Transcript: In the Spotlight: Showcasing the Best Christian Workplaces in 2023 // Tara VanderSande, Cary Humphries, Doug Waldo, and Giselle Jenkins, Best Christian Workplaces

Flourishing Culture Leadership Podcast

“In the Spotlight: Showcasing the Best Christian Workplaces in 2023 “

February 5, 2024

Tara VanderSande, Cary Humphries, Doug Waldo, and Giselle Jenkins

Intro: Best Christian Workplaces has released the list of 261 certified best Christian workplaces in 2023. What are some of the characteristics that qualify them for the honor of certification? Well, listen in and hear some of the highlights from the 2023 certified organizations.

Welcome: Welcome to the Flourishing Culture Leadership Podcast, your home for open, honest, and insightful conversations to help develop your leadership, your team, and build a flourishing workplace culture.

Al Lopus: Hello, I'm Al Lopus, the co-founder of the Best Christian Workplaces and author of the book Road to Flourishing. And I'm passionate about helping Christian leaders like you create engaged, flourishing workplaces.

And we’re pleased to honor 261 faith-based organizations and Christian-owned businesses as certified best Christian workplaces for 2023. These certified organizations share a common commitment to workplace health and employee engagement, and they've made an intentional commitment to grow in areas such as inspirational leadership, healthy communication, life-giving work, and more. The churches, ministries, schools, and Christian-led businesses that are certified best Christian workplaces can further their mission in the world because they have engaged staff.

Today we're going to talk about and listen to stories about leaders who have courageously asked for feedback. They've humbly considered that input and diligently acted on an ongoing basis to improve. These certified best Christian workplaces are champions of the faith who are setting the standard as Christians of what it looks like to be the best, most effective places to work in the world. And we're grateful for their commitment to God and for the way they reflect Christ to those they influence.

And today you're going to hear from four of our BCW experienced consultants who work alongside this variety of Christian-led organizations. I’m delighted to welcome Tara VanderSande, Giselle Jenkins, Cary Humphries, and Doug Waldo to our podcast today.

And this episode, well, it’s a bit longer, but I promise you'll want to finish listening to the full podcast.

And of course, this episode is brought to you by the Best Christian Workplaces Employee Engagement Survey. You can sign up today to discover the health of your organization's culture and be considered for the list of certified Best Christian Workplaces in 2024. Now is a wonderful time to sign up and survey your employees with our easy-to-administer online Employee Engagement Survey by going to workplaces.org. That's workplaces.org. And over and over, we're told that being a certified best Christian workplace improves your ability to attract more talented employees and keep them longer.

And so, without further ado, let’s dive in to our conversation about the certified best Christian workplaces for 2023.

It's really been a pleasure to work with a number of churches over the year. Churches are one of the four core cornerstones of the work we do at the Best Christian Workplaces. And to tell us a little bit about a number of the healthy and flourishing certified best Christian workplaces that are churches is Tara VanderSande. Tara has been with us for, oh, a number of years, and together we're just thrilled that there are 70 certified best Christian workplaces on the 2023 list, 30 of which are flourishing. So, Tara, tell us about a number of the churches that you find have interesting stories that are certified again this year.

Tara VanderSande: Yeah. Thanks, Al. It is always a pleasure being with you. You know, when I was thinking through all the churches that have been certified this year, it was really hard to pick just a couple to talk about their cultures and some of their stories, because we have, I mean, we don't have that much time, we don’t have that many hours, to go through all of them. So, I selected a couple churches that have been partnering with us and their commitment from their leadership team to lean into this Survey as a strategic input, to collaborate with their staff, and really use this as a tool to help them grow culturally, strategically, and just really to have a greater mission impact. So, again, I could have chosen all 70, but I chose a handful.

Al: Yeah. Thanks, Tara. And tell us about the first church that you've got on your list.

Tara: Yeah. The first church I have on my list is Summit Church in Durham, North Carolina, led by J.D. Greear. They've been serving with us since 2016, and they've had healthy scores for the last seven consecutive years. And what has been just wonderful working with J.D. Greear and his leadership team is not only their commitment to survey, using our Employee Engagement Survey, but also to do 360 development assessments for their leaders. We have done over 30 development assessments with their leaders and then paired those results with their team results from their Engagement Survey scores so that we could help them be even more effective leaders. And so, I really believe that's helped their church position, their church culture, for their staff to be super healthy and really lay a solid foundation for the years ahead.

Al: I love that idea: 360s and Engagement Surveys for leadership development. And they're really committed to leadership development, aren't they, Tara?

Tara: Yeah, they really are.

Al: And okay, let’s move on to the second one. This is one of my faves.

