Hiring a new team member can be exciting because it means there is going to be fresh eyes on old problems and status quo ministry, new ideas, and a new well of experiences to go to. If you’ve read much of my blog you know that I enjoy the hiring process and helping churches recruit and hire great teams. In fact you can check out this series of posts on “Recruiting and Hiring Teams that Make Vision Real” or take a look at how I help churches build a staffing and hiring strategy. But sometimes the best move that you can make is to enlist the help of an Executive Search Firm. Here are 6 reasons you should consider using an Executive Search Firm when you make your next hire.

1. Broaden the Candidate Pool

What do you do after you run through your network of relationships and post the job online? An Executive Search Firm can bring a broader, deeper, and more talented candidate pool than you can usually gain access to on your own. Simply put, they have a “greater reach.”

2. Make the Right Hire

At the end of the day you just don’t want to make any hire…or even a good hire for that matter. You want to make the right hire. A hire gone wrong can cost you and your church not only a significant amount of time and money; but a ministry can literally be set back years by making the wrong hire.

3. Save Time

Depending on the unique aspects of the role and the church it can take anywhere from 3 months to a year for many churches to fill a staffing vacancy. That’s a lot of time in which the ministry is treading water or worse moving backwards. A Search Firm can speed the process up considerably. Not to mention who on your Staff has the time to run a search right now?

4. Expertise

Most Pastors aren’t experienced professional recruiters. In fact most people in ministry have never had any professional Human Resources training at all. An Executive Search Firm brings years of experience and training to the table.

5. Process

Most Churches don’t have a proven and successful process to make a hire. The old standby “Personnel Committee” isn’t getting it done. No other industry successfully operates by letting its “customers” who have no industry or hiring expertise run a hiring process. A Search Firm will bring a tested and proven hiring process to the table.

6. New Challenges

In a growing church it’s not uncommon to go through multiple staff restructures. When those moments come it often exposes a need that can’t be filled with the talent that’s already in the room. Likewise it’s not uncommon in a growing church to have need for a more specialized and highly trained skillset for some roles. These are perfect opportunities to enlist a Search Firm to help in these unique situations.

There are a growing number of Christian Search Firms out there that you can look into, but here are a couple to help get you going in the right direction.

Minister Search is a full service search firm that helps churches and candidates find the right fit. They’ve been going at this for more than 10 years now.

Shepherd’s Staff helps churches find the right candidates and is willing to customize their level of involvement in each search.

Slingshot Group has a created special niche for itself in helping churches staff the Creative Arts.

Vanderbloemen Search Group is quickly becoming recognized as the nations foremost Christian Executive Search Firm working with many of the leading churches in America.