Transcript: Finding and Retaining the Best Talent for Your Organization // Craig Springer, Alpha USA

The Flourishing Culture Podcast Series

“Finding and Retaining the Best Talent for Your Organization // Craig Springer, Alpha USA“

December 6, 2021

Craig Springer

Intro: Many Christian organizations are working to build their workplace culture to keep our best talent from leaving. Part of the challenge has to do with employees working remotely. And in today's episode we focus on how Alpha USA has built a flourishing workplace culture while having a 100 percent remote staff. Listen in.

Al Lopus: Hi, I'm Al Lopus, and you're listening to the Flourishing Culture Podcast, where we help you create a flourishing workplace. The problem employers are facing today is that more of our employees are quitting than ever before. Some people are calling this the great resignation. And now with millions of open jobs, how can churches, Christian non-profits, and Christian-owned businesses face this tidal wave of resignations while attracting new, outstanding talent? And we know that having a flourishing workplace with fully engaged employees is the solution. I'll be your guide today as we talk with a thought leader about key steps that you can take to create a flourishing workplace culture.

So, now let's meet today's special guest.

As a leader, you need to recruit and retain a high-quality team to help your organization achieve its mission. And having the right people on your team is always important, but now there are some trends that make recruiting and retaining employees even more challenging, and those are issues that we're going to address today. And I'm delighted to welcome Craig Springer, who's the executive director of Alpha USA. Welcome, Craig.

Craig Springer: Thank you, Al. So good to be with you again. And I know we've worked a lot together over the years and love this additional opportunity together.

Al: I am looking forward to our conversation, Craig. And I appreciate the insight and the expertise that you bring and that I know our listeners will enjoy it as well.

So, speaking of listeners, tell us a little bit about Alpha and how your organization serves the Kingdom overall and maybe include a story of transformation that our listeners might like to hear.

Craig: Yeah. We're passionate about people coming into a relationship with Jesus, and we do that by equipping and serving the church in their mission to lead people to Jesus. And really, Alpha is a conversation series over eight to ten weeks, based in community, based around the concept of listening to people who have questions and doubts about faith, and then introducing them to Jesus along the way. And I was just in New York City with a pastor friend of ours, Drew Hyun, who leads Hope New York City. And he was just telling me of a story. A gentleman named Chris, who, literally, is walking by their church building during the COVID pandemic. I'm sorry; it was just before the COVID pandemic. And he heard all this activity going on, and he stuck his head in the door, and it was Alpha. So he said, “Hey, come on in.” And he gave it a shot. And he revealed, “I've never really explored faith. I don't really know what to think about it.” And he kept coming back for the meals and, ultimately, the great conversation. He said yes to Jesus. He then became the volunteer tech director—he was sort of a tech expert—that led all of their church services into kind of the tech era of COVID and launching an online digital Alpha community. And then he facilitated a group that a guy named John trusted in Jesus as well. And then Chris transitioned from tech volunteer to have John starting to lead it. And so now you’ve got these guys embedded in the local church, using their gifts, saying yes to Christ through this challenging pandemic. Pretty powerful stuff.

Al: That is. And I have a couple of friends who have come to faith because of Alpha, and I'm so appreciative.

So, when you first started with Alpha, Craig—this is a great story—you engaged Best Christian Workplaces Institute to do an Employee Engagement Survey. And as I recall the story, it was even before you started officially, or you had accepted, been accepted, and took the job, but you wanted to have a snapshot of the employee engagement on your desk, kind of, like, the first day. So why was that important to you?

Craig: Yeah. Facts are our friends. I wanted to see and understand reality and create a baseline from which we could work towards. And I have not found, Al, a tool easier and more accurate to get a window into employee engagement in a Christian setting than Best Christian Workplaces Institute, and I thank you for that. And it helped me understand not just the strategic or operational needs of the organization, but the morale; the spiritual temperature; the trust; the ability for communication, healthy communication, conflict resolution to be happening on our team. And so it really gave me that window into reality that I needed.

