Interviewing someone to become one of your staff members is such an important task. When you consider all risk factors, you know you want to do it right! Hiring the wrong candidate costs so much money and energy.
Time is counted by tens of hours over the course of the process. Those hours are often invested by actual staff members, pastoral teams and/or elder boards. These people are busy, so you want to make it count correctly. Moving fees are on the rise; adapting to a new role requires time, energy, and money on both present and incoming staff.
If the graft doesn’t go well, you’ll need to start over the whole process, which is a waste of precious resources.
In order to filter out the numerous candidates that might apply, you may want some help. That’s where this ultimate church rubric comes into play. Maybe you would like to add some professional help in the process. A HR company, a good coach, or a talent evaluator can be helpful.
Before you begin using this rubric, make sure you have access to the following documents from the 10 top candidates.
- Resumé: allows you to quickly assess experience and education
- Presentation or cover letter: gives you an overview of his writing style and job views
- Personality assessments like a DISC profile: brings nuances and perspective on possible matches and challenges within a role, culture, and beliefs
- Personal, professional and character references: shows their desire to do their due diligence
- Social Media: gives a glimpse of how the candidate interacts (socially and publicly), who they connect with and how they invest their timem
These are 20 categories this rubric will be composed of:
- First impressions
- Personal Appearance
- Written communication
- Social Media
- Church Knowledge
- Character
- Competencies
- Calling and career motivation
- Spiritual Beliefs
- Spiritual Life
- Leadership Ability and Potential
- Social Skills
- Problem solving
- Cultural Fit
- Professional Fit
- Self-Awareness
- Personality Assessment
- Verbal Communication
- Question asking
- X-Factor
It could be best, however, to evaluate candidates on a weighted percentage more than a total score. The reasoning is simple because some points are more important to you than others. For example, having a 8/10 evaluation on spiritual alignment with the church’s beliefs may be more important than the 8/10 grade for leadership ability while 6 on cultural fit might overshadow a 7 on self-awareness to others. By placing a percentage, you decide what is most important to your church.
Candidate name: Total score: Percentage score: (score divided by 2)
| CATEGORY | WEIGHT | QUESTIONS | ANSWERS & NOTES | RATE | |
| First Impressions | 5 | Look for poise, calmness, and assuranceHonest demeanorLooks into the screen/ eye contact | Rate 1-5 | ||
| Personal Appearance | 5 | Are the clothes and appearance appropriate?Cleanliness | Rate 1-5 | ||
| Written Communication | 5 | Are there typos in their prepared documents?Have emails been well-written? | Rate 1-5 | ||
| Social Media | 5 | Investigate posts and comments, it is public content | Rate 1-5 | ||
| Church Knowledge | 5 | How did you learn we had an opening for (role)?What are the things from our church you appreciate?What are the best things we do as a church?Ask any questions you find pertinent. | Rate 1-5 | ||
| Character | 20 | How do your friends describe you?What does your mentor say are your strongest character traits?How do you respond when people lie (or exaggerate the truth)?What would your former direct report say about you?Who is one public person that you admire? What do you appreciate in them?Ask any questions you find pertinent. | Rate 1-20 | ||
| Competencies | 20 | What was one project you led from start to finish?How did you handle deadlines and/or stress related to that?Where did you learn to (name the needed competency you’re looking for)? What would be one or two things in this role you need to learn or grow in?What drained you in your former role?Ask any questions you find pertinent. | Rate 1-20 | ||
| Calling and Career Motivation | 15 | Was there a time when you went the extra mile? How did you go about that? Why did you choose to give more than usual?When and how did you discover you were called to do (role or competency)?What would energize you in this job?Who has confirmed the skills and calling you say you have?Where would you like to be in 3 years?Ask any questions you find pertinent. | Rate 1-15 | ||
| Spiritual Beliefs | 15 | How would you describe your theology?What are things every church should do? Refrain from?Are there denominations or tribes you align better with?Ask specific questions that you find important like salvation, sanctification, egalitarian VS complementarian, etc. | Rate 1-15 | ||
| Spiritual Life | 20 | What are some of the things God has been teaching you lately?What is a favorite verse of yours? Why?What is one book that impacted your spiritual life?On a scale of 1 to 10, how would you evaluate the vibrancy of your spiritual life?Ask any questions you find pertinent. | Rate 1-20 | ||
| Leadership Ability and Potential | 10 | How do you develop a team? Or teammates?When you need to develop new skills, what is your usual plan to improve yourself?Who are your favorite authors?What is one thing that you believe will be needed for this role in 12 months? 2 years?How do you spot potential in people?Are deadlines optional or steadfast guidelines?How would you rate yourself as a leader?Ask any questions you find pertinent. | Rate 1-10 | ||
| Social Skills | 10 | Conflict is bound to happen on a team; how do you tackle that?What is your favorite way to make new friends?During your time off, what are the activities you love to do?Ask any questions you find pertinent. | Rate 1-10 | ||
| Problem Solving | 10 | What are some problems or challenges you faced in your previous role and how did you handle it?What opportunities do you see in this role?Let’s say you were the one making the decision in this role, what would be one thing you believe you would change?Talk to me about a time when you encountered unexpected challenges in a project you were leading? What made it unexpected? How did you react?Ask any questions you find pertinent. | Rate 1-10 | ||
| Cultural Fit | 10 | What aspects of living in (name your city) do you believe you’ll appreciate? You’ll need to adapt to?Our church is (name a specific subject), how do you think you’ll fit here?Ask any questions you find pertinent. | Rate 1-10 | ||
| Professional Fit | 10 | Ask specific questions for distinct qualifications you’re looking for. | Rate 1-10 | ||
| Self-Awareness | 10 | If you knew what was one of your blind spots, what would it be?In honesty, what is one thing your former direct report would say you need to work on?In 3 years, what is one thing (or aspect of life) you know you will have grown in?Ask any questions you find pertinent. | Rate 1-10 | ||
| Personality Assessment | 15 | You want to match your candidate’s answers to their personality assessment. For example, if their results mention a preferred routine, but they say they love change and new things, this would be a mismatch and would prove a serious lack of self-awareness.You also want to match the candidate’s results with what you are looking for in your job description. A strong leader may have a hard time in a low rank job, for example. | Rate 1-15 | ||
| Verbal Communication | 15 | Note how your candidate answered the questions.Look for voice inflections and assurance. You also know what you’d like to hear from a candidate. | Rate 1-15 | ||
| Question Asking | 10 | Always allow the candidate some time to ask you questions and pay attention to the kind of questions they ask. (Hopefully, they do!)Did they do their research? | Rate 1-10 | ||
| X Factor | 10 | Extra points: this is hard to quantify but some may call it a gut instinct, a word of wisdom or discernment from the Holy Spirit.Sometimes, the candidate has this “x factor” that makes them special. | Rate 1-10 | ||
| TOTAL | 225 | XYZ |
