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Sometimes we avoid receiving feedback because it can feel like inviting conflict. Conflict is a natural part of any church or organization; if you manage feedback well, then you can leave your organization in a healthier and stronger place. It can be easy for a church staff to become disconnected from the congregation, so it is crucial to always have a finger on the pulse of the church body.

Here are five suggestions on how to manage feedback well in your church.

The process of interviewing and vetting candidates is always challenging. It can be difficult to understand and interpret a resume to get an accurate sense of an individual's employment history and skillset; it can be even harder to get a candidate to transparently discuss his or her ministry path and past experiences.

One of the more frustrating situations organizations encounter during the interviewing process is having a top candidate receive a negative reference from a former employer after checking all of the boxes throughout the interview process.

Here are four things to keep in mind if a candidate receives a negative reference:

I recently read an article in the Harvard Business Review about how Private Equity Firms hire CEOs for companies that quickly need to be turned around. It got me thinking about churches in decline and in need of a new pastor to help lead them into a new season of growth.

Here are six lessons churches can learn from businesses and other organizations about finding a new leader to navigate a season of transition.

We have written in the past about how churches might structure their retirement plans for church staff employees. We’ve discussed the pros and cons to percentage-of-salary contribution plans vs. set-dollar contribution plans, as well as contributions regardless of participation vs. only contributing when an individual contributes. There are numerous options available for churches; but what if these options are still too steep of a financial burden for a church to offer its employees?

When thinking about future hiring decisions, churches often struggle to determine if they should hire someone in a full-time role or if it would be more advantageous to outsource the position. Here are five key questions to ask yourself and your team when assessing which route to go:

As we search the country for the best and brightest leaders of churches and non-profits, we run into a variety of qualified candidates. Many times we find that success isn't clearly spelled out on a resume. Often, the best candidates don’t have the highest level of education or come from the largest organizations.

Rather, they have a high Emotional Intelligence factor. Emotional Intelligence is defined by Travis Bradberry in the book, Emotional Intelligence 2.0, as "the ability to recognize and understand emotions in yourself and others, and your ability to use this awareness to manage your behavior and relationships. It affects how we manage behavior, navigate social complexities and make personal decisions that achieve positive results."

Here are four key attributes to look for in both your current team and in those you plan to hire in the future that will redefine your assessment of a quality candidate.

What is the proper attender-to-staff ratio for a church? How do you know if you are over-staffed or under-staffed?

As I coach and consult with scores of senior and executive pastors around the country every year, these are two of the most common questions. They look at their budget and feel like they are spending way too much on staff, but then look at what needs to get done and want to hire more team members. How can a leader accurately measure staff efficiency?

Recently, Millennials surpassed Gen X as the largest portion of the American workforce. This means that inevitably, every workplace will work with Millennials in some capacity, whether as co-workers, clients, or even supervisors. It’s important to note that Millennials have different career objectives, communication styles, and core values than many hiring managers are used to. These differences should be acknowledged and, whenever possible, embraced.

Here are three key factors to keep in mind when interviewing and working with Millennials.

Background and reference checks are a vital part of any interview or hiring process. Yet many organizations get reference checks wrong, placing their entire process at risk. As a part of our search process here at Vanderbloemen, we help our clients conduct thorough reference and background checks on potential hires. Thus, we have seen some common mistakes that organizations make related to the reference checks process. Here are five common mistakes to avoid when conducting reference checks: