Thanks for joining us on Season 6 of The Flourishing Culture Podcast, brought to you by The Best Christian Workplaces Institute. You’ll learn how to build a flourishing workplace culture that drives the ministry impact of your organization, your church, or your company brought to you by the Best Christian Workplaces Institute. Now here’s your host, BCWI CEO, Al Lopus.
Do you wonder as a leader what are a few of the specific actions that I can take to improve my team’s culture? What can I do to reduce relationship conflicts, or turnover, disorder, and challenges brought on by the worldwide pandemic? Listen in as today’s guests discuss how they have developed an innovative flourishing culture while serving the world’s poor whose lives are even more desperate as a result of the pandemic.
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I want you to close your eyes and picture your workplace the way it is right now. Do you see it?. . Is it coming into view?. . Good. Now, I’d like you to imagine your workplace if it were better, thriving in just one way. Maybe it’s better communications. Better teamwork. Better talent. Better compensation. Hold on to that one big improvement for a moment. You can open your eyes, now.
What if you could improve not just one area of your workplace culture, but all eight areas that make your culture flourish? With me are two outstanding guests of a Christian organization that, in just one year’s time, improved every one of the eight factors of their culture. As you hear their story, you just might see what’s possible for your workplace culture.
We know that in healthy cultures, we are more engaged, we’re more productive, it contributes to higher retention rates; naturally, all of those business reasons are important to us.”
My two guests today are Rachel Spier Weaver, HR Manager for HOPE International, a worldwide ministry organization based in Lancaster, PA. With Rachel is her colleague Laura Beirne, Recruitment & International HR Manager for HOPE International. Laura, Rachel, welcome to the Flourishing Culture Podcast.
In this episode, you’ll hear about:
- The complex problem of poverty (03:41)
- “To tackle poverty in all its forms, we come alongside side men and women around the world through discipleship, biblically based training, savings services, and loans to empower them to provide for their families, build community, and find their ultimate hope in Christ’s love for them.” (04:03)
- Why a healthy workplace culture so necessary for HOPE International to fulfill its mission (06:24)
- “We know that in healthy cultures, we are more engaged, we’re more productive, it contributes to higher retention rates…. naturally, all of those business reasons are important to us.” (06:50)
- “Our workplace culture is a way to proclaim and live the Gospel. How we treat one another, how we wrestle together, how much we care about the work that we’re called to at HOPE – that directly relates to our mission. ” (07:18)
- How Oustanding Talent played a role in developing a thriving, flourishing culture (08:05)
- An insight, a strategy that proved to be a game-changer for bettering HOPE international’s culture (08:19)
- “There has to be a 2-fold approach to culture building and retaining highly-capable leaders.” (08:56)
- “The first is our values – ensuring they are clear, articulated, and acted on.”
- “The second is what we do. These are the activities that operationalize our values.”
- “We’re also working right now on leveling and banding projects. This is the feedback we heard from BCW results – to retain highly capable staff, they need to know where they’re headed – what could be next for me at HOPE?” (11:00)
- Why has Inspirational Leadership been so vital to HOPE throughout this current, ongoing pandemic? (13:07)
- “Our C suite leaders empowered members of their teams to step up and do what ‘only they can do'”. (14:57)
- Healthy Communication is a third success story behind HOPE’s consistently flourishing culture. So many positives here. Let’s take one: What happened when you sought out staff suggestions and then acted on them? (15:59)
- Everyone faced some kind of limitation, stuck point, or disappointment in this time of COVID. I’d love it if each of you could share a brief story of where you’ve seen God at work in a person, a team, or perhaps an entire department or ongoing initiative (19:47)
- How a healthy, flourishing culture is linked to greater ministry impact (22:25)
- What would you say are a few practical opportunities for your culture to improve? (24:42)
- Career Paths are critical for staff retention and HOPE is leaning into the challenge with help from BCWI resources (28:18)
At HOPE, our PASSION statement is one of the things that guides our culture. Prayer, allegiance, service, stewardship, innovation, optimism, and nurturing.”
Additional Resources
Download BCWI’s four-page guide for inspirational leadership in crisis for FREE.
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