Tara: Yeah. So, a second church that came to mind is Christ’s Church of the Valley in Peoria, Arizona. I had the pleasure to go be with that church in person, lead one of their all-staff meetings, and then do a workshop with a set of 40 of their directors. They’re under the leadership of Ashley Wooldridge, and their team, Tony, Jeff, and Ben have been doing such a phenomenal job helping their team be more effective leaders.

So, they've been surveying with us consistently since 2015. All healthy scores. And what I find fascinating with this group is they continue to want to grow. So even though they've had healthy and flourishing scores, which is over a 4.25, for the last five consecutive years, they ask that question, where does God want us to grow next? How can we build into our people even better? How do we build a talent bench that will outlast us? So, they've really been focusing on development, having a clarity and alignment, and this next year they are going to be building into their leaders even more significantly so that they have consistent leadership skills. So, they're taking their leaders on a three-day retreat, coming up, to make sure that they're all using the same language and all leading their folks in the same way.

Al: Yeah. Yeah. And the Christ’s Church of the Valley, CCV, is just another example of a really strong leadership team, and they focus on leadership cohesion at the top.

And that leads us to the next one, Tara.

Tara: Yeah. So, Calvary Chapel in Fort Lauderdale. They are just a hop, skip, and a jump away from me. I'm actually going to be seeing them this month and their leadership team. They've been surveying with us since 2015 under the leadership of Doug Sauder. And really, that was a year after he had transitioned into that senior leadership role. And he really wanted to have an understanding both from a data standpoint as well as a narrative standpoint of, where is the culture, how do we help them grow? So they've been surveying with us and have been certified as a best Christian workplace the past five years in a row.

Their big thing is strategic consistency and collaborative communication. So, they’ve also instituted 360 development assessments. They did that with their executive team. But what's unique about this group is they added stakeholder-based coaching. So, I've been working with their senior leaders for the past year, doing monthly coaching with them on some strategic leadership skills in some of their initiatives and then doing some group coaching.

Now, their next tier of leaders, their directors, just started a next round of 360s. And the reason why this has been so fun is I have gotten to be a part of their culture growth in terms of how their leaders at the top lead more consistently, and really are elevating their leadership skills. So, it's really been a pleasure to work with them.

Al: Yeah. Tara, could you succinctly tell us stakeholder coaching—you know, we talk about that—what's the unique feature of stakeholder coaching, and why is that good for church leaders?

Tara: Yeah. There are so many great coaches out there, especially within the church world. You'll find, you know, leaders might have a teaching coach or a biblical-basis coach or a life coach. So, this stakeholder-based coaching says we're going to pull together between, you know, five and eight people who can observe the leadership behaviors, techniques, and styles that you want to be using, and they can give you direct feedback on it. So, as opposed to someone coming to me and telling me how they think they're doing, on a monthly basis we're pulling these stakeholders together and just asking them some very targeted questions about some specific leadership skills that individual wants to grow. So, they're getting real-time feedback.

What I also love about this is it models healthy feedback to the staff, to the team. So, the leader’s growing, and that team is growing in more-effective skills. And we find that it's also just really enjoyable conversation. They can share the things that they're learning with the other people receiving this 360 coaching. So it just multiplies the impact.

Al: Yeah. So, I love this stakeholder-based coaching approach because when a coach is just working with an individual, they have a limited perspective and only one perspective, really, of the effectiveness of the leadership and how others are experiencing their leadership. So, that's just, I love that.

Now, we've talked about a number of larger churches, a couple of the top-ten largest churches in the country. What's an example of a smaller church?

Tara: Yeah. I've got a church that I've been working with for the last several years. It's The Crossing in Costa Mesa, California. And after a significant leadership transition, the senior pastor, Andrew Brownback, asked us to come and survey the staff. And at the time, they had less than 25 staff members. But it had been such a significant change, and he knew he needed data to understand where they were in their staff culture. And their first Survey in 2018 was a near-toxic score. Not really a surprise, but he knew he had a lot of work ahead of him. What we tell a lot of our senior leaders is that when you are in an unhealthy place culture wise, it could take between 18 and 24 months to really turn that tide around. But he and his senior team, just with the guidance of Best Christian Workplaces, focused on inspirational leadership, focused on building trust. They focused on listening, collaborative communication. And they gained 25 points that next year, and the year after that, they were certified as a best Christian workplace. And the last two years, I'm so happy to announce, they’re at flourishing scores. Their church is growing; their staff is healthy.

But I got to fly out to California and present the very difficult results to the staff that first year, but they really leaned into the fact that their senior pastor wanted to be transparent, wanted to be honest, and invited them into co-creating the future of the church with him, even though they knew it was going to take a couple of years. And they did it. So, I just love, love that church.

Al: Yeah. That's a great story, you know. And we're all about transformation. I mean, we believe that Christian workplaces should set the standard as the best, most effective places to work in the world. There are toxic cultures out there, and they need to be turned around for the sake of the Gospel. I believe that actually will impact dramatically the effectiveness of their ministry.

