The Church for Today

Cutting cost on staff?

Staff members are an asset, not an expense

by Richard Hong 

That time of year is approaching. I am not talking about Thanksgiving or Advent or Christmas Eve. I am talking about the annual reviews of staff. In my church, and in my presbytery, and in most churches I know, this is done by the personnel committee.

But suddenly it hit me: The rest of the world no longer refers to “personnel” departments. A long time ago they switched to calling it “human resources.” Everyone automatically refers to “HR” these days. But this is unusual in the church.

Words matter

As Presbyterians, we believe that words matter. The words we use are imbued with meaning. Eventually, the shift from “personnel” to “human resources” changed the way organizations think about their employees. “Personnel” departments viewed people as a parts in an organizational machine. Their job was to regulate sick days and vacation time and monitor salary schedules.

“Human resources” training began to emphasize the creation of safe, diverse workplaces as spurs to productivity. Then they began to see their responsibility as helping to develop the potential in employees. “Personnel” departments regulated employees. “Human resources” sees employees as assets to the organization who have even greater possibilities.

Staff is an investment

True story. We have a staff person who has performed exceedingly well in a part-time position. We proposed increasing both the person’s hours and salary significantly. Then at session, a decision was made to increase salary by more than the original recommendation. As one of the elders put it, “We are investing in that area of the church.”

This is a fundamental question for us to wrestle with at every level of our denomination. Do we view staff as an investment or an expense?

Unfortunately, if we view staff as an expense, our response will continue to be what it has been: reduce, reduce, reduce. As a result, we cut back on them the way we try to make fewer copies of reports and turn off the lights when we leave a room.

Viewing staff as an investment is more complex. Investments need to produce a return. But in the church, the “return” on investment isn’t monetary, it’s missional. When we view staff as a missional investment, we must have specific missional goals. Far too many churches have lost their sense of “goals” beyond survival. We need to have a missional vision that transcends survival. Because if we don’t have a missional vision, why do we exist?

The most important question for staff

I have the honor of serving on the board of a local non-profit. We have greatly expanded our mission and vision under wonderful executive leadership. When the time comes for the board to conduct its review, we take the usual steps of looking at performance metrics, comparing salaries to other organizations, etc. But there is also one question we ask that is more important than any other: “What can we do to help you achieve your goals?” We need to ask that question in all of our churches and throughout the denomination.

As the head of staff in the congregation I serve, my first job is to help my staff succeed. I cannot succeed if they fail. I cannot fail if they succeed.

Perhaps by next year, my church will have a human resources committee, rather than a personnel committee. Change begins at home.

The Rev. Richard Hong is pastor of First Presbyterian Church of Englewood, New Jersey. He is excited to be blogging about his passion for the church for Presbyterians Today. Hong’s areas of interest are church technology, leadership and church growth. If there’s a particular topic you’d like to for him to address, contact him at rich@englewoodpres.org.