DaySpring does not ask any inappropriate questions about religious background or denominations, they simply provide all potential employees with the truth about their company… If the potential employee does not feel comfortable in the environment created by this discussion, they are likely to show it in some way letting DaySpring know they are not interested and they may not be a good fit for the company. No serious lawsuits have ever been filed for human resource issues. (p. 555)
In terms of training and development, the company grows leaders from within, and if someone is hired from outside they typically take a lower entry position than in their previous job in order that they can grow with the company and develop skills based on its culture. The company uses the Conexa employee survey process to evaluate job characteristics and employee satisfaction, but the author admits the same process is used by DaySpring’s parent business Hallmark. However the company does hold a separate survey about work-life balance to see what areas their employees need to develop, such as financial planning, or “areas they are looking to improve upon in their life, such as marriage.” The final point, about salaries, demonstrates how far DaySpring conforms to the norm of business practice, paying a competitive wage. Even though some are drawn to the company so they can work in a strong faith environment, “people do not come to DaySpring expecting to make significantly less money.”
Steve Mitchell (2013) examines a similar British business sector with a religious customer base: Christian book publishing and retailing. The fate of this sector in the past two decades offers several instructive lessons concerning the need for professional management within church organisations. By the start of the 1990s there were more than 600 Christian bookshops in existence, including such chains as CLC, SPCK and Wesley Owen, and a large number of independent outlets. Often run by church volunteers, and with a charitable foundation, their purpose was primarily evangelism and ministry rather than profit – leading to some rather downmarket store design and amateurish but well-meaning management. The relatively benign trading conditions in which they had near monopoly over a distinct and well-defined target market has since changed quickly and dramatically. The demise of the Net Book Agreement in the mid-1990s removed the ability of publishers to set the prices, enabling supermarkets to sell discounted books. The growth of the internet soon after compounded the effect of this market liberalisation, offering potential customers a new sales channel for books and also a new way to search for information and articles. By the end of 2009, the global recession had made it hard for the trade to borrow money to modernise, and the sector’s leading distributor and wholesaler collapsed. Mitchell does not name the distributor but it is presumably IBS-STL UK, formed just two years previously by a merger of the International Bible Society and Send the Light. As trades that are based on local mission and ministry, Christian book publishing and retail have been badly hit and are finding it hard to respond to the changing marketplace.