Most congregational leaders have little to no experience hiring new staff, or have done so in a business environment. How might we conduct job interviews in a way that incorporates our shared values? What kind of diversity do we want on our search team?
Determine the Qualities and Skills You Want in a Candidate
Note: Refer to the UUA’s Position Description Template (pdf)
When you craft the job description, along with the list of skills/knowledge, include a list of qualities and rank them in importance to your congregation. For example:
- If you are hiring someone to lead your music ministry, what is more important, being an excellent musician themselves, or fostering a program where members get to share their musical gifts?
- If you are hiring a religious education professional, do you favor organizational skills, creativity, or pastoral skill?
- If you are hiring a contract minister, are you looking for charisma, or collaboration?
Craft Interview Questions That Surface Those Qualities
Develop questions before you start interviewing candidates and be sure to ask each candidate the same questions. Here are some examples:
- Collaboration: Tell us about a time that you were a part of a team that created something you were all proud of.
- Organization: How do you schedule your time? How do you handle competing priorities?
- Pastoral Presence: Tell us about a time when someone came to you when they were distressed? How did you respond?
- Innovation: Tell us about a time when you had a great idea. How did you present it? How did you handle people who didn’t like the idea, or who were lukewarm toward it?
- Motivation: Share an example of a time when you went above and beyond the call of duty.
- Conflict Skills: Tell us about a time when you were a party in a conflict. How did you handle it?
Design a Way to Assess the Skills Requirements
“Show, don’t tell,” isn’t just good advice for creative writing, it’s also helpful when assessing your candidates. For example:
- If you are hiring someone to lead your music ministry, have them perform a piece of music, or teach you a song.
- If you are hiring a religious education professional, have them share a sample curriculum, or have them role play an interaction setting a boundary with a child or youth.
- If you are hiring an Administrator or Membership, have them demonstrate their familiarity with budgets or software.
Develop a Rubric to Assess Candidates
Have each one of your search team take their own notes on each one of the candidates, and for each interview question. After the interview, each search team member can take some time reviewing their notes, then fill out a Likert scale (e.g. 1 = weak and 10 = strong) for each quality.
Design the Interviews to Be Relational
The interviewing process begins when you respond to their application. The warm tone you reach out with will reflect the warmth of your congregation. Also, laying out the interview ahead of time ensures that each candidate has a similar experience.
Send out a reminder email a day or two before the interview with your interview questions. Also let them know you will welcome their questions about the position and the congregation. Let them know who is on your interview team and what their roles are. Include where to park, which entrance to go in, and best way to navigate via public transportation.
When the candidate arrives, greet them warmly, orient them to the space and invite them to use the restroom if they need it. Offer coffee/tea/water, share a few pleasantries (e.g. how was your travel?) and give them a few moments to settle in.
Let the candidate ask their questions first then do your best to answer them. If you don’t have an answer immediately, note the question and promise to get back to them when you find out the answer.
Share anything else about the position or congregation that you feel is important that didn’t already come up.
Ask the interview questions you have prepared ahead of time. Take turns among your search team members.
Ask if the candidate has any more questions.
Thank them for their time, then give them a sense of what is next in the process, i.e. what is the timeline, when to expect to hear from you, etc.
Give your search team members time to complete their notes and fill out their rubrics. Set these notes aside until all the interviews are complete – do not share them yet.
Meeting After All the Interviews Are Completed
Once all the interviews are completed and before meeting, have each one of your search committee members independently review their notes and rubrics, then assess each of the candidates using another Likert scale, 1 – 5, with 1 = “doesn’t have desired qualities” and 5 = “meets all desired qualities.”
At your discernment meeting, start by going over each candidate one at a time, first with each team member sharing their assessment of that candidate.
If any of the candidates were scored low by everyone (1-2), you can set them aside.
Starting with the candidate with the highest score, use a discussion round format to go over the rubric and notes for each interview question. Do this for every candidate that everyone gave a score of 3, 4 or 5.
If you have more than one strong candidate after this discussion, or if you have new questions, you may want to design and schedule second interviews.
Close the Loop with All of the Candidates
Be sure to send a warm note to the candidates that you did not select, letting them know that they are no longer being considered for the position, thanking them for their time, and wishing them well.