RX 24 - Maintaining Momentum: Empowering New Staff Members - Kelly Day

Transcribed Content

Alright, everyone. Welcome in. Join me in giving Kelly Day a warm welcome for her session. Hi, guys. Can you hear me okay? Alright. Cool. So glad you're here. I hope you're having a great conference. I hope you're connecting with lots of churches. I know we all have different backgrounds and different situations and cultures that we're coming from. Some of us that are in rock, some of us that are thinking about getting into rock this fall or in the near future. I talked to some people today at lunch that had 650 people on their staff, somebody else that had 450 people on their staff. I come from a church of 55 people. So we have lots of different sizes here. So what I wanna talk to you about today is kind of a branch off of what I presented on last year. Last year, I talked about how we work so hard to get into rock and then how do we build engagement. Because we were in fellowship one before we were in rock, and, like, two people used it a lot, and nobody else did anything in it really. Like, they avoided it. So our our goal was to have staff engaged in Rock. So last year, I talked about five strategies to strengthen your staff engagement. And one of the things I talked about last year was the way that I use training videos for our new staff to get them integrated in with the rest of the culture and engaged. And so this year, I felt like I should just talk about our actual new hire process. And this is not, like, ministry specific, but it's specific to our operations needs, like a new person and all the operational stuff. And then they go on to do their ministry training, and that's not what I'm talking about. So you guys all are probably from an operational standpoint, and what I wanna talk to you about are some ideas, some things that we do that have made it really easy and simple. It takes me five minutes to get ready for a new hire, and it takes me thirty minutes to train them. I'm the database admin at our church, so I'm hoping that you can glean something, get some ideas, get some inspiration of something simple that you can take home and start implementing with your team. So a little bit about me, I got remarried, and our first anniversary was this last August 8. So last year I did the conference and got married two weeks later, and then this year we moved my son into college at k state on Sunday. And I gotta say it was easier to get remarried than it was to take my son to college. So I'm kind of glad I'm here and not in my normal world because it's been a ride. But so my husband Scott and my son Brandon and this is Lucy our dog, she's our 65 pound Wiggle. I've been on staff for almost eleven years. I transitioned into systems and software manager in October of twenty twenty. I was previously our connections coordinator for about five years, and I was our Awana coordinator. So I had lots of ministry feels coming into the database role. I could really understand what my staff was going through. I think as connections coordinator, I stressed out a ton about the things that the database person was doing. I was that staff person who was freaking out, so I don't know if you guys have any of those on your staff but that was me, so I feel like it gives me a good perspective on how to walk with my staff. So I have a bachelor's degree in business management with an emphasis in human resources. My background after I got my degree I did a lot of retail store management and did some insurance claims and I love getting to serve our church and our staff in this role. Our church is about a weekend attendance of about 2,000 people. We are three campuses in the KC Metro Area. We're our main campus is in Olathe, and then we've got a KCK campus and an Ottawa, Kansas campus, about 55 people on staff. And our previous systems, we had CCB, fellowship one, and then we came into Rock in June of twenty nineteen. So our team, we have Jeff who is here in the room. Jeff, raise your hand. This is Jeff. He is our IT security guru, and he oversees our virtual machines and all the networking things. And then I do all all the rock database stuff. We've got a finance manager who does all the finance stuff, but anything rock is me. And then we've got Andrew who got to be my assistant for eight months, and he was a former pastor slash database person, and I was able to train him up. And then after eight months, we promoted him to a pastor, which was kind of sad because I lost my assistant but it's also amazing because now I have a pastor who's sitting in a room with the pastors and he's got admin knowledge and he's here at the conference for the first time as well so it's really exciting. I've got Christina. She's like a super user. She does all of our groups and our centralized onboarding. And then we have a Rock partner. We're with Triumph. We've been with them since the beginning, and they are all the things to help us with the big projects. So super thankful for them. Rock has become our new hire training hub, and that's what I wanna kinda show you today. So backstory, what did not work for us? When it we had fellowship one, when I first came on staff in 2013, we had this super long list of of videos. It was kinda like watching a bunch of rock you videos that are really informational but not specific to your church. And I struggled to finish them, and I'm kind of a rule follower. And I forced myself to get through them, but it was not in a timely fashion, and so it didn't really