21 Aug 5 Church Employee Onboarding Tips to Start Strong
Sarah Secretary starts her new job with high hopes. At the end of week one, she doesn’t have login information for her project management software, is still not quite sure what her health plan covers and isn’t even aware of her option for a retirement plan. When a friend asks how her new job is going, she replies, “Not that great. I’m not exactly sure what I’m supposed to be doing and feel kind of lost.”
A poor onboarding experience can hurt performance and retention — and expose your ministry to potential lawsuits. Follow five practical employee onboarding tips to help your new employees feel like part of the team and have confidence in their role while protecting your ministry from potential legal issues.
1. Build a Solid Foundation in Week One
The first week is essential to set the groundwork for a successful employment journey. The initial time and effort spent now will carry over into the employee’s long-term performance and retention. Make the most of week one:
- Set a schedule: Have everything on a calendar before the new employee’s first day. Schedule times for introductions, training, benefits and a tour of the facilities.
- Set up accounts and create logins: Ensure your employee has access to the tools they need to perform their job.
- Conduct training: Organize training for organizational culture, job-specific responsibilities, data security and other organizational policies.
- Keep records: Sign documents on time and keep detailed records.
- Complete forms: Complete Forms W-4 and I-9, a direct deposit form, and an emergency contact form.
- Define points of contact: Provide a key point of contact’s phone number and email address.
2. Demonstrate Care with a Health Plan and Other Protection
Providing quality coverage to your employees can help increase employee retention and allow your church to meet employees’ needs in challenging circumstances while protecting the financial stability of your ministry.
Life, accident and disability coverage can make an immense difference to your employees and their families if the unthinkable happens, while health, dental and vision coverage can enable them to receive the care they need, as well as protect them in times of emergency. The wellness tools and benefits provided in health plans can also promote your employees’ overall well-being and help prevent or treat conditions early on.
Here are a few tips on how to onboard a new employee with health care coverage and other protection:
- Explain options and meet deadlines for enrollment: Explain the benefit options your church offers for health, dental, vision, life, accident and disability. Emphasize the enrollment deadlines.
- Educate: Present details about wellness programs and benefits available through the health plan. Explain the importance of life and disability coverage. Teach employees how to access accounts for their health care and other coverage.
- Offer tools: If your employee has an option for additional life or disability protection, provide tools such as a life coverage calculator or disability coverage calculator to help them determine how much coverage they need.
3. Invest in Your Employees’ Future with a Retirement Plan
A retirement plan helps build long-term financial security for your employees. Onboarding is a great time to explain how investing now can grow into larger savings over time. Equip employees to experience a strong retirement savings journey with these tips:
- Enroll an employee in a retirement plan right away: Whether through automatic enrollment or simply completing the onboarding packet, make sure your new W-2 employee has the option to enroll and save for retirement. If they decline, you’ve done everything possible to improve their future financial outcome! If your ministry doesn’t have a retirement plan yet, learn more about your options.
- Provide an employer-matching contribution: Make every effort to set aside matching contributions for your employees, and let them know so they can take full advantage of the match.
- Explain the difference and advantages between tax-sheltered and Roth contributions: Depending on an employee’s financial circumstances and ministerial status, choosing the right contribution type can significantly impact their taxable retirement income later in life.
- Make them aware of their investment options: GuideStone offers three investment approaches to help employees make strategic decisions for their retirement plans.
- Explain the importance of saving: Help new employees understand how even modest contributions can grow over time.
- Offer tools: Help employees see how contributions add up with a retirement savings calculator.
- Encourage annual contribution increases: Encourage employees to increase the savings amount by a percentage instead of a dollar amount — during milestone events such as a pay raise, bonus, promotion or even based on an annual calendar reminder.
- Help pastors designate minister’s housing allowance before the new year: Follow these three steps to get started.
4. Be Proactive in Protecting Your People and Your Ministry
Your ministry is exposed to risk if an employee repeatedly makes offensive jokes or releases sensitive church data by falling for a phishing scam. You can minimize risks by ensuring proper policies and procedures are in place. Implement these onboarding tips to protect your people and your ministry.
- Have employment practice liability (EPL) insurance: Alleged sexual harassment, unlawful termination or an error in benefits administration can lead to potential lawsuits. Guard your ministry with EPL insurance.
- Communicate job responsibilities: Set clear expectations, duties and responsibilities.
- Review and sign an anti-harassment and discrimination policy: Define inappropriate behavior and its consequences.
- Review and sign a data security policy: Educate employees on identifying scams, the safe way to share data and other practices to manage data security.
- Review and sign a confidentiality agreement: Specify what organizational information must be kept confidential.
- Review and sign other organization policies: Clearly define attendance requirements, work schedule, disciplinary action, grounds for termination, complaint procedures and other policies necessary for your organization.
5. Guide Future Development
Setting measurable goals and mapping out a path to success encourages a positive employment outcome — both for your employees and your organization. Set aside time for regular communication to keep a pulse on your employees’ outlook and improve retention.
- Set goals: Develop short- and long-term goals and schedule evaluation times.
- Offer professional development and continuing education: Map out professional development opportunities to grow your employees’ skills and confidence.
- Schedule check-ins: Regularly ask how employees are doing — not just regarding goals or tasks — but how they feel about their job. Address problems early on to help improve retention.
- Request feedback: Ask new employees about their experience with the onboarding process and implement changes to benefit future new hires.
Get On Board with a Positive Onboarding Experience
Implementing practical onboarding tips can benefit your employees and your ministry over time. Download our New Employee Onboarding Checklist to help make the experience smooth for everyone involved. We want to equip you and your church employees to lead resilient lives and advance the Kingdom of God. Reach out for help with health coverage, property and casualty insurance, and retirement plans that align with your Christian values.
Original content by © The Church Network. All Rights Reserved. This information is provided with the understanding that Payroll Partners is not rendering legal, human resources, or other professional advice or service. Professional advice on specific issues should be sought from a lawyer, HR consultant or other professional.