So, two years from toxic to certified, four years from toxic to flourishing. Great work. Yeah. Thanks, Tara.

And one more, one of our other churches that we've had a chance to work with.

Tara: Yeah. Church on the Move in Tulsa, Oklahoma. Literally, they are a church on the move. I began working with them several years ago with Pastor Whit George. They decided to survey in the middle of the pandemic. It was October 2020, and he just didn't want to wait. He felt that there was just some unrest in the staff, and really wanted to get an understanding of where they needed to focus their energy. And they had just had a leadership transition themselves.

So, that first year they were not in a healthy zone. They were near toxic as well. By literally focusing on building trust and, again, listening to their staff, and I would also say just casting vision and making sure that there was strategic alignment. They gained 46 points by their next year's Survey, and they've now been in flourishing the last two years in a row.

What I just loved about working with them is they were so open to the feedback, really wanting to understand, and using that phrase, you know, “Help me understand. Help me picture that. Help me understand your work environment to the staff.” And so, we went down there and worked with their team. We did an all-staff presentation. And what we did with this team is facilitated some action-planning sessions with their directors, using their team snapshot reports from the Employee Engagement Survey, to help them focus on, what should their department action plan be?

Now, the senior leadership team had an overall strategic plan, but each department leader wanted a plan so they could build culture also from the ground up. So this really put culture ownership in the hands of all of the staff and the mid-level leaders. And I really believe that's what helped them catapult their engagement from near toxic into healthy very quickly.

Al: Mm-hmm. Yeah. I love that. And I often would say really to integrate engagement into the culture of the church, you need to really work with those middle managers to bring this about. And so that's a great example, Tara. Well, and again, they did that through a leadership transition, as you said. And they're really a church on the move.

Well, thanks, Tara, so much for your input. Again, we're so thrilled to have 70 certified best Christian workplaces, 30 of which are flourishing. And thanks for your work, Tara, and sharing some of these stories with us.

Tara: You're welcome, Al.

Al: And now it's my pleasure to bring in Cary Humphries. You know, Cary works with many of our Christian-owned or Christian-led businesses, and this is a newer sector for us, and we're privileged to be a C12 strategic partner as we work with many of these Christian-owned businesses. This year we're pleased to announce 36 Christian-owned businesses are certified and over half are in our flourishing category. So, Cary, would you highlight a few of the certified Christian-owned businesses for 2023?

Cary Humphries: Yeah. Al, thank you. It's great to be on and great to talk about Christian-owned businesses. Such an inspirational group, really committed to impacting the marketplace with great products and services and worker safety and worker development, but also to have spiritual impact out into the marketplace and with their staff as well.

The first one that comes to mind is Dow Smith Contracting, a company in Tennessee. Dow has been on your podcast recently, has a remarkable healthy culture. And just year after year they have excelled, been at the top of the overall benchmark area. And they don't do it passively. They come back year after year paying attention to their data, of refreshing the data. They've invested in 360 reviews for even project superintendents. So really, on-the-ground leaders. They're just very committed. They've used the chaplaincy idea well, and nearly 100% of their staff are what we would say engaged, able-to-respond degree or higher to 51 positively worded questions. Really remarkable culture, Al.

Al: Yeah. It is a great organization. And I'd encourage our listeners to go back and search for Dow Smith in our podcast loop. And, you know, they also really focus on the entrepreneurial operating system as part of their process as well.

But okay, Cary, what's the next one?

Cary: You know, the next one, Al, that comes to mind is Clements Fluids, a company in Tyler, Texas, that came to us through a relationship with another surveying partner that we have. And Clements Fluids, first time through, their scores weren't very strong, and they were very interested and very committed. They’re kind of a story for businesses that might think about surveying and might think, “You know, I think I'll get healthy before I begin this process,” a little bit like losing 20 pounds before you go to the doctor. And instead, they stepped up and surveyed. And from the first-year Survey to the second-year Survey, Al, they doubled the percent of engaged employees in the organization and moved from not yet healthy to solidly healthy in a single year. And they paid attention, and they acted on their data, and they saw trust between leaders and staff up dramatically to a reasonable result. The organization is well managed, got better. People even started to say from one year to the next, we have a question, “I would rate Clements Fluids as an exceptional place to work,” and more people agreed to that question than any other result, up substantially from one year to the next. So, just encouraging to see an organization pay attention and move the needle in a way that really impacts everybody, their customers and their employees.

Al: Yeah. And that's the point, Cary, that I was going to say. Not only do employees, after that kind of improvement in just one year, notice a different atmosphere that they're working in, but that's got to have and it does have, I know, impacts on their customers and the loyalty of those customers and how they're spreading the word about the brand of the organization to others. That's great. Yeah.

