Businesses provide chaplains as employee benefit

Doug Green stood next to the car while an American Lube Fast mechanic worked. Green was there just in case he was needed.

He’s not a mechanic. He works on something more complex than automotive engines. Green is a workplace chaplain. Green doesn’t preach to the Lube Fast employees. He doesn’t conduct Bible study, and he doesn’t promote a specific religion. He’s simply there as a neutral party to listen.

“We’re not the church. We don’t try to be the church ...,” he said. “We just try to be a friend and encourage them. I may be the only person that’s listened to them all week long or all month long.”

Green has been a pastor for 28 years. For the last five years, he has also worked for Marketplace Chaplains USA, an organization that provides chaplains to the business world. Green is an area team leader for Marketplace Chaplains in Montgomery, Auburn, Opelika, Enterprise, Dothan and Panama City, Fla.

Many companies provide employee care programs as an employee benefit. But the biggest difference between an employee care program and a workplace chaplain is the one-on-one interaction between employees and chaplains on a regular basis — whether an employee needs someone to talk or not.

“Marketplace Chaplains is on site,” said Art Stricklin, vice president of public relations and founder Gil Stricklin’s son. “We’re there every week, and you’re interacting with someone ... You’re talking to someone that you know and that you have contact with.”

Marketplace Chaplains USA was started in 1984 in Dallas, Texas, by Gil Stricklin — a former military chaplain who believed the concept could benefit the business world. Marketplace started with one corporate client. Word spread and the organization grew. Today, Marketplace has 2,300 chaplains in 46 states, 483 cities and six different countries reaching about 420,000 employees and their families.

Pilgrim’s Pride, which has a facility in Enterprise, is the organization’s largest single client.

Other workplace chaplain organizations exist around the U.S. — Corporate Chaplains of America in Wake Forest, N.C., Workplace Chaplains USA in Cadillac, Mich., and Chaplain Associates Inc. in Atlanta.

In the Wiregrass, Doug Green and other chaplains visit client companies a couple times a week. Everyday chit chat about life may easily evolve into an employee seeking the chaplain’s assistance in a time of need. Chaplains are on call 24 hours, seven days a week.

And it’s not just large companies that use workplace chaplains. Green visits a family-owned business with only eight employees.

Even with the economic downturn, Green said Marketplace Chaplains continues to be in demand. The same economic downturn could be the reason as more people experience stress and financial worries.

“More and more companies are recognizing the need to serve their employees on a personal level,” Green said. “Stress is worse now.”

Al Wilburn, store manager of the American Lube Fast on Ross Clark Circle near South Oates, said having the chaplains means a lot of employees. Wilburn said chaplains have been there for him and his family when needed, including when he traveled to Georgia after a death in his family.

“It was really good to know our chaplains were there for us,” Wilburn said.

Marketplace recruits both male and female chaplains as well as chaplains of other ethnic backgrounds. Art Stricklin said some people feel more comfortable talking to a chaplain of the same gender, race or even religious background. If someone requests to speak with a chaplain of a particular religion — such as a Catholic, Buddhist or Jew — Marketplace will find someone if it doesn’t have a chaplain of that faith.

Stricklin said typically specific faiths don’t enter discussions between chaplains and employees.

“Our role is to listen to your problems,” he said. “The people in the company don’t have any idea whether we’re Baptist or Presbyterian. Someone doesn’t have a Church of Christ problem. They don’t have a Presbyterian problem. They have a problem.”