As church planters and multi-site churches gear up for the Launch Season, chances are you are adding talent to your teams. We wanted to provide some great tips from Will Vanderbloeman – an expert in recruiting & hiring the right employees.
Great interviews hinge on one key component: great questions. And most great and wise people are always on the lookout for good questions. Have you ever noticed how often the Bible says, “Jesus answered them by asking a question….”
Most churches we have studied have about a 50% success rate with their hires working out over the long haul. Interviewing the right way is a real difference maker in improving the likelihood of a long term match between candidate and church.
“You can know a man’s wit by his answers. You will know his wisdom by his questions.”
Among most of the top executive search consultants in the world, the trend in interviewing these days is toward a form of questions called “behavioral competency.” Questions center around a candidate’s ability to articulate their work in their most recent jobs. Many psychologists who write on this say that this method is the single best way to get to the root and true acumen of a candidate.
Below are what the Vanderbloemen Search Group consider to be four great topics/questions for assessing behavioral competence. They’re not original; very few good questions are.
These questions are not just helpful when finding the right talent… if you tag on the phrase “in my spiritual life” to the end of each question, you’ll see that these can be great measuring sticks for your own spiritual development. If you’re looking for a job, walk through these and prepare yourself to answer them. If you’re running a business or church, you may want to put these on file for future interviews.
- What constructive criticism have you received in the past that surprised you the most?
- Tell me about an initiative that you conceived and were responsible for executing. What challenges were expected? What challenges did you not foresee, and how did you overcome them?
- Describe the cultures of your last few job or church settings, how they differed, and which one fit you best.
- Tell me about a time when you had to get people with different viewpoints to the same level of understanding.
As you prepare for the hiring new team members, hang on to these questions!
