Corporate Chaplains

The September issue of Workforce Management also has a very interesting article by Nancy Randle discussing a growing trend among companies to offer on-site chaplains to counsel employees on matters ranging from family problems to grief management. The article–“Deskside help for troubled workers: Companies hire outsource chaplains“–states that according to the National Institute of Business and Industrial Chaplains there are about 4,000 pastors in the workplace nationwide (with cost ranging from $8-10 a month per employee) and that reasons for the trend could be terrorism and job insecurity, contributing to employee anxiety. (Link is to Table of Contents–subscription required.) The article also notes that President George W. Bush can also be credited with fueling the trend since he is “very forward in the practice of his his faith in the workplace, which has opened the door wider for business owners to say, ‘If it’s good enough for him, it’s good enough for me.'”