What's next?

Cary: You know, the next one that comes to mind is a fascinating business because it's Gant Travel Management, a surveying partner who, obviously, they’re in the travel business. They went through a complete, you know, sort of business-model destruction during COVID. Nobody's traveling. Who needs corporate travel support? And they used that opportunity to really think about where the business was going, to strengthen the core of who they were as an organization, and to strengthen the team, and came back strong and even stronger. And from ‘22 to ‘23, they grew as an organization. And they are very thoughtful and very committed to culture. It's a remarkable organization. Their staff deeply appreciate leadership, and leadership is just really introspective and pay attention to their impact on their staff. This year they added use of the 360 tool to get some direct feedback on their leadership. And it's an impressive organization.

Al: Yeah. Having a flourishing workplace certainly helps, even through pandemics, for travel companies. That's a great story. All right. Thanks, Cary.

Cary: The last one in this for-profit area, Al, would be Wilson Lumber. And, you know, this is a—you go from a travel, online travel agency, high tech, lots of technology, everybody using computers and the latest travel technologies, to a lumber company, Wilson Lumber. And they're an outstanding organization, multigenerational. And president Rob Wilson is committed to building healthy culture. And he's done it one year at a time with the team. He's declared very intently that, “We're going to make this a priority.” And after a couple of years at less than fully healthy, they've moved into the certified best-workplace area this past year, solidly so. And they've seen real progress. They have used the team snapshot report very effectively and even had us help their team leaders look at their individual data. They've done some discovery-group conversations to try to really understand the steps that they need to take to make changes. You know, with just shy of 300 employees, they get 95% of them participating in the Survey. And it’s just a real sign that people see and believe leadership's commitment and want to step up and participate in this, giving leadership information that can help them continue to improve.

Al: You know, they're an example, Cary, I know many listeners would probably be saying, “Well, I don't know that I could do an Employee Engagement Survey, because I don't think we'd get very good participation.” But this is an example where you're saying 95%—and these are on-the-line lumber-company workers. They're truck drivers. They don't all have computers. But you've got great participation. And it just shows when leaders are interested in the feedback and talk about the feedback and take action on it, there will be high participation.

Cary: Yeah, exactly. I mean, we're talking about, you know, role areas. There's role areas in the data of, you know, facilities and maintenance and delivery and production and sales and then department leaders and senior leaders. And it's an impressive organization with multiple locations and multiple leaders in each one of those areas. And they, like many of our stronger business clients, have some locations that are stronger and healthier cultures than others. And they leverage those to find out, you know, what are those outstanding leaders doing, and how can we pass that on to areas that need some support?

Al: Well, Cary, one of the categories that we've seen a lot of activity with is Christian higher ed. Let's transition now from Christian-owned businesses to Christian higher ed. This is typically one of our more difficult sectors, historically, and to see organizations get to the certified level is more difficult than we've seen in other sectors. And this year, in fact, only a third of those in the category were certified that actually worked with us. And I know there’s one university—actually, there’s two universities—that we’d like to highlight as a certified Christian workplace, possibly for the first time. So, Cary, why don't you give us a highlight? What are these two organizations?

Cary: Well, it's a treat to talk about these two organizations, Al: LeTourneau University in Longview, Texas, and Northwestern College in Orange City, Iowa, both of them, you know, long-standing Christian higher-ed institutions, turning out some great students. And both have very unique histories and backgrounds and wonderful stories of how they began and some of the students that have impacted the world. But both of them began surveying with us seven or eight years ago and both had a journey to health. And both presidents, Greg Christy at Northwestern College and now Steve Mason, the last few years, at Letourneau University, have expressed, you know, just a deep commitment to staying on this journey. And both crested the hill into what we call certified best-Christian-workplace result above 4.0, meaning their staff are able to read 56 positively worded statements about a university work environment and culture and agree or higher that those things are true of their experience. And that's been delightful to work with them.

Focusing, Al, for a second, first on LeTourneau, they actually, you know, have, as you know, done some work listening to their staff. They've had a variety of engagements with us to support that growth. But we've done some leader offsite retreats with them. But at every case, it was the team and their commitment, the quality of the individuals they've attracted to leadership, and they've just been able to stay on this journey and to build and to grow and to pay attention and to make adjustments. And super exciting to see them. And they’re committed to keep growing. They are not resting on being solidly healthy. They want to continue that. And I think you'll have, shortly, Steve Mason on your podcast again.

Al: Yeah. And, Cary, I've really enjoyed listening to Steve talk about how he's helped to define their brand at LeTourneau as the Christian polytechnic-university option and how that's been a part of their sustainable strategy to focus on that historic core strength.

But tell us a little bit more about Northwestern College in Orange City, Iowa.

