NEW BRIDGE COMMUNITY
CHAPLAINCY
Business Chaplains
Employees, Their Families and Management Personnel


The availability of a business chaplain is a way to reach out to your employees
and say to them, “We care about you as a person -- not just a producer.”  
Working on personal problems before they become a crisis results in happier,
more productive employees.  

Most employees do not feel “safe” sharing their personal problems with
supervisors or management, especially problems affecting attitude and job
performance. Individuals find it easier to confide in business chaplains. These
chaplains provide insight into problems in early stages, when corrective action is
most helpful.  

How Does a Business Chaplain Serve?
A business chaplain is usually retained, as an independent contractor to address
the personal, emotional and spiritual needs of management personnel,
employees and families.

The focus of counseling is to help the employee deal with life.  The business
chaplain will not initiate discussion of religion in the work area, but is happy to
discuss it if the employee asks.

A business chaplain is not a classical preacher and does not wish to take the
place of anyone’s clergy.  A chaplain’s service is one of presence ... not control.  
Business chaplains avoid imposing their own beliefs on others, showing
sensitivity for the moral, cultural, social and religious standards of people with
whom they have contact.

What Does a Business Chaplain Do?
Guidelines for “on the job” procedures are developed with management, which is
then available as part of the employee benefit package.

The chaplain walks through the workplace on a weekly or bi-weekly basis to
build confidential, trusting relationships. The chaplain dresses to fit into the
work environment and usually carries an organizer and a beeper.

Chaplains spend time weekly with the people that wish to see them, building
relationships and providing opportunity for communication.

Specific appointment times with the chaplain can be scheduled at the time of
the visit or by placing a request in a locked box. Most counseling will be done
during regular work hours with other times reserved for emergency situations.

Chaplains are available after hours for emergency needs via cell phone and are
available to management personnel, employees and their families in times of
crisis. Visits take place in homes, hospitals, funeral homes, jails or wherever
necessary to assist personnel in time of need.

  Comparing Business Chaplains to Employee Assistance Plans


























What Are Some of the Business Benefits?
In any given year, approximately one in six employees will face serious personal
problems that significantly affect job performance. It is the chaplains aim to
reduce these problems and improve job performance in the following areas:

        Increasing cooperation and acceptance of responsibility.
        Reducing absenteeism, time clock abuse and labor turnover.
        Improving morale among both labor and management.
        Help employees balance time for work and home life.
        Help implement stress reduction strategies.
        Promote ethics in the workplace based on Biblical principles.
        Reduce conflict in the workplace.
        Attract better workers because of a worker-friendly atmosphere.

What Are the Business Cost Considerations?
Services of a business chaplain do not cost, but will actually pay for itself,
according to company officials who have used their services through the past 25
years.  The cost of chaplain services is often offset by productivity gains alone.

As a bonus, the positive effect on people’s lives cannot be measured in dollars.

Larger companies are hiring full-time personnel to provide Employee Assistance
Programs (EAPs). Cost savings have been estimated to be 3 to 5 times the
investment. These programs are usually designed to deal primarily with critical
and crisis events.

Chaplains work at a different level. They address the root causes of many
problems people encounter before they develop into a crises and that makes
them even more productive.
  BUSINESS CHAPLAINS
 TRADITIONAL EAPs
1
 Emphases on helping people
cope with life at a primary level.  
Crisis Situations are referred to a
professional counselor.
  
2
 Emphases on prevention of
crises situations.
 Emphases on more critical
situations and crises management.
3
 An ongoing and direct Chaplain
to person contact and
relationship.
 Self imitated phone call to an
unknown therapist when
employee is in crises.
4
 Employee knows the counselor
on a personal basis as a friend
and confidant.
 Employee is usually unfamiliar
with the therapist therefore may
be reluctant to make a contact.
5
 Primary care intended as
pre-crises prevention.
 Crises response or intervention
involving professional therapist.
6
 Chaplaincy cost is usually
recovered through increased
productivity.
 Cost is viewed as an entitlement.
Productivity affect is negligible.
7
 Typical utilization is 80 to 90%
of the employees and
management personnel.
 Typical utilization is 10 to 15% of
the employees and generally not
used by management personnel.
A chaplain in your business is good business!