Al: Wow. So thanks for those insights, Craig. So, spiritual insights, even, in addition to morale, in addition to those other things, yeah, right.

So, from your own experience at Alpha, what’s some of the key practices that you're using and have used to build your team? You’re a remote organization. You were even remote before COVID. So how are you recruiting great people and keeping them even in this tight labor market?

Craig: We primarily work with and through churches, so our teammates are on the ground across the country, engaging church leaders, engaging church volunteers, who participate in Alpha. So in some sense, it's a little bit unfair because we get people who fall in love with the mission of our ministry and who can see its impact, but before they're submitting a resume or filling out a job application. But I think there's something to that. You think of a farming analogy. The seeds for next year's harvest are coming from this year's harvest.

Al: Yeah.

Craig: And as leaders of organizations, we really—and I'm sure this is intuitive to most leaders—but you're really looking at who's benefited from the mission and the impact, that we know that already flows through their veins, that we can talk to. Those are the people we have access to. Now having said that, we haven't shied away from asking around, asking referrals. Either we're recruiting directly from those who've done Alpha or we're asking those people, kind of create a sense of tribe with broad-level communication and really kind of seeking input from your tribe for either those people or for referrals.

We've also used recruiters for significant roles that we maybe don't have a network for. I think of our kind of donor-development roles are some that came in mind. We've also used outsource admin firms when we need sort of quick solutions. But in both those cases, I've grown very clear that the mission is what sparks interest. The impact is what gets people to stay at the table. Like, “Wow. This is actually working. It's not just a good idea.” But what really seals the deal in every hiring scenario is the culture. And so we try to expose people to the culture by doing an inordinate amount of interviews. It's kind of a running joke how many interviews we do with people. It's not just as much that we get to know them; it’s that we want them to also get to know us.

And that was just kind of a long answer. But we've taken the time—and have mentioned this in another podcast with you—to write out and codify what we call our staff operating values. Those are the cultural commitments we make in working with one another on the team. We post those on our job description. We also use those as our performance-evaluation tools. And people are genuinely drawn to wanting to work not just in a high-impact organization, but a high-culture organization as well.

Al: Wow. So staff operating values. Give us an example or two, Craig. Can you think of a couple off the top of your head?

Craig: Yeah. I mean, spiritual vitality is one of them. I think everyone can connect with that. We have a little description. It's not that you're perfect, but it's that you're always intentionally growing. We talk about trust and trustworthiness. I've used Andy Stanley’s talks on that, and so we talk about what that trust and trustworthiness means.

We talk about holy ambition. So we're ambitious, but we do it in a godly way, where we lay down our needs for personal ambition or for unhealthy ambition that drives people to burn out, but where we see the Lord at work. And it's all categorized in four kind of—character, culture, chemistry, and competence.

Al: Yeah. Love it. Yeah. So, culture seals the deal.

Craig: Culture seals the deal, and it makes people stick. No question about it.

Al: Well, we’ve been saying that, these last few months, because, you know, one of the trends that we're hearing about in the workplace is called the great resignation, where nearly half of all employees are actively seeking a new employment opportunity, according to Gallup's research. And, of course, employee engagement is a key to keeping the people you already have in your organization. So how are you and your team at Alpha addressing employee retention?

Craig: Yeah. And I couldn't agree with those stats more and your approach, that it's engagement of culture that keeps people around. I don't think people are inspired anymore just by mission or even by impact. I think everyone's looking at their lives, saying, “Life is difficult, and my family needs me, and I need to be in a place that feels me with joy and people that show me that they care.”

So, we are distributed remotely, so in some ways it's more difficult. But we do tons of intentional team time on Zoom. We've really leaned into how to create fun experiences. We have weekly, and then—those are mandatory—and then we have optional daily prayer times. We're leading people in devotional space. Every one of our managers is committed to a regular one on one with their team. Part of their job is to check in personally in those one on ones. They're not just talking business. We're trying to create a spiritual community. We're not necessarily just hiring workers to get the job done. And I think they feel that. Because we're distributed, we invest a lot annually in a one-week staff retreat. We also have a one-week kind of conference. Every year, we release funds for department leaders to pull together special retreats for their teams. And we'll occasionally send kind of small-ask kind of people. We just do what we can for people to know that they're cared for and have time to connect with each other.

