Six Questions to Ask of Every New Hire

The worst hire to make is the wrong hire. Not only the cost of interviews, bringing in a candidate, paying a consultant or outside perspective, and the cost of any severance or buyout required to move on. But beyond the financial cost, there’s other expenses that can’t be recorded on a ledger sheet. The leadership loses a little bit of its credibility and trust after bringing in a bad hire. It will then be more difficult the second (or third or fourth) time around when an opening requires a hire.

Obviously you can’t tell everything in an interview or screening process. Those, though good, aren’t perfect. Someone can absolutely dazzle in an interview and then when they’re on the job they flame out as a dud. Or someone can be awful in the interview process but turn out to be a great hire who happened to have a bad morning.
Whenever you’re looking at bringing in a new team member, you not only want to see what they can do, but also who they are. This is especially true for ministry, where the qualifications for pastoral ministry are overwhelmingly character > competency. And in the church, because what we do is intensely personal and interactive, we have to make sure we’re bringing the right people on board.
Jim Collins called it “making sure the right people are on the bus in the right seats.” The wrong person in the wrong seat can make it difficult for any ministry to move towards vision. I wrote a whole book on developing a team climate in ministry, where I put a ton of emphasis on chemistry as the missing ingredient for most church staffs.
Though they’re not perfect (every hire and on-boarding requires a tremendous amount of faith and trust in the provision of God), we should try to ask 6 questions about every new hire.

1. What is their calling? - Whenever we want to bring someone on in a ministry role, it's important to know if they're called to ministry and if so what their sense of calling is. Not everyone knows to the last detail what they're called to, but at some point they've recognized a special work of God in their life that was confirmed by others, by a church, and by life experience. In bringing in someone for a specific ministry assignment, I like knowing how they understand their calling to that particular area. It shows they have been uniquely wired and prepared by God.
2. Do they have a low or high ceiling? - This is where we think about potential. If a candidate has a lot of potential, that's encouraging. We shouldn't look at a candidate based on where they are now only, but also where they could be. I'd rather take a 6 who could be an 8 than a 7 who'll never grow.
3. Are they coachable? - This is connected to #2 because ceiling is connected to coachability. Someone who shows up to an interview fixed in their ways, unwilling to bend, and already coming with an agenda (I sat in an interview once where the candidate spent 15 minutes telling us everything we were doing wrong and what he'd fix). Being coachable involves humility, patience, and a receptive attitude towards feedback. Again, I'd take someone who's lacking in skill areas over someone more polished if the lacking candidate is more coachable.
4. What do their references say? - Let's be honest, none of us would put references down for a position that won't say good things about us. And quite honestly, most of the time when we call references for a position we don't really ask a lot of hard questions. Or really any questions. But the references are people who can speak to a candidate's ability, character, attitude, teamwork, and more. They just have to be asked. We don't want to try to push a reference into speaking poorly about a candidate, but we should ask them hard questions in order to vet a candidate.
5. How do other leaders feel? - When we hire someone into a position, we always do it with a team. We want to make sure others have a voice in the process in order to pick up on things that we might miss. A good leader will take into consideration what others around them have to say, especially about on-boarding a candidate. Do they see any red or yellow flags? Did they get a sense of humility and team-first? 
6. Where have they served before and who have they served with? - In sports they call this the coaching tree, where someone has spent their career working with and alongside other coaches and teams. A well-respected coach can be an asset to former assistants who are looking for a position. The same thing applies in ministry. Not everyone who serves with respected leaders is a complete reflection, but if someone had the capacity to serve in some really solid and strong ministries, that's a great sign about their potential.

​What questions do you ask in a new hire process? 

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