Video Transcript: "Recruiting"

In this first video on the subject of human resources management, we're going  to dive into the topic of recruiting. So why do we even need to bring people onto  our teams and our companies? And I think this is really going to resonate,  particularly with those of you who are solopreneurs. Maybe the you're the only  person in your company, maybe you sort of have this self employed mindset  right now. Maybe it's out of necessity. You're trying to get things going until you  can get enough revenue to hire people. But especially, and I can totally relate to  that, it wasn't long ago before I finally just bit the bullet and started hiring people  on to do various tasks for my company. But one of the key reasons is because,  first of all, you're going to be much more efficient as a company, and you're  going to be able to speed up your output and produce more value in the  marketplace when you have more people who can do the work, and you're also  able to help those people then discover and develop the gifts and callings that  God has given to them, which is a key aspect of discipleship, and this is really  one of the key areas that that God is interested in. What as it relates to  discipleship in the marketplace, is the way that we manage human resources  and so from a biblical standpoint, and this is going back to what we talked about  a few videos ago on the subject of management and how this enlarges our  capacity for our companies as we divide the labor and delegate the work to be  done. And this is the biblical pattern, starting with God himself in the way that he delegated the responsibilities in the garden to Adam, subdue the earth, rule,  take dominion, that was his mandate given to Adam. And then we see in Exodus with the Jethro principle, when Moses, father in law admonished him to delegate in order to avoid burnout, and he was having to do handle all of the judicial  responsibilities for all of the different court cases and and for the entire nation.  And his father in law had the wisdom to say, Moses, you really need to appoint  some other trustworthy people that can handle these responsibilities. And then  we see Jesus delegating the work to His disciples there of Luke 10:1-23 where  he's sending out the 72 and John 4:2, where it talks about how Jesus's disciples were the ones that were doing the baptisms and not Jesus Himself. And then  Stephen in the early church, when there were there was starving widows, and  the apostles recognized the need to appoint people to focus specifically on that  feeding ministry to help those who were in need, and so this is the biblical  pattern, to divide the labor and delegate. It's going to make us much more  effective. It's going to increase our output as as organizations, as companies,  and it's also going to help those people who put their hand to the plow, who step into the organization in a way that is going to make the best use of their gifts and abilities to then develop those for the glory of God. So who then do we need to  recruit onto our teams? This is a very critical issue, because it's it's really you be in a lot of ways, you'd be better off not hiring anybody at all than bringing on  people who are going to lack integrity, people that would sow division and just  really present a poor reflection of of Jesus, to your customers, to your 

stakeholders, To those who come in contact with your company and that brand  that you have worked so hard to to cultivate, because ultimately, we are about  making disciples in our companies, in the culture that we are projecting out into  the marketplace ought to also be a reflection of Jesus, and so we ought to  pursue people of integrity. And so notice that I didn't say we need to pursue  people of strong integrity, because the thing about integrity is that you either  have it or you don't. Integrity has to do it's really a like an architectural or a  building term regarding the structural integrity of a building, because if it's got  cracks in the foundation, then ultimately, even though it can look good for a time, eventually it's like Jesus talks about how it was like the house built on sand. It's  eventually going. To collapse. And so we have to first of all, hire and pursue  people of integrity. And there we have the criteria that Paul laid out in in the the  book of Titus, where he says, For this reason, I left you in Crete, that you would  set in order what remains and appoint elders in every city as I directed you,  namely, If any man is above reproach, the husband of one wife having children  who believe not accused of dissipation rebellion, for the overseer must be above reproach as God's steward, not self willed, not quick tempered, not addicted to  wine, not pugnacious, not fond of sordid gain, but hospitable, loving what is  good, sensible, just devout, self controlled, holding fast of Faithful Word which is in accordance with the teaching, so that he will be able both to exhort in sound  doctrine and to refute Those who contradict. So what would it take to verify all of the criteria there in Titus 1:5-9? I mean, Paul wasn't suggesting that you just  kind of, kind of put a, you know, a job, a want ad out in the newspaper, and just  kind of see who shows up. And if they show up, it's a warm body. Then you just,  you just hire them there. And certainly there are more stringent requirements to  higher up. You go in leadership and influence with with the company. But if  you're gonna bring somebody onto your team, whether it's as a contractor or as  a full time employee, and you know, by the way, I've had people contact me and  say, you know, they're just really struggling as a business owner with  contractors, where one that comes to mind was, he was the head of a  construction company. And so often in that industry, you're working with day  laborers, and it's, it's very hard to make sure that that person that you're bringing on for the day is going to be a good representative of your of your company,  they may be able to get the work done. But if you're just kind of taking, you  know, you just show up, like, I think about like the the painting store, a lot of  people will go contractors. They'll just show up and say, Hey, anyone want a  job? And they'll come and they'll do the job. But, but if those people as this man  that was expressing his concern, because what had happened is that he was  bringing on these day laborers, and then they would just, you know, yell out  profanity on the job, they would just and he would start getting these reports  back from his clients. And so even though they're only day laborers, ultimately  they are still a reflection of his company. And so you might not be taking the time