Cary: Yeah. It's fascinating there, Al, that Greg Christy also very committed to staying on this journey. And at, you know, one point, sort of midway through the journey, you know, a little bit of wondering if progress was going to come in a given year and asked, sort of pondering, you know, is this, maybe pay to take a year off. And he pressed in and stayed the course and got data and thought about that data. He's also had some important personnel changes that, you know, those are not always easy. And yet in every case, you know, I think they were able to see that progress came, and the organization was able to lift and grow. And they've just had a number of key hires and team-cohesion steps that have brought them to a really exciting place. And I know in both Greg and Steve's case, they would say that a lot of people are having a lot more fun working. And as you know, Christian higher ed is a challenging place to be. It's also a wonderful place to be, with incredible impact. And I think both of these institutions are in a good place.

I would also just make the comment, they've both been very intentional about declaring who they are, and have worked carefully with their boards about staying the course of their mission. And that's been encouraging to see as well.

Al: Yeah. One of the things that you've pointed out is, you know, and I've seen this with Christian higher ed is that sometimes they'll say, “Well, we'll Survey every two years, every three years. That's all we need to do.” But it's almost impossible to get a lot of traction with that. And these are two cases where they will come back year after year and make adjustments. And again, their faculty and staff know that their leadership is interested in working with their culture, wouldn't you say?

Cary: Yeah. And there's no doubt, I mean, everybody in Christian higher ed, everybody even observing Christian higher ed knows that it has required a constant review and vigilance about, what do families and students want in a university? What are they looking to be educated in? How are those majors and programs contributing to the health of the university? But also, how are they preparing students for life after the university? And so, there's a constant reevaluation. And both of these institutions have done that in an open way that has been appreciated by their faculty and staff.

And of course, nobody would argue they've done it perfectly. It's a tension, right, when you're in those situations, but they've done it in a way that has grown trust, grown a willingness to involve staff in decisions that affected them, and explain reasons behind decisions, and to clarify goals and to clarify direction and to increase staff's confidence in the programs and services that they offer. And that's been a part of what's helped them to become healthier.

Al: Yeah. Well, thanks, Cary.

Cary: It’s a pleasure, Al.

Al: And now I'm looking forward to our conversation with Doug Waldo. Doug's one of our senior consultants and does a lot of work with Christian schools. We’ve got 31 certified best Christian workplaces in 2023, 11 of those are flourishing. So, Doug, there’s been a lot going on with Christian schools in the last couple years, coming out of COVID. We're seeing some pretty significant growth, as I understand it. So, tell us a little bit about what we're seeing just in the Christian-school environment.

Doug Waldo: Yeah. Growth is a great way to summarize that, Al. Yeah. You've got a large group of parents considering Christian schools now that maybe wouldn't have considered it a decade ago. And that's an exciting thing, it's an exciting time, but it also brings about certain challenges. You've got, for one thing, facilities’ concerns. You know, where do we put all these folks? And then, we've got this influx of tuition coming in, and you'd think that'd be awesome, and it is awesome, but then you've got to bring the staffing levels up to be able to support, you know, the added students. So, you've got some practical challenges that come with that growth. And we know if growth’s not managed properly, it could kill an organization. So, it's not as though we just simply welcome new students with open arms and don't think twice about it. There are strategic and long-term implications to this.

And so, you've got the facilities’ issues, you've got the staffing issues, but probably a bigger concern that we're hearing from schools is just that of mission fit. A lot of the folks coming into the schools, as I mentioned, maybe weren't part of that community just a little bit ago, and so, for whatever reason, they're now considering Christian schools. You've now got students and families coming that may be looking for something different from what the mission statement says.

So, what we’re sort of hearing is the flourishing schools are those that are so clear on their mission, they're able to help that conversation along in the admissions process to make sure the folks that are joining them are part of that same community, share that same values. And the same thing would be for the staffing, making sure that the employees coming in are part of that same mission fit and then share the values. And so those who are able to navigate that are able to take advantage of this huge surge in Christian education, and those who aren't prepared for that are certainly experiencing significant challenges across the board.

Al: Well, we know that a healthy, even flourishing workplace culture actually allows and facilitates the resilience for these kinds of transitions, and so it really helps to prepare communities for this kind of change.

Let's talk about a couple of the 2023 certified best Christian workplaces. And tell us about the first one that you'd like to describe.

