Ministry-Wide Training Program Changes Culture and Performance

Bruce Bruinsma
This article provided by the Engstrom Institute

Training is important for your staff and for those served by your staff. This is particularly true in a ministry setting. Unfortunately, those of us in ministry leadership are often convinced that our staff just "knows" what to do. The fact is that we are wrong, and many of them are crying out for help. Some of those we serve are crying out too.

Our compassionate, ministry-focused hearts and minds, the ministry culture that says everyone who has ever been affiliated with the ministry will have a place in the ministry, and our preoccupation with external ministry affairs all cause us to take the easy way out and say, "Let's let 'non-qualified' do it. They will learn on the job."

Here is part of the Envoy story.Hopefully it will encourage you, challenge you, and raise the standard for all of us as we serve our different constituencies:

The issue of training, or perhaps the lack of it, was brought to our attention in two ways, both by our staff. First, we had more turnover than we thought was healthy. And second, it took us more than six months at times to bring someone up to speed in their ministry position. This was an expensive process, and we were heartbroken when someone left. Staff turnover was time consuming, somewhat frustrating, and certainly a drain on ministry dollars.

We were thinking of hiring a consultant to help us evaluate the situation when we became aware of the internal survey available through the Best Christian Workplaces Institute. For a nominal cost, our staff would be surveyed, their privacy assured, and the feedback crisp and clear. We signed up and the survey was completed. Then we received the feedback.

Our staff was willing to provide insightful feedbackin the process. As a result, we learned of our employees' frustration with their lack of knowledge about how they fit into the work of the total ministry. We also learned that they thought the jobs too difficult to perform well with the training they received and that it took too long to become proficient. As one staff member commented, "We want to do a great job, but need more help to do it." Another commented, "Please help us to be more productive sooner." We did not expect either response, and now we had more evidence that our training was inadequate.

The Solution

With the knowledge in hand about the frustration of our staff about how long it took to become proficient and feeling "less than productive" during this time, Bethany Palmer, our Executive Director, became the champion of finding and then implementing a solution. She interviewed and actually observed a number of our staff as they performed their jobs. The positions were more complicated than she expected, and the tools to train were sparse, anecdotal, general, and sometimes conflicted with other activities in the ministry. She also learned that the compartmental approach we were using, while an efficient idea, was seriously flawed if each department was not clear how it impacted the others in the work flow. Further, if each person did not truly understand both the Big Ministry Picture as well as the details of their position, frustration would be the only reasonable result. We now had a clearer picture, and the issue was "what to do."

In the end, we came up with an approach of using PowerPoint presentations to train each staff member. We discovered the building block approach necessary to programmed learning of this nature. We started with a 30,000-foot view of the ministry, then dropped down to 20,000 feet for learning the basics about a broad area of activity, and then down to the department level, call it 10,000 feet, and then the job-specific training.

To solve the problem of each department understanding the Big Picture as well as the role of departments they interface with required Total Ministry training and the 20,000 foot view for all, just not the same 20,000 foot viewpoint. To that end, we undertook a ministry-wide program of having each staff member review 4 presentations a week and answer a brief quiz about them. Bethany reviewed each quiz and commented where appropriate. It was only by insisting that each person participate that we had any chance of seriously impacting our culture.

We now have over 800 ministry training PowerPoint presentations with voiceover, and we have about 60 more to create. Will the project ever be over? Not likely. There are always new subjects and new understanding of old subjects. However, I believe we can now "declare victory."

A Closer Look at the Training

This is training for everyone—whether you are the president, executive director, manager, file clerk, or window washer. Again, it doesn't matter your position. There are three major training areas: Overall Training, Division or Major Area of Work Training, and Department and Job Specific Training. Here are the details of the training topics covered in the All Ministry Training section. It is working for us; it may work for your ministry too.

The Overall Training is divided into eleven (11) sections or modules. There are 110 PowerPoint presentations within the 11 modules. These modules were created within a 30-day period. Our experience is that it requires about 10 working days for new hires to listen to and view the modules. The module content is reinforced using brief quiz questions covering the material. We also include a daily time (approximately 1.5 hours per day) of question and answer and some interactive discussion with a ministry leader. The trainer or ministry leader reviews the answers to all of the quiz questions.

