The Church Answers Podcast
#161 How the Work-from-Anywhere Movement Has Impacted Churches: Part 2, The Accountability Issue
Welcome to the Church Answers Podcast presented by Chaney & Associates. Chaney & Associates are the accounting firm for the church. Now get ready for fast-paced insights on key issues affecting the local church today. We release three episodes each week, so make sure you've seen or heard them all. And now, here is the CEO of Church Answers, Tom Rayner. We're taking three episodes to talk about the work from anywhere movement, particularly as it applies to churches. If you did not hear the previous episode, episode number 160, go back and listen to that one and you'll have opportunity or watch it on YouTube. You'll see how we kind of divided up between the ministry workers, the non-ministry among the non-ministry who has to be present, who doesn't have to be, and then how you decide which there is no easy way to decide, which brings us to this point. I feel like I'm talking so quickly, but brings us to this point. Let's talk about the accountability when someone does not work on site. You know, most of my working life, I worked in an office. I was a banker. In fact, I probably shouldn't have done it, but I made my first loan when I was 14 years old. Made an automobile loan to someone. I still remember that person who I'm not going to call out their name because they're still living. But I made a loan when I was 14 years old. I was in a bank building and I continued in the banking industry and worked in a bank in Atlanta, out of a bank in Birmingham, and I was in an office. The only time I was out of the office was to go call on a customer outside the office. And so working in the office was just what you did. There was, believe it or not, for some of you young people, there was no internet back then. We could not transmit by Zoom or some other meeting vehicle. And so we met, we were always in the office. That's what was expected of us. And so you could see if someone was working, at least you could see if someone was present. They may not have been working, but at least you could tell they were there. The work from anywhere movement has been a boon for many organizations. Church is included and by a boon, I mean, it's been very helpful. You're able to get people that you could not get before. You're able to hire people from remote states and in some cases, remote countries. You're able to find a match that maybe you could not find within your local community. There are many good things about the work from anywhere movement that have been extremely positive. But what I'm watching right now is there's a little bit of a pendulum swing. Some of the pendulum swing is where businesses in particular and churches are saying, you better get back in the office now. There are different reasons for that. There's the desire to have in-person collaboration. There's the desire to have the presence of someone where everything from body language to how we communicate beyond the digital media can take place. And so all of these things, it's not a backlash that's going to do away with the work from anywhere movement, but there is somewhat of that and it's impacting churches. So what happened during the pandemic is where everybody went home. Pastors, part-time staff, full-time staff, they all went home. And when the pandemic, when it was declared that the churches could reopen, a lot of people had gotten accustomed to working from anywhere, sometimes, many times the home, and they did not want to go back to the way that you stood. Now, here's the question. How does someone remain accountable if they are working remotely? And that could be someone out of town, like an assistant working for you. It could be someone like your student minister who is doing a lot of the work from home that could be done anywhere. So it could be someone living in the area or someone well outside of the area. But how does accountability take place during the work from anywhere movement, particularly with ministry staff? And let me say a word about ministry staff. There are basically two types of people that respond to the work from anywhere movement. One is the workaholic. That would be 10 to 20% of ministry staff. So ministry staff, there are some that when you don't have accountability built in, they're going to work too much. I have a son, maybe three sons, who are that way. That 60, 70, 80 hour a week is just not unusual for them, it's just who they are. That is not bragging rights, it's just simply to say that someone probably raised them wrong and they want their mother. But they're the ones that you have to pull back in and you have to say, now look, you've got to life outside of your vocation, pull back in. Then there's another group and I'd say 80 to 90% and it's everybody else. And within that everybody else is not workaholic. You have some people that have balanced and they're truly putting in the hours, but they're not workaholics, but they're putting in their accountable hours and they're doing well. But also within that group are the slackers. And they're the people because you're not watching them, unless you have some type of, I would hate the thought of having some type of computer monitoring that creates probably a whole other big brother type of attitude and feel. But unless you have some type of monitoring system, which you're really not effective, these people, you have to trust them that they're putting in the hours. Now for sure, they can turn in their hours, they can punch a clock if you will and demonstrate what they have done on the clock. And maybe that's needed at times, I mean, maybe that is one thing with some of the church staff that we need, but it's not just about the hours, it's also about the effectiveness within the hours. Once someone gets outside the accountability of people being around them, peers, supervisors, and others, once they get out of that, it's not that they just may work fewer hours, it may be that they work less effectively because they're not influenced or energized by the presence of others. So what have we started encouraging church leaders to do? Well, it's okay to ask, you know, tell us what you've done this week from a quantitative hourly point of view. But another thing we've done is we've encouraged churches that are allowing some of their people to work outside of the office to have these people say, let me tell you the ministry that I've done this past week. And that ministry should have implicit hours with it. But even more than that, it should have effective hours with it. And I think we're going to see that more and more instead of just, hey, check off this list and do these things, we'll be asking the question, are you working as effectively as possible? Because one of the things I see from the work from anywhere movement, whether someone who lives within the community and is working from home or someone who lives way outside the community in another town, state, maybe even nation, is that the quantitative work is fairly easy to account for if they just turn in their hours, but is the effectiveness of those hours being monitored, not in a big brother type of way, but for the good of that person, that employee. I think that we're going to see more and more of this. I think that we're going to see more of trying our best to measure the effectiveness of those who we cannot see when they're doing their hours. I think it's going to take place in business, I think it's going to take place in churches. And I think it's going to be an adjustment to the work from anywhere movement. We'll continue to monitor this. I'm watching some companies do it, some corporations that mean that that should transfer into the church. But at least it's given us an idea that some of these things that have happened. We've had a massive change when we had the pandemic work from anywhere was was an incipient movement before COVID came along. But since then, it's been a massive change. And we're trying to figure out how we're going to adjust to this without just letting the pendulum swing back totally the other way. Because guess what? It won't. This movement is here to stay. So let's figure out a way to work with it. Let's figure out a way that we can be accountable with it. Let's figure out a way that we can be effective with it. And I think that's the key to what you'll be hearing in the days ahead. If you have anything that you can share with us about the work from anywhere movement, how it's working in your church, if it's being done, what objections you may have to it, just shooting out to info with church answers. And we'll get it and we'll read it and may even read it on the air as well. Thank you as always for being a part of the church answers podcast. Remember, you YouTube watchers, those of you who are watching us on YouTube, subscribe to us. Give us a give us a good thumbs up there. For those of you who are on your podcasting out, whichever it may be, give us a rating and review. Let the world know that we're here. And by the way, tell Chaney and Associates how much you appreciate them. And do so by giving them a call because they are the accounting firm for the church. You need to get to know them. Boy, once the church starts working with Chaney and Associates, they do not leave. Grateful for them. I'm grateful for you. I'm grateful that we're in this new time and season, but we can figure out what God is doing. And we can be His most effective disciples. I'm going to take one more episode of the work from anywhere movement. And I'm going to talk about call savings in this movement. We'll talk about that in the final three episodes. I'll see you there. 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