Health insurance? Check.
Deal on a gym membership? Check, in some cases.
How about a chat with a chaplain over coffee?
Companies have different strategies for urging their employees toward wellness. Workforce Chaplains hopes companies will bring it on board to address workers’ spiritual needs.
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It’s a team of men and women, including several Hancock Countians, who stop by the workplaces of the companies who hire them. They work to build a rapport through brief, casual conversation. Then they’re available to meet, outside of work, with any employee interested in discussing a need.
“It’s a holistic approach to helping employees,” said Marcus Schrader, president of the 501(c)3 organization that launched in 2018. “They care about their employees and want to offer this added optional benefit.”
Schrader said staff members’ family struggles or other personal challenges often weigh on them at work. Offer an avenue for addressing those, and the company gains a happier employee, a more productive workday and perhaps even a more peaceful work environment.
He added that many employees have a religious background but aren’t attending church. They don’t have a pastor they feel comfortable turning to, but they are open to discussing problems confidentially with a chaplain.
“We don’t report to the management,” said Daron Day of New Palestine, one of the chaplains.
Larger national organizations have been offering chaplain services in workplaces for the last 20 to 35 years. Schrader, a vice president at Crossroads Bible College, also worked with such a chaplain organization for several years.
Yet he noticed that mostly larger companies enlisted those services. He felt a need to establish a group, offering both male and female chaplains, who could offer a listening ear, a prayer or a hospital visit to those working at smaller companies.
The nine chaplains on the Workforce Chaplains team — six men, three women — are a diverse group. They range from millennials to grandparents. Among them, they have a blend of ministry and marketplace experiences. Day, for example, is associate pastor at New Palestine Bible Church; his wife, Ashley, another chaplain on the team, is a graphic designer for a book publisher. Schrader hopes team members’ personal and professional experiences will give workers someone they can relate to.
The chaplains also have various ties to central Indiana, the area it aims to serve.
“That’s what we think will be a distinct advantage to the companies,” Daron Day said.
Businesses who enlist Workforce Chaplains can decide what level of chaplain contact fits their needs and their budgets. For one client, that’s meant having a chaplain lead an off-hours Bible study. For some clients, that means having chaplains stop by weekly or monthly.
Chaplains try to have a subtle presence during those walk-throughs. They realize not everyone will talk to them, and that’s OK. They also will try to help refer an employee who has a spiritual need but is of a faith other than Christianity.
“We hope we’re a welcome presence for everyone,” Daron Day said.
The group’s client list includes Litho Press in Indianapolis and an Office Pride commercial cleaning franchise in Noblesville.
Another client is Macro Missionary, an online nutritional counseling company that brought the Workforce Chaplains on to support its staff and also serve as spiritual coaches for its customers.
Jesse Dale, president of Macro Missionary, said people’s nutritional struggles often have emotional roots, and chaplains can help people address those.
“Their subtle and real-life, down-to-earth approach was what attracted us to them,” Dale said. “They were very enthusiastic about meeting people one on one, organically. That was way beyond our expectations.”
He admits that early in this business relationship, it’s difficult to quantify how much the chaplains’ presence is benefiting customer service and/or the bottom line, but he suspects that it is.
“They’ve helped a lot of our people … without coming off as pushy.”
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Workforce Chaplains have, in addition to their chaplain/ministerial training, done QPR training through Healthy 365 at Hancock Regional Hospital and mental health response training through Cumberland Police Department.
Find out more about the organization by contacting President Marcus Schrader at 317-690-4115 or www.workforcechaplains.com.
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