Recruiting

The WHO of Recruitment

For one Christian ministry, the majority of their executive directors said leadership recruitment was a major part of a staff person’s job. Three groups of people were mentioned in the recruitment section: Staff; Team Leaders; and an emphatic…“Everyone is a recruiter!” The staff said they were looking for individuals from both college and career. People interviewed tended to have predominantly college or career aged volunteers, but most mentioned the commitment to having both. 

The WHAT of Recruitment

Our most productive areas are growing their own leaders and searching primarily for people of all ages, who have experience within the organization. They emphasized recruiting individuals who were homegrown, meaning they had been involved as a student. This “grow your own” idea demands attention and was mentioned sixty-seven times, more frequently than a winsome personality (42%), love of Christ (39%), maturity (39%), and leaders being the focus of the job (35%). College (age) freshman were a recruiting focus (48%) but with qualifications (see training).

It was also mentioned that while they are certainly recruiting people to be volunteer leaders, what they are really recruiting them to was the training time, where they will be able to learn about the impact being a volunteer leader will have on them, the kids they will be working with, and the expansion of the Kingdom of God.

The WHY of Recruitment

“Homegrown” individuals who have had the ministry “done to them” are the focus of the majority of our strong recruitment strategy. In other words, they understand our ministry language and have a mental model of what we do.

The HOW of Recruitment

In the Volunteer Leadership Development Project we named three key areas to have in the development plan:

  1. A Prayer Plan: Who is praying, how, and what specifically for?

  2. A Recruitment Message: What will you promise? What will you expect? What lifestyle will you require? What benefits will be available? 

  3. A specific list of potential “pools” of leaders: Where are all of the places that leaders could possibly be found in your area?