Larger agencies have strong recruitment arms, but many smaller ones agencies I’ve talked to tend to take whoever they can get. I’m not sure this is a wise course of action, but some agencies I have met don’t understand how to properly recruit or screen for candidates. This is a short glimpse into a process that may help you.
Describe the ideal candidate
The first step is to describe the kind of candidate that you are looking for. Consider:
Physical characteristics. For the fields you are ministering in, what is an appropriate age? Gender? Should they be married or unmarried? Of course there are probably places for both men and women, but perhaps there are more roles for one than the other. Is there a particular race or nationality that is less or more preferred, due to economic, security, or political reasons?
Educational characteristics. Is there a certain level of education that is required—high school, college, advanced degrees? Perhaps specialized education—like computer skills, or medicine, or law, or engineering? Are there certain experience that are required—for example, success at taking care of children, or negotiating business deals, or administrating projects?
Relational characteristics. Are there certain relationships that would be ideal? Is it better to have children, or not? Are you looking for someone who can speak a certain language, and who understands a certain culture?
Economic characteristics. What is the basic economic requirement of the area? Is the cost of living very high, or very low? Does this require a particular adaptation? Is bargaining required, or are prices fixed? Do you need someone who can raise support, or is a salary offered? What are the expectations if they are to be hired?
Political characteristics. What is the political environment of the field? Do people care about the political views of the worker? Will you need someone who is discreet, or someone who can argue?
Religious characteristics. Are you looking for people of a particular religious tradition or denomination? Would it be helpful if they came from a particular background—for example, a Catholic background, a Hindu background, a Muslim background, a Jewish background? What about the team the person will be working with: do they have particular religious views, and how do they feel about people who don’t share them?
Discipleship characteristics. What level of discipleship are you looking for? Would a brand-new Christian with a minimal amount of discipleship training be perfect, or are you looking for someone who is more mature? Are you looking for someone who can mentor at a very advanced level, or someone in between?
Pursue the ideal candidate
Now you have a fairly complete description of the ideal candidate (or at least what you, in your best estimate, would be the ideal). Keep in mind you probably won’t find him (or her). The candidates that come your way may very well be lacking in one or more key ways. What we’re going to do next, however, is to look at your ideals and ask—where are people who are most like are found.
If you have particular educational requirements, where are people meeting them most likely found? High schools? Colleges? If you have religious characteristics, what relationships do you have with those traditions? Start by identifying the three top priority requirements, and try to “triangulate”—look for places that feature all three characteristics and have large numbers of people.
Once you have found an area, you’ll need to develop a recruitment and screening process. You may host an event of some type—a missions night, or a missions fair at a church, or something similar. You may decide to work through relationships in the area, looking for specific candidates. However you do it, always review your events and ask, how many people who fit my “ideal candidate” model actually came? How can we raise the quantity of candidates, and their quality?
Once you have a good stream of candidates coming your way, you’ll need to build a way to screen them quickly and identify the likely recruits from the unlikely ones. We’ll look at this process next time.
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