How to Recruit Your Next Member of Staff

Filling a vacancy is an important activity for any organisation, whatever their purpose. But if it goes wrong, there can be all sorts of costs, be that financial or damaged relationships or stalled progress.

For churches especially, recruitment is not a regular activity and it can feel fraught with pitfalls, unfamiliar terms, unfamiliar processes, and legal considerations.

This is not a complete guide to recruitment but gives a brief overview of some the key areas to consider when looking to advertise a vacancy and includes some suggestions on where to get further information or advice. 

It is really important when recruiting for any role, whether it’s an existing or new role, to start by considering what you want the role to achieve.

You should consider the current context and what “success” or “good performance” in the role would look like. Having considered this, the next step is to put together a job description (the what) followed by a person specification (the who).

Job description

Be careful to consider what is realistic and review these criteria considering how likely it is to find someone that would fulfil these. Try not to base the job description on current or previous post holders but to think about what the purpose of the role is at a big picture level at this point in time and into the future.

A job description is not a daily, weekly, or monthly to do list but sets out the goals and responsibilities of the role.

For example, the day-to-day tasks may include answering phone calls, writing sermons, writing Bible studies, counselling church members, and running staff meetings - but in a job description you wouldn’t expect this level of detail.

Instead, it might say 

• Ensure the congregation is receiving an appropriate, biblically sound, encouraging and well planned program of bible teaching, delivering 85% of Sunday sermons personally.
• Ensure there is a system of support in place for church members and attendees who are struggling.

The details behind a job description can be covered in induction notes or in other documents. 

A job description is an important document and, if a contract of employment is to be issued, this may form part of your contractual agreement with your appointee.

A job description should be inspiring and outline the boundaries and remit of the role. It may also include information on who the key people are the post holder will be working with, whether travel is expected, and what level of decision-making relates to the role.

Person specification

Having worked out what the role needs to achieve, you now need to think about what qualities are needed to do this role well, who are you looking for.

Consider what knowledge, skills and abilities will be essential to be able to fulfil this post successfully. Try to be careful not to make this an extensive wish list: keep to the essentials, the minimum required, as being too extensive means you are narrowing the number of potential applicants and may mean you miss out on applications from those who would be able to fulfill the role really well whilst bringing something unexpected.

It is important to consider carefully what education and experience is required, ensuring you are not inadvertently falling foul of the Equality Act (se below). For example, asking for a number of years’ of experience or a certain type of qualification (eg. GCSEs) will only apply to people of a certain generation or country.

Instead, consider what it is you are hoping people will have achieved through their experience and qualifications – for example, experience of teaching in a wide variety of settings, English to a fluent level, or able to write clearly to a publishable standard.

Think through each aspect on your job description and identify what knowledge, skills, and abilities will be necessary for success.

Before you advertise your vacancy, you need to review whether your recruitment documents (eg. job description, person specification, drafted advert) are in line with the Equality Act.

Just because the role you are looking to fill is for a church, it does not automatically mean you are legally able to ask for the post holder to be a Christian. Wherever a protected characteristic is involved, you must be careful to work within the law.

The characteristics protected by the Equality Act are:

• Age
• Disability
• Gender reassignment
• Marriage and civil partnership
• Pregnancy and maternity
• Race
• Religion or belief
• Sex
• Sexual orientation.

If you are advertising for a person that falls within one of these protected characteristics (eg. a Christian), then you need to assess whether an occupational requirement is justifiable for the role. 

Using the job description, consider the main purposes of the role and its context.  For example, does the role require an understanding of the Christian faith and, if so, would an academic/superficial understanding of the Christian faith be sufficient or is an authentic and deep understanding required?

It will also mean considering whether there are any alternative ways to fulfill any aspects of the role requiring a protected characteristic by moving those aspects to another role.

It is strongly recommended that you take time to understand the Equality Act and/or take specific legal advice in these areas, as these issues can create significant challenges and legal risks to you if you don’t work within the law.

Below are some links you may find useful in helping you clarify if an occupational requirement for a specific protected characteristic covered by the Equality Act exists for your vacancy. If in doubt, please seek legal advice on this matter:

• Employers: preventing discrimination: Discrimination in recruitment (gov.uk)
• Following discrimination law (acas.org.uk)
• FIEC Advice Line (fiec.org.uk)

Before advertising, you should consider the selection process and what it will consist of, including a summary of this in the job advert.

Your job description, person spec, and consideration of the Equality Act will give the parameters of what you can look for and what information you can use in your selection process. You should consider each essential item from your person specification and how you are going to “measure” this.

For example, if you want someone who can type quickly and accurately, giving them a typing test as part of their interview process will be more valid than simply asking them. If you need someone who has a proven track record of publishing, you may ask them to bring with them (or include links to) things they have written and published in the past. 