Al: Yeah. We found that one on ones is really a key vehicle, a key way, to keep distributed people connected to the organization through their manager. That's a great idea, as well as the others: weekly prayer, really critical forming spiritual community together. That's what people are looking for, something deeper than a job, as you say. Yeah.

So, has your team made changes in the past few years in your performance-management or feedback process to invest in people and even help coach them along with their growth paths? This is a topic that we often hear about.

Craig: Yes. I mentioned the staff operating values. We built our entire performance conversation around the staff operating values. And maybe at hire level, we have and measure the what and the how. We say what you accomplish is very important, but how you accomplish it is equally as important. And so our performance-evaluation structure is the what. And the what is a one page, the top-three goals that you've had for this year for your job, and then objectively give feedback as to what was achieved and what wasn't, related to those goals, and then get a score: either exceeds expectations, meets expectations, or below expectations.

But then, the remaining four pages of this experience are the how, and it's our staff operating values. One is on character, one is on culture, one's on chemistry, and one's on competence. And so we're embedding the cultural values and reiterating them through each performance conversation. We do sort of a mid-year check in around those as well. It's been huge for us.

Al: Yeah. What and how? You know, there's a lot of organizations that will just focus on the what. Then, there's a lot of broken glass, or whatever you call, behind how that what gets accomplished and really diminishes your team's effectiveness and the culture, for sure.

Craig: Yeah. It's a pitfall on the other side, too, because if you're only really caring about souls and—which is important—

Al: Yeah.

Craig: —but the how, then we just have a lot of feel goods in a room, and we're not going anywhere and doing anything about it. So it's really the both/and.

Al: Yeah, it is. Yeah.

I trust you’re enjoying our podcast today. We’ll be right back after an important word for leaders.

Female: As we come through the COVID-19 crisis, leaders everywhere are asking, how do we understand the tensions our employees are experiencing coming back to work? How do we keep our employees engaged, hold on to our best talent, and position ourselves to thrive as an organization going forward? If you're looking for a way forward, the Best Christian Workplaces Institute can guide you onto the road to a flourishing workplace.

The first step to begin the journey is our well-known Employee Engagement Survey. This proven online tool pinpoints where your organization is already strong and where you can improve your employees’ workplace experience, resulting in more productive people. That's right. You'll have more engaged, productive, and fulfilled people. Time-consuming guesswork won't get you there. Instead, let us help you with a fact-based, hope-inspiring action plan that only our Employee Engagement Survey and skillful coaching can provide. Sign up now to begin the journey to build a flourishing workplace culture and a thriving organization. Find out more at bcwinstitute.org.

Al: And now, back to today’s special guest.

One thing that the pandemic has taught us, that work doesn't have to be limited to one geographic area. And as you mentioned, you're really distributed across the country. So how does the availability of remote work, how has it impacted your ability to attract talent? Has Alpha already, with your dispersed workforce, have you expanded your geographic-region recruiting more recently? What would you say?

Craig: It has been so helpful for us to release the proximity question. I mean, first of all, we don't have a high capital expense because we don't have some big office building somewhere. But we truly can recruit across the nation. And for those who have kind of a national scale role with us, we're really just kind of looking, are they near a major airport? And we really haven't moved any one of our senior leadership team members. One I can think of only, but other than that. So yes. So sort of the nation is available to us when it comes to recruiting. And it's so helpful because you don’t have to uproot families and systems and local networks. Now, we do have local or regional Alpha leaders, and we do need to recruit from within that region for those teammates. But all of our central support functions, all of our national level roles can live anywhere. And it gives a ton of flexibility. It's a lot less expensive.

Al: Yeah.

Craig: And in time, we've found that we do start to cluster teams in recruitment. It's almost a naturally occurring possibility because people know people in and around their areas, and then it's been helpful to begin to focus in on cluster teams, where they can have some in-person time together.

