GuideStone Financial Resources has realigned certain job responsibilities and restructured its workforce as part of its effort to identify and implement new ways to become more efficient. It also announced in July three new executive officers promoted from within the organization.
The restructuring dovetails GuideStone’s update to its long-range plan, GuideStone 100, and flows from the 2015 theme, “Year of Efficiency,” when the Southern Baptist Convention entity sought new efficiencies in people, processes and policies. And the changes come as the entity looks to carry the ministry to its centennial in 2018, and beyond 2020.
“These steps we have taken will enable us to further enhance our ministry as we prepare to enter the second century of our service to Southern Baptists, while maintaining optimum staffing levels going forward,” GuideStone President O.S. Hawkins said in an Aug. 15 news release.
In the spring GuideStone offered an early voluntary retirement option to qualified employees 55 years of age or older. Fifty-nine individuals — about half those eligible and about 10 percent of GuideStone employees — chose the early retirement package.
Nine employees were unable to be accommodated in open positions and were offered severance packages. Many positions were combined or redeployed, and many other employees were reassigned to open positions.
Staff restructuring was not complete until early August, according to Roy Hayhurst, department head of denominational and public relations services at GuideStone.
“Only after (restructuring was complete) did we feel free to communicate the scope of this (with those outside of GuideStone),” Hayhurst told The Alabama Baptist (TAB).
GuideStone now has 427 employees after restructuring, where the previous number was 495, Hayhurst told TAB.
GuideStone previously reduced its headcount in 2008–2009 through a combination of attrition and a similar voluntary retirement program, but Hayhurst said he did not have the employee count prior to this reduction.
Hawkins said of the transitions, “The balance between ministry and God-honoring business practices is what we deal with every day. In maintaining this balance we are guided by our mission statement, drawn from Psalm 78:72, that reminds us we are ‘serving those who serve the Lord with the integrity of our hearts and the skillfulness of our hands.’”
As GuideStone participants have indicated a desire for a more self-serve, Internet-based operation, internal reviews found ways of reducing the workforce without adversely impacting services.
Three positions added
Several department responsibilities shifted during the restructuring, including the Customer Service Center, which was merged with the retirement and insurance areas to provide continued excellent service.
The addition of three new executive officers from within GuideStone ranks, announced during the entity’s July 25–26 trustee meeting, was part of the restructuring.
Mark Borchgardt was named chief services and operations officer; Harry Nelson, who joined GuideStone in 2013, was named chief strategic investment officer; and Harold Loftin, also with the entity since 2013, was named chief legal officer and general counsel.
(BP, TAB)
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