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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:

Here at Vanderbloemen, we work with churches big and small, of all different denominations, theological positions, and backgrounds. However, one thing every church has in common is that the process of finding a new church staff member is not easy. Whether it is a Senior Pastor or a Children's Pastor, each role is crucial to reaching the church's mission.

When faced with the pressure of hiring the right person, we have found a few common mistakes that tend to surface throughout the search process. Here are three common missteps that we want to help you avoid the next time your church is hiring a new staff member.

Entrepreneurs are some of the most unique and effective minds, both in the ministry and secular world. The legendary entrepreneur Walt Disney once said, “If you can dream it, you can do it.” Now, millions of children and families take part in his dream each year.

The role of the Executive Pastor is growing to be an important position in mid-to-large sized churches. In fact, executive pastors often are the second most important role to hire for, aside from the senior or lead pastor.

What is unique about this role, however, is that churches may not need to hire for it until they are growing and expanding in a way that an executive pastor would be able to build upon. Many churches may not know exactly what an executive pastor does, so interviewing for the position can become difficult.

One of the more common conversations we have with churches is about how they should deal with an internal candidate. Sometimes it’s a potential successor for their Senior Pastor transition, but other times it’s moving an associate into a director-level role. Whatever the transition, internal candidates can be tricky and emotional waters to navigate.

Should you find yourself in this situation, it’s important that you handle it with care. There is not only a job at stake, but a relationship to consider as well. We’ve walked alongside several churches as they navigate this situation and below is our best advice for doing this well.