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Church Leadership Connection

Understanding the CLC Competency Survey

 

What is the CLC Competency Survey?

The CLC Competency Survey is a custom-made questionnaire that aims to provide an improvement to the profile matching process that the CLC system has been doing for the past 15 years. It has been developed in collaboration with LeaderWise’s ecclesial survey researchers, taking into consideration various published empirical research and surveys. Our CLC development team worked with focus groups among mid councils to adapt the survey questions to the vocabulary, theology and governing environment of the PC(USA). The Competency Survey will be available in Spanish and Korean.

The list of KSAPs used in this project are compiled from clergy work analyses conducted by O*NET1, Richard DeShon’s ongoing work with the United Methodist Church (https://www.gbhem.org/), and research conducted by LeaderWise, adapted to CLC by CLC Development members.


What does the Competency Survey measure?

The survey’s algorithm will provide an approximate measurement of pastoral competency personal characteristics that will reflect in the following categories:

Good Listener Good Communicator
Leads Change Values Tradition
Mentoring Problem Solver
Learner Teacher
Adaptable Empathic
Self-Aware Socially Aware
Organizational Manager Visionary

 

We have considered the previous CLC competency options, their descriptions, and traits, and formed grouped characteristics that describe pastoral traits and styles that are usually balanced in a pastoral position.

The results of each category will reflect in a 0.1 to 1.0 scale graph, that the system will use to match the answers the organizations give for their competency survey. This will provide the congregations matches based on overall measured strengths because every pastoral candidate’s attributes should be considered during this process.


Are the congregations able to see the results of my Competency Survey?

The congregations will not be able to see the resulting graph. Only the user can see it. Congregations will only see the matches referred by the system on matching strength.


Why so many questions?

As all surveys are developed, they suffer many changes. We also know that the more the questions, the more precise the results. Although we want to be precise, we also want to create a functional survey that will consider the time of our users. That is why this survey will be in constant change after we do analysis on the validity of each item and the ability to measure what it is supposed to measure. This means that it is very possible the total of questions will go down every year. Therefore we need all users to discern on every question truthfully and wisely. Your answers will provide our team the tools to perfect this survey. This is the start of this particular new project, so you will be part of its evolution.


Can I re-take the survey if I don’t like my graph?

We designed the survey to be taken every 6 months, because life can change in 6 months. This limit prevents the manipulation of matching, but also promotes the careful discernment from the user. Every time you select an answer to a question, the system will automatically save it. If you need to stop and come back another time, the survey will be waiting on the question you left before. Before submitting the answers, you can go back, revise, and change any questions you already answered. After submitting this won’t be possible. If you believe you made a mistake in your survey and would like to re-take or edit an answer, you can submit your request to clcsupport@pcusa.org and our CLC Consultants will help you.


Will I be matched if I don’t take the Competency Survey?

The system has been designed so congregations consider the Competency Survey as a main source for matching with ideal candidates according to the algorithm. This could prevent users who don’t complete the Competency Survey to be matched with congregations that use it as a criterion of matching. Those users could self-refer their PDP’s to the positions they are interested in and could be seeked out by the Advanced Search option for the Mid Councils. If the user wants to be matched with certainty, they should complete the survey.


I am not an ordained Teaching Elder/Minister, do I need to take the Competency Survey?

No. If you are not an ordained Teaching Elder/Minister you don’t need to take the survey. Every other user will be matched by other criteria in their PDP and can self-refer to the positions available.


Is the survey going to be revised?

Yes, our hope is to revise the survey data every year and update it. Discussions and analysis will be conducted during the long-term process of evaluation of this tool.


Questions? 
CLC Consultants are available by calling 1.888.728.7228 x8550 or sending an email to clcstaff@pcusa.org.