make sense. A lot of people didn't have the time to watch them. We had this new hire staff worksheet, and it basically told the new hire where they were gonna go, who they were gonna talk to for their operational training, but it wasn't beneficial for the new hire. It just had, like, bullet points for the person doing the training, so it wasn't really helpful. Our operations team training sessions were done in person every time. And as I came into this role and started training our new hires, I found that my training was inconsistent. It took a long time to prepare. I'd forget things. I'd leave things out. I overwhelmed them, and then they had nothing to look back on afterwards when they didn't remember what I said. People forgot what they heard. They didn't retain it. And then as a result, engagement in systems was down because our trainings were irrelevant and overwhelming. In my store manager roles when I was younger, I found that if I did not slow down and do a nice, good, thorough training for my employees, they weren't very good employees. They they didn't feel invested in. They didn't feel equipped, and you kinda saw it and how they worked. And the employees that I slowed down and really walked with and equipped and poured into, they had a totally different attitude. They felt valued. They felt seen. They felt invested in. And so I've kinda brought that to this process for our church. So one this is just gonna kinda overview what I'm gonna talk to you about, these five things. So we redid the orientation sheet that the new hire gets. It's more of a reference for them. And then I selected a handful of rock concepts that everyone needs to know. I don't care what role you're in, if you're facilities, if you're grounds, if you're pastoral, if you're a ministry coordinator, we all start at the same baseline. And then we have training videos, forty five minutes of videos that they watch within the first week to get them up and running. I'm gonna talk about that in more detail here in a minute. And then I use the Internet page in our internal rock site for housing information. I worked at a job where they had a a hub where anything and everything you could ever need to know, it lived on this page. And in our church, we move at the speed of light or sound. I don't know which one, but we all hold all the information in our brains. And then if, god forbid, one of us gets hit by a bus, who knows what we know? You know? It's like the constant struggle of sharing what we know, of having it posted somewhere, of downloading it so that it's not just housed in our brain. So we started using the Rock Internet page. We've got shared documents and links. We've got some training videos, and we even started an admin manual, which some of you may have something like that. We did not, and it kinda stressed me out. So that's one thing that when I had Andrew as my assistant, we started working on that. So those three basic things are there as the structure and foundation. And then I defer specialized training like events registration, group scheduling, and RSVPs until the new hire has gotten established and is ready to grow. So I send them off to their ministry. They go do their things. And when we need to go deeper, we go deeper. Either the ministry takes them deeper or I help them go deeper. And then I'm continually identifying super users and key helpers in each department. So as someone new comes on, you start to see how they're wired, you start to see what they like, and you can start to identify if there's a potential superuser for your team. Like, I was the connections coordinator, and I was in Rock a lot. And when COVID happened, when we got into Rock, we couldn't figure out permissions. So they just gave me admin permissions as the connections coordinator, which was kinda scary. But then COVID happened, like, six months into our rock journey, and we needed online groups, and we needed online group types, and we needed online group finder. And so as the connections coordinator, I reached out to our database person and people and was like, we need this. And they're like, we don't have time. And so I jumped into the manuals, and I jumped into videos, and I started creating things and built it out and was like, sorry. Hope I didn't break anything. And they're like, no. That's great. That's awesome. So then our database guy left, and then they were like, will you please pray about coming into this role? And I was like, what? No. But then it became clear to me that, no. The Lord wanted me to do that. So, you may have people on your staff who do not identify as someone who would ever want to touch rock, but the lord knows. So as you're bringing on new people, you can be identifying those super users and those people who are key helpers in your departments. So the basis of everything is establish and build relational trust like that we all have different cultures. We all communicate our cultures in different ways, but, this has been a foundational thing. I told you I was a cantankerous ministry coordinator, and I didn't trust my database people. So trust is a big deal for me. I understand things differently now, and I want to ease the stress that they have with change and really, let them know that I'm in their corner, that I'm here to help them work smarter, not harder. And over the last couple years, they have come to understand that, and they've come to understand that rock is a valuable tool. And they come to me now and they say things like, this way I'm doing