The best way to assess whether someone is a clear preacher is probably not going to be by asking them to give feedback on themselves in an application form but to go and hear them preach, or ask them to provide you with links to recorded sermons. Some items will be better to be included as part of the application process and others to for the interview process.

The things that you have said you need in the person spec are the criteria by which you should shortlist. You may choose to weigh these aspects equally, but some you may want to weigh more heavily. It is wise to consider how you will do this before receiving applications. Items that are to do with a protected characteristic should be scored yes/no.

Without continuing to stray too far beyond the remit of this article, please make sure that when you are working on the content of your interview questions, you have standard questions you ask all candidates and that they have the same selection process for which you record notes.

Different follow-up questions can be asked based on a candidate’s answer, but the same initial questions should be asked so that all candidates have an equal opportunity to demonstrate their fit for the role. Follow the link below for some helpful advice and templates:

• How employers should recruit (acas.org.uk)

If you will be holding more than just an interview as part of your selection process, it is a good idea to include this in the job advert – for example, “we anticipate interviews to be held on [insert date] and will include a short work-based test and presentation”.

It is important that you offer the right level of remuneration for the position you are looking to fill. Offer too little, and you will limit the number of applicants and risk an incumbent not being able to cover their living expenses.

You should also bear in mind that this is not a one-time activity as part of recruitment, but that remuneration should be reviewed at least annually in line with inflation, changes to responsibilities, and changes to market rates for the role.

As a minimum, roles that class as employment legally need to be above the national minimum wage (see the Government website for current specifics on this). Beyond this, you should consider how to benchmark the role. For example, some choose to compare the role to the national teachers’ pay scale and, using the job description, work out what role their position is closest to.

When benchmarking a role, it is important to consider aspects such as level of responsibility, workload, line management responsibilities, ease of recruitment, level of education and skill involved, location, and level of risk. You can also look at other similar roles currently being advertised and see where your role might sit against these. 

In addition, when considering remuneration, other benefits should be considered. For example, if the post comes with accommodation and if the salary could be reduced to allow for this.

It is best to get proper financial advice to make sure you have properly considered oncosts (eg. pensions, national insurance, tax etc.). 

See our article on paying church workers for more information and advice.

There are two main types of legal relationships that may be applicable to your post: employee or office holder.

It is really important that you are clear which of these you can and should be offering, and what the parameters are of each. Make sure to consider what your constitution allows initially.

The type of legal relationship you will be agreeing once you have found a suitable candidate will outline the terms and entitlements of your working relationship and what benefits and rights the post holder is and is not entitled to.

It is important that this is clear for all parties at the start of this relationship, as this will avoid many potential common pitfalls further down the line. For example, what happens if your post holder becomes ill, has a complaint made against them, or you wish to part ways.

If your constitution allows for an office holder or employment contract, consider how you want to treat your new postholder, what benefits will they enjoy. How the relationship works in practice, day-to-day, will shape the legal rights of the appointee alongside the contract itself.

It is therefore important that the paperwork you issue accurately reflects the nature of the working relationship with your new recruit. The paperwork issued should shape and define the working relationship that is held with the new recruit and outline the rights and responsibilities of each party. These decisions can affect, for example, rights to sick pay, statutory sick pay, minimum wage, statutory holiday, how you manage a grievance or disciplinary process, and the right to a fair dismissal process.

Understanding the legal status of the working relationship and then working within that is important to help avoid legal complications should the relationship sour. It is important that the paperwork and reality match. Whether or not the intention was for the appointee to be an office holder only, if the day-to-day relationship looks like an employment relationship, it may be deemed that it is an employment relationship, giving the appointee employment rights.

There are strict criteria to consider in order to determine which type of legal relationship the post holder will have, so please make sure you have fully considered it. Follow the links below for further information on how to make this decision:

• Is your pastor an employee, office-holder or both? (edwardconnor.com)
• Rights during contractual relationship (edwardconnor.com)

Remember that a job advert is a public document, so you should carefully consider whether there are any sensitivities or risks for your congregation. For example, it is not wise to advertise that we have a large congregation from North Korea - maybe “a multi-cultural church” would be more appropriate.

Also, consider data protection issues and do not share other people’s personal information without their explicit consent. For example, saying “vacancy created due to previous post-holder’s long-term ill health or poor performance” is sharing information about a previous post-holder which they may not be comfortable with or have consented to.

For further information on GDPR:

• Data Protection Law and Your Church (edwardconnor.com)
• Data protection and recruitment (ico.org.uk)

Some additional resources for recruitment:

• Do I need to advertise a role outside my organisation? (edwardconnor.com)
• Taking on staff for the first time – A guide for employers (edwardconnor.com)
• Hiring Someone (acas.org.uk)
• Recruitment Pack | Document Template | Job Descriptions (thechurchoffice.co.uk)
• Recruitment Pack (edwardconnor.com)
• FIEC Advice Line (fiec.org.uk)