I’m traveling this week so I’m going to have to keep this one short. I want to give you one more little nuance to consider when you are setting pay rates for your leaders. Last week, I talked about the reality of market demand and replacement cost. The market for staff ebbs and flows and you need to be aware of the changes when you are considering making a new hire or reassessing your current staff salaries.
This is an area where Context Staffing can really help. We have extensive and current knowledge of what’s happening around the country and can help you set realistic expectations before you start advertising for your new roles. Please don’t hesitate to reach out with any questions, we’d love to help.
This week I want to give you one more nuance to consider when you are setting salaries. Before I tell you what it is, I want to emphasize that you need to do all the other steps first and that there is a reason I am telling you about this nuance last. As pastors, we want to help people and because of that, we often hire people we really shouldn’t and pay them more than they deserve because of some extenuating circumstances in their lives. We have to be very careful about this.
Adjusting salary for unique, circumstantial needs is a delicate situation that you should only do within certain parameters. It’s easy to get sucked into this trap because nearly everyone has unique circumstances and you can find yourself adjusting for everyone on your staff.
So when do you adjust? Here are three things to consider.
First, is this person a really good fit that is worth stretching for? The answer to this question should usually be no. Everyone can’t be unique, or else that word doesn’t mean anything. You should only stretch when someone is an A-hire.
Second, is this person’s situation truly unique? “I want to put my kids in Christian School” isn’t unique. “I want to buy a house” isn’t unique. “My wife doesn’t work” isn’t unique. “My son has special needs” is unique. “We had a major health issue” is unique. “We have 7 kids” is unique (and a mistake).
Third, can you actually afford to stretch? Don’t offer to stretch if you can’t actually do it. And don’t stretch if doing so means you can’t make another critical hire. Almost no one is worth blowing up your budget.
So if all of those things are true, then you can stretch but don’t do so more than 10%. You have to have a clear sense of what you are looking for, who you want, and what it takes to get them. Anything more and you blow up your budget.
OK, I know that’s not a lot for this week, but like I said, I’m traveling.
Next week we are going to talk about how to get this done. Most of you I think like what I’m talking about but are skeptical that you can actually get there. I had a conversation this week that explicitly expressed those ideas. And I get that.
Next week, we are going to talk about how to get there. I promise that I have good ideas about how you can actually execute this. So trust me, it’s all possible.