it stinks. I bet Rock could do it better. Can we talk? And I'm like, yes. Let's talk. And then so it's so exciting to help them find solutions. So keep building that relational trust. So let's talk about the new hire training sheet, and I have a takeaway that will be available if you get the subscription. And at the end, if you don't get the subscription and you wanna email me, I'll email it to you. That's totally fine. My contact info will be at the end of the slideshow. But, basically, we took our new hire sheet and we revamped it. And so our HR person, when they hire somebody, they just get the person's name, their email, their start date, and on the sheet, it's gonna show the time that they meet with each department. It's gonna show all the departments that the new hire meets with and the list of the department person's first and last name so that way they can start to put names and faces together. They know who they know who to email. It has a list of the topics that each person's training them on. So that way, they're not trying to remember who they need to talk to about different things. And so the HR person puts a copy of the new hire sheet in everybody's mailboxes and sends you a calendar invite. And so that's when I know I need to set somebody up, and it takes me five minutes to get ready for a new staff hire training session. So I get this sheet, and we try to schedule the meetings in the order on this sheet. You know, first, they go to payroll, then they go to HR, then they go to IT, housekeeping, systems, security, finance, team policies. Sometimes there's pastoral things they need to see a pastor about and then, communications. So this is our operational training process right here. These are all the things that everybody gets, and then they launch out into their individual ministries for what they need there. But we try to go in order the best we can, and for the most part, we do. But when I get this, I go into their rock profile, and I look and see if they have an account. And if they have an account, then I make note of that, and then we get ready to go into the training session itself. So the ROC training videos are gonna help everyone understand what they're looking at just on the basic person profile page. So when the person comes to me, I have them bring their phone because I like to do hands on and I want them to get into Rock immediately. So if they have a iPhone, I airdrop them the URL so they can log in to Rock on their phone. I have them save the URL to their home page, and I show them how it shows on their phone so they can access it. So that way even facilities and grounds guys, if they need to call a volunteer, they can just get out their phone and grab it, not have to find a computer. And so I have them pull up their own profile, and I have a profile up on my computer. And we talk about the difference between the two and how they basically look the same, but they're a little different. And so we go through and we look at their profile, and we just I do a really high flying overview of let's make sure your information's correct. And I tell them they're gonna watch videos. It's gonna tell them what they're looking at here. But we go ahead and make sure their phone number, their email's right. We change their email to their own work email and explain to them the importance of why we need to have their email be their work email and not their personal email. And I have them change that so they are actually editing it themselves, doing something right there in that moment. And then I have them go to my profile, and I have them call me. So that way they can get the feel and and get in there and call somebody. And I have them download I show them how to download a vCard. You guys use vCards? Yeah. So they're pretty cool. You know? If if they're gonna be calling somebody a lot, then they can download that. And so they get some hands on experience. And so I tell them that they're gonna have a week to go in and watch these videos. They're gonna watch videos to learn about how to follow people in groups. They're gonna learn about their dashboard. They're gonna learn about what all the colored badges and tags are on a person profile, what all the email and SMS icons mean, the actions menu, activity badges, basic stuff, how to update an address, just what the person profile tab is, what the extended attributes tab is, and sending communications. You know, how to specifically go through each screen each screen of the email and SMS, like, what does everything mean? And so it took me about six months to make the videos, and each video is about two to four minutes long. And I just did, like, two videos a week. And so it took about six months to get this in place. And as I made them, I just sent them out to the staff just because, and, I'll have this in my takeaway as well. But this is what makes my life so easy. So I have a new hire. Five minutes, I look them up. I create an email I'm gonna send them, and I give them this sheet and say, okay. Go watch these videos. They're kinda cheesy. They're me, but they're gonna help you know what you're what you're doing and what you're looking at to get you started. And I've never had to chase anybody down. Sometimes people watch them the same day because that first day that they're there, they do kinda have some weird downtime, and so forty five minutes isn't a big deal. They can easily do it in a week. And then I ask them how it went, and they're like, no. That was really helpful. And then