Perimeter Church Staff Development Plan

Staff Development Overview

Development practices at Perimeter Church will be conducted in alignment with our theology, our identity as an organization, and our Development Philosophy. Our goal is that every staff member would experience health and growth spiritually and professionally in their assigned roles, as well as be prepared for potential roles in the future.

Development Principles:

• All employees should be growing in their ability to contribute to the organization.

• Supervisors, employees, and the organization share in the responsibility to grow professionally.

• Growth most often comes from an opportunity to be stretched, coupled with consistent and truthful feedback.

  • This is best applied through a learning experience, not a classroom setting.

    • Learning and training events paired with a debriefing and application process will deliver the best development results.

    • Stretching may result in taking an appropriate faith-filled risk. At times, this may lead to a short-term failure. Expect resistance when trying to accomplish or learn something new.

Spiritual Development:

• Spiritual development at Perimeter Church is aimed at, and defined best, by our Spiritual Formation Model. The full model and its components can be seen in Appendix 2.

• Our desire is that every employee at Perimeter Church would be healthy and growing spiritually. A deep, abiding, and dependent walk with Christ is the most important part of a person's life but is also the only way someone will be an effective minister of the gospel.

• It is an expectation that all full-time regular employees are members of Perimeter Church in good standing. Hourly workers, seasonal positions, and non-leadership staff of Perimeter School are not required to be members but are encouraged to be. Any exceptions must be approved by the Executive Leadership Team (ELT).

Professional Development:

• Professional Development can be defined as the learning environments and processes that enable an employee to be further equipped for their current or future tasks and responsibilities. These tasks and responsibilities include both hard and soft skills, increasing in knowledge and will be focused on current and future roles in the organization.

• The Lead, Develop, Care model guides our leadership teams and supervisors as they seek to provide opportunities for each employee to grow. This model can be found in Appendix 1. This model will be used in conjunction with a list of needed competencies for each employee's role to produce a development plan for each employee's growth.

• Employees, Supervisors, and Perimeter Church leadership all share responsibility in the development of each employee.

Career Development:

• Career development at Perimeter can be defined as aiding and empowering staff to take on new roles that will bring consistent challenge and allow for the maximization of one's unique gifts. These roles may be inside Perimeter Church but could also consist of roles at other organizations.

• We believe that anytime God leads a staff member away from Perimeter Church into a new role it is a good thing. As our founding pastor would say, "You never lose someone to the kingdom of God." Therefore, we seek to help people discover their gifting, develop them in their current roles, and seek to deploy them to new responsibilities inside Perimeter to advance our mission, and potentially outside of the organization for God's greater purposes.

• We expect that all supervisors at Perimeter are leading with a development and succession mindset. Regular time should be given to thinking and planning for who might be the next leaders for Perimeter.

Perimeter Church's Role in an Employee's Development

Perimeter Church should:

• Provide resources and systems that would benefit all employees

  • Process for accountability
    • Mid-year Reviews
    • Annual Reviews
  • One-on-one Meeting Minimum Standards
  • Funding for Development
  • Individual Coaching
  • Tuition Assistance for Metro Atlanta Seminary
  • Continuing Education as assigned and agreed to by department supervisor
  • On-going equipping and training for supervisors to lead employees effectively
  • Perimeter Church spiritual development offerings for members

• Schedule and support ongoing learning environments

  • Staff development days assigned each year
  • Staff Prayer
  • Two learning cohort seasons each year with multiple cohorts available
  • Develop other options as needed

• Support and fund one-time training and development opportunities

  • Conferences, trainings, workshops, etc. as needed and as fits to the development goals of the employee.

The Supervisor's Role in an Employee's Development

Each supervisor should:

• Help employees gain clarity of their current role and how it fits in the larger organizational purpose.

• Have a process for identifying gaps and greatest opportunity for development according to an employee's current role.

• Determine the best way to meet the need or close the developmental gap.

• Keep record of growth and development through one-on-ones, annual and mid-year reviews.

• Budget and spend dollars that are assigned to development, celebration, and training for their employees.

An Employee's Role in Their Own Development

Each employee should:

• Be responsible for their own professional, spiritual, and career development. They can mainly do this by taking advantage of opportunities for staff development as they become available.

• Be proactive with their supervisor about their current role and future aspirations.

• Regularly spend time in reflection and prayer about where God might be leading them in the future and in what areas they could grow in.

• Seek to meet or exceed expectations of their supervisor, thus setting them up for future opportunities as they arise.

Staff Development Environments

• Staff Development Days
• Staff Prayer
• Small group offerings (e.g. cohorts, book studies, etc.)
• Continuing education opportunities (e.g. certifications, degrees, etc.)
• Conference and training events
• 1-on-1 Meetings with supervisors including review meetings
• Church attendance and church equipping events

Development Training Plan

• Reference/retrain staff on this document annually in staff operations training each fall. Keep up to date in staff knowledge base.

• Refresh department leaders annually in a post-staff prayer department leader meeting.

• Train department leaders in cohorts throughout the year.

• Supervisor training program for new managers and those entering into management roles from outside the organization.

Appendix

1. Lead, Develop, Care Model:

2. Spiritual Formation Model