to go and do an investigation on these people these day laborers, as Paul is  suggesting here in Titus 1:5-9. But there really should be a way for you to  interview that person and make sure that this is a person of integrity. I'm not  saying that you need to hire only Christians, at least here in the US, that's  actually illegal to to discriminate based on, you know, race, religion and all that.  But there are certain ways that you can ask questions and and just kind of get a  sense for and let that before you're going to put them in front of your your  customers, you need to make sure that this is a person of integrity, because they are reflecting your your company, and seek others feedback about the candidate before hiring. I mean, it would, I would hate to think that you'd be in such a  desperate situation to hire somebody that you just had to have them, you know,  on you just kind of pull up to a store and say, Everybody hop in if you want to, if  you want to go work and interact with my customers. I mean, I hope you have  more pride in your company, because the principle here is that you need to  make sure that these people are going to because we're about making disciples. We're about having company cultures that then disciple other cultures in the  broader culture, and revealing Jesus and and so maybe, you know, there's really not a way that you can totally know somebody on day one, and that's why it's  recommended that you have a 90 day probation period for anybody that you're  hiring, whether as a contractor or as an employee, that you can just let them go,  no questions asked. Certainly you can do that with contractors, but with  employees, it's a little bit more difficult. So when you have that 90 day probation  period, you know, That gives you a way out in the event that you start to see  those, those warning signs and just and, you know, hire, slow, fire, fast. That's  really a good motto when it comes to building your team, and then pursue skillful workers and and so there are a couple of different ways that you can think about skill. And there's a and there's a few terms that are used, one by Solomon, one  by David. Here Proverbs 22:29 and you're probably familiar with this. This verse  here, do you see a man skilled in his work? He will stand before kings. He will  not stand before obscure men. So do you see a man skilled in his work, he's  going to be promoted. And so really, when you're bringing somebody onto your  team, you should think about that as a promotion for that person. I mean, do  they Is this the kind of person that has integrity number one? And are they  skilled? And what do we mean by skills? And this is not necessarily that they  understand exactly how to do the task that you need them to do, because that's  where training comes into play. Skills really kind of go much deeper, and they're  really transferable when you look at these terms that are used in the Bible. And  there are two, and the second, the other way that I've seen it used in the  Scripture, is where Solomon's father David, it said, of David, so he shepherded  them according to the integrity of his heart and guided them with his skillful  hands. And so there the word is tobuwn. And so we have my here in the first  instance, there in Proverbs, and then tobuwn. And you can see the difference. I 

mean, I was curious. I saw these, these terms showing up in the Bible and, you  know, and that's the thing about doing word studies and really unpacking the  Hebrew language in the Bible, that things aren't always as they seem right on  the surface. I mean, because if you think about skills, I mean that could mean,  you know, you might immediately think of, well, I know how to use Microsoft  Excel. That's a skill. Skills are deeper in a Biblical sense. So in that first passage in Proverbs, the idea of skill that Solomon is talking about is really more of a  diligence and a readiness type of skill. I mean, this is the this is a skill. This is  really what we think of as work ethic. Somebody's got a strong work ethic. We  mean, this is somebody that can really get the job done, somebody that is not  going to be slack, somebody's not going to be slothful, but that they are diligent  and that they are ready to do the job, that they are that they are expected to do,  and that they're going to do it well, that they're going to do it thoroughly. This is,  this is the idea that's presented there in that respect of skill. And then what's  said about David, that type of skill is also skill that your workers need to have as  you're recruiting. And this, in this sense, we're talking about understanding and  discretion and prudence, so people who think before they act. I mean, yes, you  need to be diligent, but you also need to be conscientious. You also need to be  thoughtful about how you're coming across to others. You also need to have  kind of, in some ways, this is sort of the what some might term the hard side of  skill, and then the soft side, soft skills, hard skills. This. This is really kind of what the Bible is drawing out for us here. And then I would be remiss if I didn't point  out here in Psalm 78:72 so he shepherded them according to the integrity of his  heart and guided them with his skillful hands. And so just as we talked about in  the previous slide about how you must pursue workers of integrity, this is the  integrity and the skill really go hand in hand, and those are the types of workers  that you need to have on your team. And in the next video, we're going to talk  about training and development, to really dive into more of the specific  requirements of your particular workplace for that person.