Doug: Yeah. I think one that I'd love to talk about is Wheaton Academy. Wheaton, it’s been around for a very long time. They have a fantastic reputation. And I had a chance to visit with someone who's been part of that organization for a long time as well, Gene Frost, just this past weekend. And I loved hearing Gene talk about the transition they made to become flourishing, and the emphasis they put on maintaining that really comes out of that experience. And one quote that he shared that I just thought was wonderful, he said, you know, “For too long, our faculty was seen as a bunch of independent contractors who just happened to share a parking lot.” And we sort of talked about the fact that oftentimes faculty feel like once I can get my door shut and just do my thing, everything's great. I know how God has handcrafted me. I know why God’s called me here. And as long as I'm behind my classroom door, I'm good to go. It's when that door opens and I begin to wonder, what's going to happen from down the hall? What's admin doing now? And so Gene sort of talks through how Wheaton includes employees and teachers, faculty into those conversations about decisions that are being contemplated and things that are being considered. So they feel part of that. They feel like they're being heard. They feel like they're able to speak into decisions that affect them.

And one of the things that I love to share about Wheaton, and I do this all the time when I'm speaking to groups, is I'll go to their website, and very prominently viewed on their website are their core-value statements. And these are not just statements in a frame somewhere, gathering dust on a wall that no one looks at. These govern their behavior. Everything from onboarding and training and, of course, hiring, but also in how performance is evaluated and all those types of conversations. And on their website, they actually have a video for each of their core values. It's very well designed and made, but it also just gives you the heart of that core value, which means then as you look at them all, you get a little bit more of the heart of Wheaton. And that's why they're flourishing. They have been able to make a connection between their mission, their core values. They're so clear on that, and they're able to make a connection then to the people that are invited to join them in this cause. And not everyone is doing that.

Al: Yeah. No. That's great, Doug. In fact, you know, what is culture? Well, it's the way we do things around here. It’s a lot to do with the collective behavior of an organization. And having clear, defined core values is an important part for a healthy, even flourishing workplace culture.

And Doug, there's another organization that you wanted to mention, Denton Calvary Academy. Tell us a little bit about the Denton Calvary Academy.

Doug: We've just gotten to know Denton the last year or so, working with their head of school. She's actually a culture coach with the Herzog Foundation, which does a lot to support and catalyze Christian education. Andrea Chevalier is the head of school there, and she tells the story about how they unite employees and their faculty and even families around their core values. And they, too, prominently work those through conversations.

And what I loved about their story is how everyone feels heard. It's not a large school, but, you know, you can certainly have the same sort of challenges at any size of school. But they go to great lengths to make sure that employees have a sense of voice. And so, when they meet as a leadership team, they're constantly ensuring that the decisions that are being contemplated are cascaded down, and then, of course, the information is cascaded back up. So they feel like they've got a good sense of how employees are feeling about different decisions that are being thought of.

And I'll share with you, I had this opportunity. Over the last year or so, I was able to do just a process we call discovery groups, where we actually sit across the table, and we talked through areas from the Engagement Survey that might could use some work. And I had a chance to do that with 59 different groups and schools last year. And from that, I was actually doing this over the Christmas break, I was looking at the different responses I gathered from that, looking at the themes and patterns, and I had 2400 responses that I gathered from those discovery groups. And across those 2400, these were all from faculty and staff of Christian schools, and across that were really just three themes—2400 comments, just three themes. And they were, do I feel connected to that mission and those core values? Do I feel a sense of connection to what we're doing and why we're gathered to do it? And Wheaton and Denton and so many of the others prioritize that connection. They make that connection part of their senior leadership's prioritization. How they govern their time is all along the lines of trying to make sure that connection is solid.

The second theme is, do I feel heard? Did the employees feel like their ideas or suggestions are being sought? Do they feel like they have an opportunity to speak into things? Not to vote on things, but have a voice in things. And again, Wheaton and Denton do a fantastic job of making sure that constant dialog is happening up, down; down, up; vertically; you name it, they're doing it.

And the third theme, I don't think would surprise any of us. It's not unique to Christian ed, but what came out of those discovery groups is, do I feel valued? Is someone seeing what I'm doing? So, I spoke a minute ago about closing the classroom door and just let me do my thing. You know, I heard that so often. But those who are showing the value are going to great lengths to make sure that this thing, this compelling mission that we're connected to, how and what I'm doing right now, on a random afternoon, how is that rolling up to that mission? How's that connected to it? And thriving, flourishing schools are making that connection as well. And they're going out of their way to make sure they “catch someone doing something right.” And they're conveying that in everything from an all-hands meeting to a one-on-one meeting to a simple handwritten note. They’re using various and diverse ways to make sure that people know, you're being seen for what you are contributing to the mission.

And that goes a long way when you're in a line of work where, because of the growth we just talked about, you have far more to do, and you actually have, at the moment, at least, fewer resources to do it because compensation hasn't caught up, and many of these employees, even in flourishing schools, will tell me in a discovery group, “I can make more money per year with better benefits working at a fast-food restaurant that I pass by every morning on the way here.” And when I ask them, “Then, why aren't you pulling into that parking lot instead of this one?” they don't talk about being independent contractors. They don't talk about just keeping their door shut. They talk about that connection to something bigger than themselves that they believe in. And the flourishing schools know how to make that connection happen.

