Hiring Trends: Why 'Who You Know' Only Takes You So Far

As unemployment levels continue to be higher than usual, it's probably not hard to find plenty of candidates right now. In fact, you may have experienced an influx in interest for your open roles. While heightened interest is great, it makes finding the right candidate increasingly difficult. Looking at each resume and holding multiple interviews to evaluate culture-fit, theological-fit, and competency is time consuming and still leaves out a number of excellent candidates that don’t know about your job opening. At Christian organizations, the right fit is even more critical to ensure you hire people that align with the theology, mission, and values you personify.

To cut through resume overload, you'll want someone else on your side to sift through candidates you'll already be flooded with, bring you only the best matches for your church or organization, and let you continue to focus on your mission. While this sounds ideal, you might be wondering how to find this person who can streamline your hiring. Look no further.

The Challenges Of Hiring During A Pandemic

Increase In People Looking For Jobs

The most expensive hire you can make is the wrong hire. In order to hire candidates that will be invested in your mission and have a desire to become a long-term team member, you have to ensure you ask the right questions when interviewing. It’s critical that you ask questions to ensure your candidates align theologically with your church or organization, have experience related to the role, and who will be a strong culture-fit. Missing any of these elements could result in quick turnover, costing you time training up the wrong person to convince your organization’s mission. Rather than sifting through numerous resumes, only to guess if the person could potentially be a match, staffing firms can do the heavy lifting upfront and only bring you candidates who are a good fit in every area necessary for success. 

Asking the right questions is even more critical if you’re looking to hire someone who can bring a new take on theology, service, or talent to your team. When you’re seeking a hire that's diverse from your current staff, it can be tough to remain objective when reviewing candidates. Having an outside view from someone who will keep your goals and values top of mind, can help ensure the right people are added to your staff, rather than what feels easiest or most comfortable. 

2. Your Perfect Hire Could Be Hiding (Even In A Different Country)

When you promote a job opening, even on a job board, you’ll only receive interest from those browsing the spaces where your listing appears. Many times, the perfect candidate for your role is not even looking for an open opportunity. Other times, ideal candidates will pass up your posting out of fear of not being qualified, an issue with location, or a misunderstanding of the role. 

In our 10 years of Executive Search experience, time and time again we’ve found the perfect hire for a role is not always a local candidate. In fact, many times, we’ve found the greatest hires in a different country. In 2019, The Luis Palau Association in Portland, Oregon was looking to hire a Director of the Global Network of Evangelists, and we found their perfect hire in South Africa. Dr. Desmond Henry, who they ended up hiring for the position brought unique global experience that would have been hard to match with a local hire.

Another incredible international placement was the hire of Jon Ritner at Ecclesia Hollywood. Though originally from the US, Jon and his family were living in Brussels when he was asked to join Ecclesia. With roots in the US and experience learning a culture and lifestyle different from his own, he was the ideal person to step into their dream of loving people on a daily basis. Not only did fit the bill for Ecclesia, but the role resonated with his goals as well. Jon was seeking a position in an urban, diverse area that was embracing the cultural change around them. Ecclesia checked every necessary box.

Having the energy and resources to find your next hire from across the world is unlikely when juggling your current responsibilities. Search firms take the pressure off you by going through resumes and bringing you the absolute best. Don’t feel like you have to do this alone, we want to help. We have a large pool of qualified candidates. We will bring you the ones we believe will serve your ministry the best. Your next hire could be across the globe today, let us help connect you.

Finding The Perfect Hire To Adjust To Your New Needs 

The necessary traits for candidates have changed drastically since the onset of COVID-19. Years of experience, the right personality, and who you know is no longer enough to ensure success as our ways of operating continue to adapt quicker than ever. You may be hiring for brand new  positions now that our work has transitioned to the digital landscape, and the people you need to fill those roles may be outside of your network. 

Search firms have deep databases of qualified candidates from years past that may not directly apply to your posting, but could have interest and serve well in the role if approached for consideration. While it’s possible to scout for these individuals on your own, having a firm with a previous relationship and trust built with these people allows for more certainty that they will express interest in your organization.

Why Vanderbloemen?

A search firm not only gives you guidance during the hiring process, but they also bring a wide array of candidates who you won’t find on your own. At Vanderbloemen, We’ve invested significant resources into building a scalable database that houses and updates our network of 90K+ candidates, the largest Christian candidate database. Since our consultants don’t work on commission, our database is shared among our team to ensure that every client has access to the best candidates for the role.

Other search firms also have consultants working off of placement commission, meaning they are incentivized to keep the best candidates to themselves rather than share them so that every organization can find the best fit. Our network consists of tens of thousands of candidates and, through the use of technology, we have developed a sophisticated system for engaging each.

Everyone on our team faithfully spends time working to expand our candidate sourcing and reach for the Kingdom because we believe the “big C” Church deserves the very best. This means that the candidates we "have" and find are quite often the ones that aren't on a job board, or in an active search mode. That's because we have spent over a decade fostering relationships, building the trust that’s needed to have sacred conversations about someone’s next step.

As you look to grow your organization, we’d love to partner with you through the process and help bring you the perfect candidates to further your organization’s mission and Kingdom impact.