Al: I like that idea, clustering teams. So, obviously, they’re not clustered in a building but within an area so they can have closer access to each other if they need it.

Craig: I should add that we’re, again, we’re very intentional to do in-person activities with leadership-team retreats, executive-team retreats, staff and department retreats. We leverage those. And then often we're doing it for travel, and we're doing work, and we're very immersed time together. So I actually feel like I get just as much face-to-face time with our teammates, even though we're remote, as maybe if we were working in the same building. It's not as often, but it's as immersive, and the connections are there to get the work done and build relationships.

Al: Yeah. So you're investing in getting people together, partially because you're in a remote work situation.

That really leads to the next question. So what are some ways that you and your team have invested in the growth from within? How are you raising up the next generation of leaders at Alpha?

Craig: Well, thankfully, we're part of a global family, Alpha, and we've been able to coalesce with the global family, an emerging-leaders cohort, and different global leaders that own different parts of that. But they're already staff members that we see a high potential. And they're paired up with mentors who may be further down the road in their own development. They're walking through personal assessments. They're walking through creating action plans for growth areas, community, et cetera. That's huge. That can take some investment, sort of like an internal training and residency program.

But we've built a monthly managers’ training rhythm into our calendar. Generally, it's anyone who has supervisory responsibility, and, generally, we're walking through a book over a few months. We do it kind of slowly and unpacking that together and really trying to create upskill for all of our managers. As some have said, you know, people join organizations, but they leave managers.

Al: Yeah.

Craig: So a bad manager, even in an amazing organization, will cause someone to resign. And so the greatest gift we can give our whole team is investing training in managers who are overseeing people. And then, we also are really building into our pipeline of relationships that are—we call them hub churches, which are sort of our best-practice Alpha churches, where we give them kind of premier-level coaching and support. And that is often where we find our best people.

Al: That’s interesting, Craig, that here we are in COVID, and you're working with your managers. You’re still doing monthly manager training, or I shouldn’t say still, but that's an important part of your development for your managers.

Craig: Yeah. We might take December off. We might take that off.

Al: Okay, yeah. Right.

Do you have any titles of the books that you've worked with that have been particularly good?

Craig: Yeah, I got it right here. We're just going through—we just did this: The Making of a Manager by Julie Zhuo. I probably pronounced that wrong. That's phenomenal of a baseline, here's what good management looks like.

Al: Yeah.

Craig: And she comes from a corporate background, but really helpful. I think that's been the best single volume primer that we've used. We've gone through Henry Cloud's Boundaries for Leaders. Again, that’s such an essential. You know, the takeaway there is you get what you create and what you allow. So when you're looking at culture, if there's problems under your team, the leader's responsibility is to say, “Either I created that or I've allowed it. And I need to step in to create a new solution.”

We're going to start crucial conversations in January 13. In the past, I've gone through a Ruth Haley Barton’s, I think it's, like, Rediscovering the Soul of Leadership.

Al: Yeah.

Craig: I can't remember the exact title. But really helpful, too, because you really don't need to invest in expensive consultant training. Now, for those of you who are getting consultant training, I love it, but if you don't have those resources, just get a book like this, and just split it up maybe over three months and do a third at a time and have good conversation, and it moves the ball forward.

Al: Yeah. That's great. Thank you for those practical ideas.

You know, at a grassroots level, Craig, the Alpha ministry uses many volunteers—you've already mentioned that—even hub churches. And you also have experience in church leadership as we've worked together in previous situations. I know that some ministries are struggling to get their volunteers active again since the pandemic. I mean, a lot have just backed off because of the pandemic. So what are some of the ways that you're getting leaders to volunteer, recruit, and even retain them once you've learned about them over the years?

Craig: I think one of the benefits for Alpha hosts and helpers is the role is very clearly defined—

Al: Ah.