Al: Yeah. And that’s what we talk about, the intellectual and emotional connection with the organization. Yeah. Do I feel connected? Do I feel heard? Do I feel valued? Great input, Doug. Thanks so much, and we look forward to talking with you next year about the 2024 list of certified best Christian workplaces.

Doug: We’ll look forward to it.

Al: Next, let's check in with our consulting director, Giselle Jenkins. Giselle is going to highlight a couple of important Christian nonprofit sectors that we have the privilege to work with. First is a category called family services. This has been a rapidly growing sector for us over the last five years. In fact, we celebrate 20 certified family-service organizations, with over half of those in our flourishing category.

Giselle, would you like to describe one or two of these organizations and highlight a couple for us?

Giselle Jenkins: Absolutely, Al. The family-services organizations, as you mentioned, really have a flourishing culture. So many of them do. And I've asked myself, as I've worked with the different ones, you know, what is it about this kind of work? And I think it really is seeing the transformed lives that happen. Anywhere from social-work activity, adoption, pro-life organizations, they are serving very vulnerable population under stressful circumstances, but they're seeing lives transform. And it's fantastic work. And it is so life giving. And we see that life-giving work is a really important part of what they do. And I'd love to feature all of them, because there are so many that are fantastic and deserve a shout out, and we chose two to talk about today.

First one is Christian Family Care, and they are serving vulnerable children and families throughout the Phoenix area. And I like to talk about them because they have served faithfully, surveyed faithfully, and been healthy in their engagement now over the last number of years and all the way through the pandemic. And you think about the kind of work that they were doing during the pandemic, and you think of them continuing to step out and do that work, when a lot of people were in their homes, were separating from others, and this group kept on going. They kept on going, and they grew, and they kept their engagement very high. And I particularly appreciated the fact that they are so concerned about their employees’ feedback. They are listening to their employees. They are making changes every year to adjust to their employees’ needs. They're sensitive to things like how to have a remote worker have a say in what is going on, and they care about life balance. And where they really stand out is they involve employees in decisions that affect them. And that is very hard in a remote workforce, with multiple offices throughout a large state. So, proud of them and want to give them a shout out this year.

Al: Yeah. And I'll say a shout out to Mark Upton, who's been their long-time president, and just continually comes back year after year to make sure that he understands exactly the health of their culture. That's just great, Giselle.

And now let's talk about another one of our ministry partners.

Giselle: All right. So we want to talk about 4Kids, and that's the number four, the number four Kids. And 4Kids is throughout the state of Florida. They started out as a local organization with the goal to make sure that every child that was put into the foster-care system could be placed in a Christian home. And they have been remarkably successful at this. They have partnered with all kinds of community operations. If you’ve met Kevin Enders or you've listened to our podcast with Kevin, you know that Kevin has a passion and a vision, and he surrounds himself with a team and listens to them. And they've grown and grown.

And what we find when organizations grow is it's hard to maintain engagement when you're growing a lot, but they certainly have, and they're very high within this high, high sector that we have. And what’s remarkable about their organization is that between ‘22 and ‘23, their organization grew 20%, and they have, at the time, 122 employees, and they don't have a single employee who's disengaged, not a single employee that says, “It's miserable working here.” And zero is a hard number to get at, isn't it, Al? So, very proud of them for caring across all their locations and departments, caring for each one of their employees and doing it in a high-growth environment.

Al: Yeah. Yeah, they started off there in Fort Lauderdale. And again, their focus is entirely on South Florida, they call it. And east and west coasts and have had a remarkable job expanding to serve those kids.

Well, Giselle, another sector that we do a lot of work with is rescue missions. And this year we're celebrating over a dozen certified rescue missions, and nearly half of those are following and reaching the flourishing category. So, on our list are some of the largest rescue missions in the country, and several of them we've served for many years. So, what are some of the highlights in the 2023 list of certified best Christian workplaces?

Giselle: Well, this particular group, once again, we can parallel their work to the family-services organizations in the sense that this is frontline work. This is work with a very vulnerable population. It's work that needed to continue through difficult strains of pandemic, inflation, not being able to fill your jobs. All the things that all the organizations that are listening to this podcast went through, they went through it, too, but they went through it working with vulnerable individuals. So, add another level, right, of complexity. And we want to talk about a couple that stand out this year.

And the first we want to talk about is the Seattle Union Gospel Mission. And their mission had a four-year journey to what we call flourishing. And flourishing is when organizations have a score of 4.25 or above on their Engagement Survey. And when we started working with them and their CEO, Scott Chin, Scott says, “My goal is to be flourishing, and we're going to get there.” And lovely words to hear, right, from people at BCW, we love hearing those words because we know this partner is committed, and they have been committed. They've also grown. You all have heard of the kind of stressors that Seattle has had as a city, and they've grown in the expansion of their operations. They've grown in their staff size. And they did, in four years, they created that flourishing journey. So, we're very proud of them. We're proud that they committed to a goal. We're proud that they have supported their employees across just these variables that we've been talking about. And we're happy to feature them today.

