?
The issue of workforce engagement—the state by which individuals are emotionally and intellectually committed to the organization—is definitely number one. Engaged staff recommend the ministry to others as a good place to work, have a desire to stay even if offered a job elsewhere, and are willing to provide extra effort toward ministry success.
What frustrates leaders is knowing many of their staff are stuck in neutral, or worse, confronted with barriers to reaching desired ministry outcomes.
The good news is that staff in Christian workplaces are overall more engaged in their work than their secular counterparts.Our survey results indicate that 54 percent of workers in Christian organizations are engaged, while Gallups's Engaged Workers Index found that only 29 percent of staff in secular organizations were engaged.
These numbers indicate that by and large, ministry leaders are not just attracting and retaining talented people, but also fully involving them, capturing their hearts and minds at each stage of their work lives.
