Chaplains Join Corporate Workforce
To help with employee problems and human resource issues, corporations are bringing chaplains into the workplace, according to a recent story in The New York Times. While no official statistics exists -- chaplain programs are voluntary and confidential -- David Miller, executive director of the Yale Center for Faith and Culture, told the Times he estimates that 600 to 700 U.S. companies now have chaplains, twice as many as five years ago.
"Someone who has never thought about this might assume they pray with people, but the majority of the job is listening to people, helping them with very human problems, not one big intensive religious discussion," Miller, the author of the book "God at Work," said to the Times.
The most popular programs mimic the military's model, with chaplains who are able to serve a religiously diverse workforce. The programs, experts say, are less costly than more traditional employee assistance programs, such as referrals and counseling. Many chaplains, too, are available to help employees with hospital visits, emergency housing needs or family troubles. Most corporate chaplains are local, ordained ministers, retired community members or church pastors. A smaller segment is made up of imams and rabbis.
The programs are particularly popular in the South, but the idea is spreading, according to the Times story. Tyson Foods, for instance, headquartered in Springdale, Ark., has 127 chaplains at about 250 of the company's more than 300 plants in North America.
Kim Bobo, executive director of Interfaith Worker Justice, an advocacy group for low-wage workers, told the Times that her group "had no qualms with what chaplains do, but she questioned the issues they did not take up."
"The thing that is challenging when working in meatpacking and poultry is that you're talking about places that have major violations in labor law," Ms. Bobo said. "The chaplains do absolutely nothing to challenge those laws and stand with workers -- and they can't because they work for the employers. I do think they could do more to put themselves in an ombudsman role."
--Mary Westbrook
mwestbrook@safnow.org
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