MEDIA

Marketplace Chaplains’ Client Pioneer Natural Resources Gets Top DFW Honor

January 23, 2015  |   tagMarketplace Matters

High profile Marketplace Chaplains’ client company Pioneer Natural Resources was recently honored in The Dallas Morning News as the “Best Place to Work” in North Texas based on its wide variety of employee benefits including workplace chaplains.
The recent findings mirror an earlier 2014 FORTUNE Magazine survey which showed Houston-based David Weekley Homes and Hilcorp Energy, both which use Marketplace Chaplains services for their employees and family members, also among the top 15 companies in America to work for.

“At Hilcorp, we look for three things in our employees – energy, intelligence and ethics,” said Founder, Chairman and CEO Jeff Hildebrand. “We are very fortunate to have chaplains to care for our employees and their family members. Chaplains are a wonderful help for our employees and a meaningful way to help each other.”

Pioneer Natural Resources is one of only 12 companies in North Texas to make the “Best Places to Work” list every year since this prestigious listing began in 2009. This was their first year to win the top ranking. “Pioneer Natural Resources has bubbled to the top like Jed Clampett’s crude oil,” The Dallas Morning News story read. “Keeping employees enthusiastic year after year takes careful nurturing,” said one company leader.

“Regardless of title or location, many of our employees are dealing with significant life issues. The power of Marketplace Chaplains is that they are in the people business,” said Pioneer Vice President Paul McDonald. “They impact our employees, both in the field and corporate offices.”

In awarding Irving-based Pioneer the top honor in the annual survey, the story cited Pioneer’s vast array of employee benefits from on-site gyms to free lunches, to tuition assistance, etc., but McDonald said Marketplace Chaplains offered something more. “The significance of Marketplace Chaplains is that we take the extra step in telling people we care about them and that transcends a nice trip,” added McDonald.

Huffines Auto Dealerships, one of the original North Texas Marketplace Chaplains client companies, ranked 18th in the large company category.

David Weekley, the Chairman of his namesake David Weekley Homes, said his 14-year partnership with Marketplace Chaplains has made a big difference for his thousands of employees. “Our company has been recognized as one of Fortune’s ‘Best Companies to Work For,’ for the last several years. The chaplain program is a low-cost employee benefit that has garnered us more loyalty than our other ‘standard’ benefits and resulted in lower turnover, improved morale, and a general sense of ‘caring’ on the company’s part about our employees’ well-being,” added Weekley.

Marketplace Chaplains currently has 2,880 chaplains who serve more than 3,300 client company locations in 46 states, 1,401 cities and 6 countries and 1 commonwealth.

“We are certainly thrilled The Dallas Morning News, FORTUNE Magazine and other publications have confirmed what dozens of visionary CEOs and company leaders have proven – the use of Marketplace Chaplains for employees and family members is a wise business decision and a wise people decision,” said Marketplace Executive President and COO Richard S. De Witt.
For more information on this unique employee benefit which has been featured with Marketplace Chaplains on CNN, NBC Nightly News, and in the Washington Post, the New York Times and Bloomberg BusinessWeek, visit http://www.mchapusa.com.
To arrange an interview with a Marketplace Chaplain contact Art Stricklin, Vice President Public Relations, at artstricklin@mchapusa.com or call 1-800-775-7657.