Each module is composed of 15-25 PowerPoint slides with voice over, and a module may consist of more than one PowerPoint presentation. This section of our training include the following:

Section 1- Introduction: Training manual, office equipment basics, HR basics

Section 2 - Introduction to your ministry: Mission statement, show and explain any literature you have about your ministry, flowchart outlining positions

Section 3 - Introduction to your culture and team: Acronyms, intranet, presentation about each department, meet a person(s) from each department

Section 4 - General introduction to standard computer programs used by all staff

Section 5 - Your ministry marketplace, or groups you work with introduced, defined, and explained

Section 6 - Specific computer training about the programs used by all in the office

Section 7 - How your Service Model Works: How are people greeted, who serves whom

Section 8 - General Team Concepts or Issues: Devotions (who, where, when); Emails (format, tone); Mail, Payment Authorizations, Petty Cash

Section 9 - Detailed HR: Group benefits: retirement plan, life insurance, disability insurance, health insurance, policies and practices: time off, vacation, personal days, sick days, normal work schedule

Section 10 - Finale: Future ministry plans and directions, how the new staff will be important to that future

Section 11 - Graduation: This is the fun part. All current employees congratulate the new employees. We have certificates, but you can do whatever you can to make the new employee feel really welcome

You now have an overview of how the training is packaged and presented at Envoy Financial. The "Overall Team Training" is just the first of three training categories. The other two are "Division" or" Major Area of Emphasis Training" and "Departmental and Job Specific Training."

Impact of the Power Point Training

The results of our PowerPoint training have been favorable. Let me tell you how the story plays out.

• Happy Staff:Walking around our offices today is a sheer joy. Others who come to see how we implement our ministry systems observe an "excited, ministry-engaged, and hard-working staff." As a leader, ministry is now more fun and seems to reflect the "heart of God" in all that we do. Those signs of frustration are mostly gone. Any frustration that is left seems to be caused by too short a day, the server going down, or the contact software we use needing to be reconfigured.
  
  
• Better Service:Our staff has better answers to more questions and a new confidence that they can find the answer if they do not know it. Whether it is the departments dealing with hundreds of Christian Ministry Organizations or the departments dealing with thousands of Christian Ministry Participants, they all have a great sense of Total Ministry: an understanding of all the departments, the different functions within their department, and their specific job. They have confidence in what they are doing and how they are doing it. The result is better service at all levels of our ministry.
  
  
• Reduced Turnover:Now when someone does leave, it is for positive reasons in their life, rather than frustration with their job. They evidence being truly sorry to leave, and we are hearing the language of longer-term commitments from those who are with us.
  
  
• Increased Efficiency:Because there are fewer questions to ask, and greater confidence with the answers, we are witnessing an increase in efficiency. In one department, we formerly had a 20% solution rate. It is now closer to 80% and it is heading toward 90%, our goal.
  
  
• Decreased Cost:Under our old model, loosely defined, it would take a good six months to get someone up to speed. At least what we thought was "up to speed." Now we see new staff performing effectively, certainly with some more to learn from practical experience, at the two month mark. They are then making a positive contribution to the ministry, feeling good about themselves, and finding the reward they prayed for when they came "into the ministry."

We know that the definition of ministry is "changed lives." Our external goal is to impact the personal steward skills and practices of those we serve, to change their vision of personal stewardship and provide the practical tools to do it. We did not realize that there was an additional group of people whose lives needed changing too, those of our staff. We now realize in a new way that the role of each ministry is to encourage staff and provide the tools allowing them to impact others.

In-depth training using current technology and a passion for "changing lives" has played itself out in our ministry. Hopefully our story will encourage you in your leadership position at your ministry.

I almost forgot to mention: As a result of the latest internal audit from the Best Christian Workplaces, we were selected as one of top 40 Christian places to work in the country. An amazing turnaround, thanks to Bethany and our staff. To God be the glory, great things He has done!

Bruce Bruinsma is the CEO of Envoy Financial, a non-profit ministry focused on assisting other Christian ministries and their staff in their financial management understanding and implementation. For more information, visit www.envoyfinancial.org