Al: Yeah. And that's an example, Giselle. And I know they're in my backyard, where they had a reputation of just having high turnover and a poor culture and how Scott—and congratulations to Scott Chin, who came in and as you say, within four years, took it from a less-than-healthy culture to one that is now flourishing. So, Seattle's Union Mission. Yeah. Congratulations, Scott.

Well, now that we've talked about the Seattle's Union Gospel Mission, how about another one, Giselle, as one of the ones you've worked with this year?

Giselle: Yes, Al, I am glad to talk about The City Mission. City Mission’s in Cleveland, Ohio. They are also a large rescue mission, and they have surveyed with us for two years. They came to us in 2022, and we are happy to note that they had hit the healthy mark. They were certified a best Christian workplace, and at the same time, they had a number of things to work on. A key to improving engagement in your organization is the enthusiasm and commitment of leaders. No shock there. And their leader, Linda Uveges is just a remarkable person, and she has been on a podcast with us. Look that up. It's U-V-E-G-E-S, and she has been there a couple of years now and has a passion for their organization and employee engagement. They took several strong steps to build employee engagement in 2023, and within one year, they became a flourishing best Christian workplace. And one of the key tools that they used to do that was communication. And when they first surveyed with us, they were below our benchmark for communication. And I talked with them and explained that our healthy-communication driver is a magnificent way to improve overall employee engagement, effective strategy, provide life-giving work. They worked on that, and they had a remarkable improvement all the way to the 90th percentile in communication, and they moved to the flourishing category. So, we're very proud of The City Mission.

Al: Great. Yeah. I love Linda's testimony that she gave on our podcast, and I encourage our listeners to go back to that.

And Giselle, you've also worked with many of our 42 parachurch and mission organizations that are certified in 2023. This is one of our key groups that we've had since our founding over 20 years ago, and it's a big group. So, would you highlight a couple of the 2023 standouts for us, Giselle?

Giselle: Yeah. I'd like to talk about one of our international groups in the parachurch-nonprofit area, and that is a group called Edify, who has their headquarters in San Diego, and their CEO is Tiger Dawson. And we have worked with Edify now over the last five years. And they have a story of helping Christian education throughout the world, with a special emphasis in Central and South America and the continent of Africa. And like other organizations I've been talking about, they continued their work through the pandemic, and they continued to support these Christian leaders of small Christian schools, forming Christian schools, medium-sized Christian schools, helping them to become better teachers, better leaders, better school administrators, find the funding. And they just have a passion for Christian schooling. And they've grown and grown and grown. And during this time, they've grown their engagement to this remarkable level of over 90% of their employees are engaged. And for an organization that has more than 100 employees, that's unheard of, to have a level of 90% engagement. And imagine their footprint is all over the world, and they still have this level of engagement across languages, across cultures, across, you know, critical world incidents that have happened, they've still been able to do that.

And one of the ways they do that is by high levels of accountability. And they have had their senior leaders do 360s and their regional leaders do 360s, and they've created a whole leadership-development program around that, emphasizing their core values, emphasizing the spiritual nature of their work. And through that passion and commitment, they've attained this level that is remarkable for any size organization, but especially for an international organization of their size.

Al: Well, that's great news, Giselle. Thanks. And thanks so much for your great work.

Giselle: Absolutely.

Al: Thanks so much for listening to my conversation with our consultants. I hope you enjoyed it as much as I did.

And you can find out ways to connect with them and links to everything we talked about in the show notes and transcript at workplaces.org/podcast.

And if you have any suggestions for me about our podcast or have any questions on flourishing workplace cultures, please email me, al@workplaces.org.

And leaders, if you want to improve your leadership, expand your organization's impact for good, and see greater faithfulness in our broader culture, help us achieve our goal to see more flourishing Christian-led workplaces. To help, please share this podcast with another leader or launch a project in your own organization to discover and improve the health of your workplace culture. If you're interested in learning more, go to workplaces.org and request a sample report.

Outro: The Flourishing Culture Leadership Podcast is sponsored by Best Christian Workplaces. If you need support building a flourishing workplace culture, please visit workplaces.org for more information.

We'll see you again next week for more valuable content to help you develop strong leaders and build a flourishing workplace culture.

Al: And our guest next week, you're not going to want to miss Michael Craven. Michael’s a vice president of Equipping & Mobilization for the Colson Center and is a leader of the well-known Colson Fellows program on Christian worldview. You won't want to miss it.