Craig: —the training is available and simple, and the commitment is also boundaried. So we're saying eight to ten weeks, with one or two trainings, to show up for two hours. We're going to give you exactly what you need in order to accomplish this task. And then, its boundaried by a time commitment, not just for a night, but it's eight to ten weeks. You're not going to sign your life away. You know, you don't have to make best friends with every other volunteer there just to try this. And it's also a very frontline role where they're getting to interact with the life change in the groups and/or pray for it. So I think simple, clear, boundaried asks are essential right now, especially. If you're in a church and you’re recruiting for kids’ ministry, “Hey, we need people for this three months, for this three-hour chunk of time, three times a month, and that's it.”

And then, of course, communicating value along the way, helping them see the difference they're making. I always say that the currency of our ministry are testimonies, and you can pay people back with testimonies. Let them see and hear about the life change that's happening through your ministry, and be very intentional about paying them with the power of testimony.

Al: That’s fascinating. Yeah, I love that. The testimonies are the currency of the ministry. I was just signing a certificate of an organization that's a flourishing church, probably 40 employees. And six years ago, they were in a terribly toxic situation. And to see the transformation of their culture and the testimony of that culture just gives our staff such encouragement to get to—

Craig: Yeah. I mean, isn’t that great? All the lives, all those employees, all their families, all the impact that they’re having in the community, you guys are a part of that. It’s powerful.

Al: Yeah. It's just one example. I know exactly what you're saying, yeah.

So, wow. Well, Craig, we've learned so much from our conversation. Thanks so much. You know, as I just even look back at what we've talked about, I love the idea that—it started right off—facts are our friends, and how do we know the truth of a situation unless we get some facts? And sometimes, you know, as you heard, probably five years ago, that you weren't necessarily happy with the facts, but they were facts, and you could work with them, and you were able to move things forward, and I love the idea of how, certainly, we need to, as we address this great resignation. We talk a lot about mission, we talk a lot about impact, but its culture that seals the deal. And we do need to have staff values, as you call your staff operating values, and make sure that those are clear, and the way you've integrated those into your performance conversations of not only what is expected and what's accomplished in a role, but how they accomplish those things is really great. And some of your ways of really reinforcing your culture of weekly prayer or having one-on-one meetings, having and creating spiritual community and investing in relationships through staff retreats and so on has just been great. And I love what you said about volunteers, and I know a lot of our leaders that are listening to our podcast are working with volunteers. And I love your simple formula of define the roles, make sure they have training, and clear boundaries is what's expected. And you kind of made a little point there. You need to ask volunteers to volunteer, oftentimes.

Craig: That’s right. You’ve got to ask.

Al: You’ve got to ask. And ask on a one-on-one basis.

Well, is there anything else you’d like to add, Craig, that we haven’t talked about?

Craig: Well, Al, you know, I've been able to facilitate under your and your team’s support really kind of cultural transformation at three different organizations from kind of unhealthy or less healthy into flourishing. And my number one take away from this is you really can change culture.

Al: Yeah.

Craig: There is no hopeless situation. There's no hopeless team. Now, maybe it's true some of the teammates need to transition as part of that process. That's not always the solution, for sure. And it's not just taking the Engagement Survey. The meekness is in following through regularly with an action plan. And it doesn't have to be comprehensive, either. It can be narrowly focused. And I'm just more convinced than ever that we can get a clear understanding of our culture, and we can change it through a clear action plan.

Al: Craig Springer, executive director of Alpha USA, thanks so much for your contribution. And most of all, I appreciate your devotion and service to our loving God and helping so many people connect with the good news of Jesus through Alpha. Thanks for taking your time out today and speaking into lives of so many listeners. Thanks, Craig.

Craig: Thank you so much, Al.

Outro: Thank you for joining us on the Flourishing Culture Podcast and for investing this time in your workplace culture. If there's a specific insight, story, or action step you've enjoyed, please share it with others so they can benefit, too. Please share this podcast with friends on social media, and show your support by rating, reviewing, and subscribing wherever you listen.

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Remember, a healthy workplace culture drives greater impact and growth for your organization. We'll see you again soon on the Flourishing Culture Podcast.