America’s businesses have reveled in the fact that for the past few years job applicants have been lining up around the block to fill vacant positions*.

This may have allowed for an overall static human resources budget, recent studies have shown that hidden costs of turnover equal 20% of a new hire’s wages. While sometimes hard to measure, these costs include recruitment, training, building trust, and loss of productivity.

But LDSTech Church Service Missionaries (CSM) don’t get paid and 20% of nothing is nothing. Right? Wrong.

Recruitment and training are provided by Church salaried employees and lost productivity hurts the entire program. Multiply that in a program that depends on personnel that work in six, twelve, and eighteen month increments and the problem becomes significant.

Sister Brenda Frandsen, LDSTech CSM in Mesa, Arizona, has been able to help resolve that issue. Sister Frandsen and her husband have served three full time missions: as office missionaries in the Taiwan Kaohsiung Mission from 2008 -2009; as public affairs missionaries in Taiwan from 2010-2011; and as media missionaries in Hong Kong from 2012-2013.

During her Hong Kong mission Sister Frandsen implemented the SharePoint software throughout the area and developed a high level of skill and also trust among her peers. As the time for the Frandsens to depart Hong Kong neared, the concern grew as to how to fill the hole that Sister Frandsen would leave behind. Because of her unique programming and language skills it would not be a simple matter.

The solution was found in technology. Sister Frandsen continues her media mission and support of the SharePoint software as an LDSTech CSM from her home in Mesa, Arizona. She meets with her peers by Webex on a weekly basis and remotely accesses individual computers when necessary to troubleshoot, help, and support those still in the mission field.

LDSTech missions offer an opportunity for highly skilled full time missionaries to continue their work even after they return home. If you are a mission leader and have lost a highly skilled missionary but would like to retain their expertise through an LDSTech Church Service Mission, contact Elder Allen Bottorff or Sister Cheryl Bottorff at  (801) 842- 4771, or e-mail them at their email address   <allenbottorff@ldschurch.org or cherylbottorff@ldschurch.org> or fill out the LDSTech Missionary Form.    



* - Center for American Progress, “There Are Significant Business Costs to Replacing Employees,” Heather Boushey and Sarah Jane Glynn, November 16, 2012


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