mediasalt

In my experience, church communications has a high staff turnover rate. Whether it’s the economy forcing us to scale back or lack of promotional opportunities, many employees seize great positions elsewhere in order to further their professional and spiritual growth. Here are a few things I do to stay alert and keep creativity, quality, and production high:

1. Freelance support

The most important thing I do is maintain relationships with independent contractors. When a hole develops, my teams typically do not miss a beat (production-wise) because I have a few designers, writers/editors, programmers, and video producers available to step in. Approximately 15% of the US workforce are independent contractors.

Also, don’t overlook volunteer support – especially when the economy is the cause for staff transitions. This is a weakness for me, but many of you are using volunteers with excellence.

2. Open dialogue

I work very hard to keep an open dialogue with my staff. I want everyone to feel secure in the job they have and secure during the thought process of leaving to go elsewhere. I’m not talking about a false sense of security, though. If layoffs are coming, I don’t want anyone completely blindsided. If I have information that can be shared with my team, I tell them. I also want them to have the trust in me that their job isn’t in jeopardy if I hear they’re thinking of leaving them team. The benefit of open dialogue is not only security but many times a glimpse into the future.

3. Flexibility

One of the many things I admire about my team is their ability to adapt. If a hole is exposed, we all jump in to help. Flexibility can be coached. I’ve worked with some not-so-adaptable people and coaching them through flexibility when it’s not a crisis time has helped prepare for transitional chaos.

4. Project management

Great project management is important to any transition going smoothly. With a great workflow and process, production is far less likely to dip or have things fall through the cracks. Eric wrote on The Missing Position of project manager last fall. His points about ownership and accountability speak clearly to how you can have flexible resources if everything is centrally accounted for. I would even argue that a project manager should be first on the list of hires in the communications area – someone with knowledge to direct and own all of the pieces of the media puzzle.

Today’s post was written by Katie Persinger. In addition to being Cleve’s wife, Katie is the Executive Director of Communications Production at The Chapel. Katie has consulted communication needs with ministries including Saddleback Church and Focus on the Family. You can follow her on Twitter @mrspersinger.