Hello Personnel Committees: When We Treat Our Staff Well, Amazing Things Happen

Dan Price of Gravity Payments (a credit card processing company based in Seattle) is one of my heroes.  Three years ago, he made it company policy that the minimum wage in his organization would be 70,000 annually – which is a liveable income in Seattle.

“He didn’t intend to change the world” according to this article, but other companies paid attention.  When we treat our colleagues well, the organization benefits too.

Why?  You know why:

1. People perform better when they are appreciated.
2. People enjoy working with teams of trustworthy, encouraging, generous colleagues and supervisors, and happy staff = happy organization.
3. It’s easier to hire  people when the office has the reputation for being a healthy place.
4. Retention rates are high in happy organizations.

Although it’s self-serving, paying staff members generously (in salaries or benefits) might just increase profits as it has done for Gravity, Pharmalogics Recruiting, and Tower Paddleboards. (Read the article.)

For non-profits, money is often tight – yes – but there are other ways a church or denominational staff might know they are appreciated:  grant bonus days off, throw a surprise appreciation luncheon, give a small gift card after an especially difficult project or season.

If you find yourself on a Church or denominational Personnel Committee, ask yourselves:

• Do we know what’s going on for the staff members we oversee?
• What do they love about their work?
• What’s driving them crazy?
• What’s each staff member’s favorite beverage/ice cream?
• Do we respond promptly when they have requests?
• Are we keeping them in the loop?
• When was the last time we said “thank you”?

Occasionally we in the Church take our best people for granted. Yes, we seek to hire and be servant leaders.  But the One whom we ultimately serve was quite lavish with the love.

Image of Gravity CEO and White Jesus lookalike Dan Price.