When you’re considering a new church management software, a big consideration is how this transition will affect your staff. Where do you begin when it comes to training?

Any time you begin using a new software, program, or process in your church office, you’ll need to train your team to follow the new procedures so everyone is on the same page. But with a transition as big as a new church management software, you can feel overwhelmed and not know where to begin or what to do. 

Here are some tangible steps you can take to train your staff on church management software—without anyone breaking down! 

Before You Train 

Be Transparent About Goals 

The first step in training your staff on church management software is to be transparent about why you’re making this transition. Here are some questions for you to answer that can help guide conversations with your team: 

• How will this software lessen the administrative burden? 

• What benefits does this software have over our current software/process? 

• Why are we switching now? 

• What are the specific goals of this transition? 

• How long will the training take? 

Set a Clear Timeline 

Building out a specific timeline of when trainings will take place, when tasks will transition, and when old software will be sunsetted can bring a lot of clarity and peace to the church management software transition process. Being transparent on timelines can go a long way in helping your staff feel prepared to tackle this big transition! 

You should also schedule specific training days or times, and be clear about what your goals are for each session. For example, you might have one training day dedicated to all things membership (attendance, communications, etc.), and another day for everything related to financial tracking. 

Slowly Transition 

Another way to ensure that your staff feels comfortable on the new church management software is to transition slowly. Obviously, at some point, you’ll need to move all of your data and processes over to the new software, but taking it one step at a time can help it feel manageable for your staff. 

For example, you might migrate your member information over to your new software, while still tracking everything how you were doing it before, so your staff can ensure accurate data is portrayed while you’re all still getting used to a new software. 

Training Tips 

Look into Trainings from Software Company 

Sometimes, the church management software company you’re transitioning to will offer training sessions for your employees to give a technical overview and walkthrough of the platform. It’s an opportunity for your team to get answers to questions you yourself might not know the answer to! For example, Concordia Technology Solutions provides complimentary training with all of their software to help users be as confident as possible in the software. 

Break Up Trainings 

It can be helpful to break up trainings across a few days or weeks. As mentioned previously, you can dedicate one training to a specific topic, like tracking attendance or entering offerings. Try to make the trainings as relevant as possible for the position you’re training! Your communications team will definitely need to understand how the new email communications work, but they might not need to be included on financial trainings. 

By breaking up these training sessions to be short and relevant, you can help reduce the chance of overwhelming your team. You can also answer any specific questions during that time, which can be less overwhelming for you! 

Set Aside a Day to Transition 

While you can slowly transition, you will need to have a final day where everything is officially migrated and your staff is fully using the new software. Try to choose a day that will have the least impact on your team—a day where nothing urgent needs to happen, tasks can be delayed until the next day, and your team’s entire focus can be dedicated to the migration. 

Some organizations opt to do big transitions like this on weekends to avoid any downtime in service, but that comes with its own set of challenges, such as paying hourly employees overtime. You can easily tackle this on a work day—just make sure to not assign them an urgent task due that day! 

Answer Questions 

Lastly, and perhaps most importantly, is to be available to answer questions over the next few months. You might assume that after all of your training sessions, your big transition day, and a few days to adjust, your team will have all of their questions answered. 

But the truth is, questions will arise consistently over the next few months—maybe even the next year! As your team tackles tasks that only come up every so often, they’ll need to relearn how to integrate each task into this new church management software, and you’ll be the point person to direct them. 

Try to be as patient as possible, and remember that many of your team’s daily tasks have dramatically shifted. And also remember that questions are just a sign of their attention to detail and care about their work! 

Access a dedicated, US-based support team, free training, and other customer-focused perks with Concordia Technology Solutions’ software options—like Church360° Members.