A national survey released in early 2014 showed that, on average, U.S. companies increased their training budget by 15% last year, the highest increase in 7 years. It was a finding in line with the hundreds of thousands of dollars spent in training chaplains by the industry workplace chaplains’ leader, Marketplace Chaplains USA.

A 2014 report from Bersin by Deloitte¹ points out that companies continue to spend heavily to advance the skills of their employees, and that the more highly rated companies spend more on their employees.

One interesting side note of the national training survey is the majority of companies listed on FORTUNE Magazine’s “Best Companies to Work For”² invest heavily in training and staff development.  Two of these Top 20 companies, David Weekley Homes ranked #13 and Hilcorp Energy Company ranked as #15, attribute their employee benefit of corporate chaplains as playing an integral role.

“We value our partnership as an excellent way of meeting our partner’s most important needs,” said Hilcorp Energy Corporation Chairman CEO Jeff Hildebrand.

In 2013, companies on the FORTUNE Magazine “Top 100” survey offered 66.5 hours of training annually for salaried employees and 53 hours of training for hourly employees, a total roughly equivalent to that of Marketplace Chaplains.

Marketplace Chaplains USA, the nation’s original and largest chaplaincy organization, is celebrating its 30^th Anniversary this year, and has steadily increased its training budget to mirror that of the hundreds of corporate clients it serves in 3,100 locations in 969 U.S. cities and 45 states, 4 foreign countries, 1 commonwealth and 22 international cities.

“There is nothing more important to this organization, than further equipping the already highly qualified men and women chaplains, who offer help, hope and healing to the employees they serve in today’s corporate world,” said Dr. Dan Truitt, Marketplace Chaplains Vice President and Director of National Training and Staff Development. Dan has served with Marketplace for over 25 years and even wrote and taught the first-ever workplace chaplaincy curriculum for seminary students.

On average, Marketplace Chaplains have 22 years of caregiving experience, many with Masters and Doctorate levels of education in a variety of fields, as well as previous work experience in both secular and faith-based occupations. Every applicant undergoes thorough background checks and extensive personal reference checks, in addition to multiple interviews across several layers of Marketplace leadership.

In addition to their experience and caregiving skills, newly hired chaplains receive specific orientation and professional chaplain training on the issues they will face in the workplace, including ethical and legal constraints in the business world and how to relate to company management.  Through on-going support and training, each chaplain whether a new hire or a veteran, is part of a chaplain team supported and supervised by a veteran leadership team in chaplaincy and administration.

The Marketplace International Training Department is guided by Dr. Dan Truitt and Director of Chaplain Training and Development, Marv Wittenburg, a former National Trainer for the Social Security Administration who brings 40 years of training development expertise to Marketplace Chaplains. Together they recently launched the new training website, The Chaplain Resource Center³, which provides guidelines and experiential resources from serving over 3 million hours of chaplain service to corporate America.

“Marketplace Chaplains is committed to excellence in the area of chaplain training and the training never stops.  Whether a new Marketplace Chaplain or a 20+ year veteran, there is a wide range of training materials available 24 hours a day, for the over 2,800 chaplains serving more than 550,000 employees and their family members.  Training materials include resources for new chaplain training, instructional guides covering policies and procedures as well as numerous training tools for enhancing the personal skills of our chaplains.  Continuing education materials are presented topically and deal with a number of areas of chaplain caregiving, such as improving listening techniques, providing premarital chaplain care, as well as issue related guides for dealing with specific needs such as depression, stress and grief,” said  Marv Wittenburg.

“The essence of the effectiveness of our Employee Care Service is professionally trained and experienced chaplains directly serving employees and their families of our corporate clients. The selection, training and support of these chaplains are the highest priorities for Marketplace Chaplains,” said Marketplace Chaplains Executive President and COO Richard S. De Witt.

References:

1                 http://marketing.bersin.com/corporate-learning-factbook-2014.html

2                 http://money.cnn.com/magazines/fortune/best-companies/2014/list/

3                 www.marketplacetraining.com