I find it ever-amazing how often the questions I get asked by readers match up with things I’m going through at the time. In the last few months, I’ve had several people ask me how to hire technical staff. Those questions have led to a few phone calls and some interesting discussions. And here I am this week, in the interview process to hire a new ATD. God sightings anyone?
As I thought about this article, I’ve decided to break it up into two smaller ones. This post will focus on adding additional technical staff to a team. I’m assuming a TD is in place and he or she is hiring an ATD, an audio director, video director, etc.. Later this week I’ll share some thoughts on hiring a TD.
The TD/ATD relationship is perhaps one of the closest ones on a church staff. Few other staff members will spend as much time together—both good times and under great pressure—than the TD/ATD. For this reason, I first look for someone who I really believe I can get along with. If you wouldn’t want to just hang out with a candidate for the job, you should think long and hard before hiring them.
Yes, you will be his/her boss; but trust me, you’ll both get a lot more done, with a lot less stress if you can get along really well. I have people applying for this job that I like, but not enough to spend 80 hours with them during Christmas Production week. Think that through.
Because I’m now an “old guy,” I intentionally seek out younger guys that I can build into. I’ve learned a lot in 20+ years of live production, and enjoy sharing that knowledge with others. There is no greater joy for me than seeing people who work with and for me become better at this stuff than I am. But that can only happen when they desire to learn. I can teach technical skills, but I cannot create a hunger for learning them.
Yes, we’re all unique individuals and have our own viewpoints. But at the end of the day, we need to be able to move as a cohesive unit. Thus, any successful ATD candidate will be someone I believe will fit right in with the team.
This could either be the first or the last point (it’s probably both). I spend a lot of time in prayer asking the Lord who he wants me to hire. When I hired Isaiah, I was awake for 3-4 hours a night for a week talking this through with God. I had two good candidates, who each brought a unique perspective to the job. I honestly believe I made the right choice, and we’ve had a great, great year.
This time around, as soon as he told me he was considering moving on, I began to ask the Lord to suggest possible replacements. I’ve already been praying for a month about this, and will continue to do so until the offer letter is signed.
Ultimately, God is assembling a team of people at our church to work together to do what He’s called us to do. He’s doing the same at your church. Don’t miss that point. Sometimes the best candidate is the most unlikely (remember David?). When we add staff with clear direction from our ultimate boss, it will go well with us.
I could go on, but I’ll stop here. What factors do you consider important when adding staff?
Next time, we'll talk about hiring a technical director.