then they can go in their phone because they've already been in there, they've saved their password. And so they feel like they're it's not so scary. Right? And people come to see you as the database systems person, and they're kinda scared because that's one of the scariest parts of getting a new job is learning all the new tools. Right? So the more we can dispel that, the easier it is for them in their on ramp. So here, I just kinda am recapping. So we save the log on to their home screen on their phone. We save their password to their phone, and we just compare and look at their profile and make sure that they're seeing those basic things. And that hands on learning just really dispels anxiety. So, on my takeaway, it kinda lists out these areas. You could make this whatever important things you want them to know. One thing that I do not have on here is I show everybody how to use the reminders feature and the bookmark in Rock. Like, I don't care who you are. Those things are handy, so handy, especially that bookmark. Alright. So I have this email that I pull up anytime I'm in that five minute. I'm getting ready to meet with my new person. I go in my sent emails, and I just search for this subject line, and this is in my takeaway too. And, basically, I just copy paste this email and I just update the stuff that's grayed out. Right? Like, I update their username. And and I tell them before they leave me, I say, I'm gonna send you an email. This is the email. It's gonna have your username. It's gonna have the link here so you can log in on your computer. It's got a link to the training videos. And then before they leave me, I tell them and I talk to them about the culture of our church because culture is such a big deal. And we have really, focused on building our culture internally the last five years, and our executive pastor really, carries a huge banner of honor, and he wants us to really honor God and honor people with our attitudes and our actions and our words and how we talk to each other and how we handle conflict. And so I let these people know, like, there's so much grace for you, and the Holy Spirit is gonna lead you and guide you as you walk in this new role. And we're a team that leans on each other, and we have different strengths and weaknesses, and we learn together, and we grow together. And week by week and month by month, you will grow in confidence. And by six months, you'll feel at ease. You'll start to feel at ease. And I let them know the fastest ways to reach me and, like, the different levels of priorities and how to reach me and to take it one day at a time. And the thing that made me want to share this with you guys here this year is that in the last six months, I had, like, two different two different employees just say, wow. This whole process of coming into the staff has been so smooth, and I see so much structure. And you guys are so organized, and this feels so good and safe and, like, doable, you know, and not scary. And I just was like, wow. Praise the lord. Because to us, sometimes it feels chaotic. So for somebody to come in from the outside and to see and feel the structure and the intentionality that we have in place, it was a huge win. And so you are gonna be building out your structure and expanding your structure and finding your strategies that work best for you. And so I hope some of this is helpful in some way. I also show them before they leave me. I show them our Internet pages because I know they're gonna meet with finance after they meet with me, and finance is gonna point them to these training videos that they have. So the staff Internet pages, we have shared documents and links. We've got staff training videos, and we've got the admin manual. So the rock training videos that I point them to, I put the link in their email and they get it, but I show them they can also find it here. And it's it says each video is about two to four minutes long, and that's the chunk that I asked them to watch in the first week. And then this second area over here, we've got other rock resources, check-in manager, how to use reminders, SMS operational updates and reminders. I've actually added to this. I started using Loom here in the last year or so, and it's so easy to just capture your screen and talk somebody through something. So pretty much anytime somebody asks me a question and I can't meet with them and I'm gonna have to send them an email, I'll just make a quick video, And I will stick it on here. I'll send it to them, but I'll stick it on here as a reference for other employees later on as a resource, and that has been helpful. The finance department put a bunch of their training in there because they were sitting with every person and explaining all these things, and now they can just say, hey. Watch these videos. And a lot of the times, people don't look at these videos these finance videos that first week or even the first couple weeks. They don't look at it until they need it, and it's so handy. And I hear from them how handy it is to be able to go back and see it when they need it because sometimes a staff person's around to help them, and sometimes there's not anybody around, and they have to figure something out. So we've got tracking mileage, we've got setting up file, processing your credit card charges, transferring funds with a rec, how to fill out a a paper requisition to buy to pay a vendor, just all the things that are applicable. Use Loom. And our finance person, who held these videos on her