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Marketplace Chaplains Providing Effective Worker Assistance Programs

By Al Pirozzoli
New Haven, CT

Hearing coworkers mention that they have a chaplain to help them work out issues on the job is becoming more common than one might expect. Chaplains in the workplace are fast becoming a personalized service that companies of all sizes are calling upon. Chaplaincy services are vying to set a new standard in worker effectiveness. Owners, managers and employees now cite important, although unexpected benefits of chaplains in the workplace.

Chaplaincy enjoys a long history dating back to the man who came to be known as St. Martin of Tours, recognized as the initiator of the office of chaplain. While still a soldier, Martin one day encountered a cold beggar. Moved by compassion, he removed the heavy cape from his uniform, sliced it in half with his sword and shared it with the man. This became the start of his legendary service as a chaplain.

Chaplains are professionals committed to reducing employee stress, helping employees deal with personal and family emotional issues, easing potential violence and conflict in the workplace, with a focus on bringing improvement to a company’s bottom line. The key is to provide employees with a resource so they don’t have to go it alone in difficult times. Chaplains help managers deal with the delicate personal situations that employees bring to work.

“Our performance as corporate chaplains over the past several years has been good for HR managers, business owners, employees, and in many cases their families. Business is discovering the profound effects of extending kindness and caring toward employees,” says Mark Cress, founder of Corporate Chaplains of America (CCA), a North Carolina based chaplaincy firm. “When companies show they care, it means a lot to their employees.” CCA chaplains make weekly rounds to visit with, care for, encourage, and listen to their client’s employees. Positive results are based on more than techniques. The work is grounded in trust, respect and a genuine caring relationship with people. They bring a spiritual component to the work they do because they believe people are spiritual in essence. People can subdue it or ignore it, but they cannot separate themselves from it.

Businesses can hold reservations about the “R” word—religion. It has not however, proven to be an issue. Something must be working since there are an estimated 3,000 to 4,000 chaplains actively serving American businesses today, and their ranks are growing. A Gallop Poll showed that 66 percent of the people surveyed said that if they needed a mental health professional, they would prefer going to one with spiritual values and beliefs. More than 80 percent preferred to have their own values and beliefs integrated into their counseling process. The fees for chaplains are reasonable, and, combined with measurable results, make them attractive. CCA considers itself an organization that cares for businesses. “Companies hire us, but we work for individuals, so they can get back to productive living and clear thinking,” said Cress. The best way for companies to handle issues of stress and worker disconnect is to maintain a process that engages workers on a regular basis in order to head off and/or minimize lost productivity. In a time where many enterprises are collapsing and uncertainty seems to be spreading, contagious character, robust spiritual outlook, and integrity are vitally needed...something businesses are learning quickly.

A previous executive of a rapid growth company, Mark Cress is a CEO turned chaplain. He was running Success Stories Inc, which appeared as #137 on the well-known Inc. Magazine 500 list of fastest growing companies. Though the company was doing well, something was missing in Cress’s own life. So at age 37, he began the process of change. He sold the business and entered Southeastern Theological Seminary. While earning a master’s degree, he carefully drafted a business plan for an organization that would care for employees in the workplace. He then formally began a second career as a chaplain and caregiver to troubled employees. It has become his life’s work. When he started, he had only one employee, himself. Today, CCA is based in Wake Forest, NC and cares for tens of thousands of employees in hundreds of business locations around the country. The need is growing and Cress projects that CCA will employ and dispatch over 1,000 chaplains, serving an employee base of more that one million nation wide, within ten years or less. Finding and training chaplains is an ongoing and vital part of the process.

Before a CCA chaplain starts work with a client, an orientation meeting is held to explain the ground rules. The chaplain then stops by to meet and talk informally with any employee who desires it. There is no requirement to talk, and no limits on the subject matter. Matters of faith are only engaged when an employee voluntarily asks to move in that direction. They are vigilant on that point because it can be easily misunderstood. As chaplains in the business world, CCA believes that connecting the spiritual component of the human spirit is often left out of the restorative process. But they are careful not to turn it into a religious issue. On their daily rounds, CCA corporate chaplains visit offices, factories and warehouses. They arrive at their client’s facilities at regularly appointed hours each week, so people know when to expect them and can build confidential relationships. CCA chaplains make it easy for anyone who wants or needs to talk.

Their dress code is khakis-casual. They look like any other person in the workplace. When Cress was asked if employees call him by the title of reverend, he said, “No, my name is Mark. Reverend does not appear on my birth certificate.” Chaplains don’t carry Bibles, but they do carry personal digital organizers, cell phones and two-way paging devices. “We’re a society that gives life to fast-growth businesses which generate personal problems that most business managers don’t even recognize, aren’t equipped to handle, or would prefer remain in an employee’s home life,” Cress says. He paints a picture of workers carrying their personal problems to work every day in the form of emotional baggage. Those bags get so heavy that employees become from their work life and responsibilities. Fast growth and business pressures can impose enormous strain on employees and their families. The opposite holds true, too. Home life in today’s society can place enormous pressures on employees. The stress can manifest itself through chronic absenteeism, flagging productivity, and sinking morale. “There is more sickness and substance abuse out there than most business leaders can imagine. We deal with these problems every day. Although CCA is often lumped in with employee assistance programs, they differ in the fact that chaplains are on the scene, person-to-person. “People problems require a personal intervention. It’s hard to build relationships strictly by phone,” adds Mark. It’s an ongoing problem that frustrates many business managers because they know personal problems prevent them from getting the best out of workers.

As employers continue to seek effective ways to help worker productivity and stability, the issues of religious tone and unclear meaning of spirituality will continue to require clarification. CCA makes it a point to be effective in working interculturally and across faith groups. They perform in the same way as a police, fire or military chaplain would. If an employee requests to speak with a Rabbi or even a Buddhist monk, CCA would help arrange it. Their work is completely nondenominational. Although chaplains are concerned with the spiritual component, they are not concerned if employees are Catholic, Protestant, Jewish, Atheist or Buddhist. CCA stays focused on caring for people in many ways, including substance abuse, long-term grief, domestic issues, and productivity to mention a few. The approach is to give them a way to get their problems out and on the table so they can be dealt with effectively.

The president of a fast-growing advertising agency confirms CCA’s approach. “I don’t want to get a sermon every Thursday when he visits my office and we never do.” Many employers seem to be very interested in the chaplaincy approach, but they tend to try it out with caution. As with other employers, he says he was drawn to Mark and his associates because they have business backgrounds. “He understands what you go through when you have to meet a payroll. He’s helped me tremendously.” Herein lies a point that CCA considers unique. They require that all their chaplains have at least ten years business experience, so they can dispense advice based on real experience from the front lines as well as the spiritual side. One of their other clients, Tom Vande Guchte, President of Storr Office Environments was so satisfied with CCA results that he personally offers a refund on their behalf. If for any reason a client is not satisfied, Tom will refund them up to $10,000, no questions asked. It is that kind of credibility that CCA works diligently to produce. As the business community continues to work through many challenges by applying a variety of techniques and programs, it will provide a real-world test to the current upward trend of chaplains in the marketplace. Will this approach become a new standard in employee benefit plans much like medical and dental programs? One certainty remains constant, as long as there are employees, they will continue to bring their problems to work with them. This alone may bode well for these care giving entrepreneurs of the twenty-first century.