Loom account, she actually had another job come up that she could not pass up the opportunity. So she left after twenty years, and we're really sad because she's normally here. But she owned all these videos, and so she transferred the ownership to me so they could still stay in the hub and be accessible. So that worked out okay. And then I tried to put, like, upcoming training that's coming, and then we have some procedures. There's one procedure there. We don't really utilize that a ton. But let's see. Shared documents and links. When the new hires with me, I tell them that we've got these quick links for the other systems that we use. We use eSpace for facilities. We use File for finance. We use Leader a lot in our one on one leadership meetings. We use Sage. We have a staff resource page and then the link to the time card. So if they don't remember these links or they don't have them bookmarked, they can go here to this Internet page and find them. And then we have the information column where we keep the latest edition of our employee handbook for reference. We've got a facilities project request procedure. That's kind of like a budget season prep thing that we just keep out there, and then we had our staff policy for COVID nineteen. And then our forms, we've got just some things that people will need occasionally, blank rec, communications request form to submit something to the communications department. We've got a grievance form, and this is where my systems request form lives where they can request things from me on big projects and whatnot. And then the last tab on the Internet page is our admin manual. I'm not gonna show you that one, but it's laid out the same, and I have weekly tasks and monthly tasks. I look forward to building this out at some point, but at least now, if I was out and somebody else needed to do something, I think people could walk through it because we have we took we built out web pages and we put, like, step by step with screenshots so you can, like, walk through it and do the things that really must be done each week. So the training sheet, the videos, and the Internet pages, the foundation. And then, like I said, the deep dives and new tools. I piece out all the things that can wait. I let them get the basics, go to their ministry. The ministry starts to show them things, and then I follow-up with them as needed later, see how it's going, see what questions they have, see if they need additional training. And then when implementing and launching new tools with either that new hire or with that ministry, I always just really make sure that I explain the why and cast the vision for the road ahead. And we love to use the coaching model. And you may have something like this at your church, and if you don't, I want you to really steal this because it has helped build that trust that I was talking about. The coaching model, like, for example, we got everybody out of planning center scheduling and into rock scheduling, and it was a huge, scary, scary thing. My boss that I talked about who's no longer working with us, she told me, you're gonna get everybody out of it. And I was like, okay. I had no idea how that was gonna go because I knew how everybody felt about it. And so I started with the most willing ministry and worked my way, one ministry at a time. And it took about a year to get everybody rolled over. Worship in AVL will never do it because that service flow is amazing. They're gonna stay in PCO. But everybody else got rolled over. And I used this model, and, literally, I built up I built up the things that they needed. I pulled them into a room, one ministry at a time, for about an hour and a half, and I showed them what it was. I showed them how it worked, and then I had them do it. And they asked questions. They poked holes in it. And then I said, okay. Go do it on your own. Let's meet next week. And literally, every ministry, I met with them next week, and I'm like, how's it going? And they're like, it's great. It's so easy. I'm like, praise the lord. So taking that time and walking with them and acknowledging their apprehensions and just nurturing that and dispelling it. The coaching model is something that we have used in our church for a long time in in training our serve teams, but I have found it to be really, really helpful and empowering with our staff. Okay. So the last thing, I kind of already touched on this, but identifying super users. You know, who gets excited? Who leads well? Who asks questions? Who wants to know more? I had a gal who wanted to read a manual who was excited about something and asked for more documentation. That's only happened once, but I was really excited. And then the Lord called her to move away, and I was kinda sad. So anybody who I thought would be a good predecessor for me has left. So I'm always looking and and watching and just being aware of who's who's wired that way, you know, because they may not know that they wanna do more, but they might be called to do more. And then empower them and walk with them. Just be open minded to what the Lord might have. So it's not a mind blowing session, but our minds are pretty full right now. And you guys have seen a lot and learned a lot, and we're all in different places. And so I hope there's something that's a good takeaway for you. And if you want the actual takeaway because you're not getting the subscription, just give me an email, and I will be happy to send that your way. That being said, do guys have any questions?