Family businesses nationwide have been using the unique strategic initiative of Marketplace Chaplains to make sure their family and their business stays intact for generations.

“We’ve been here for more than 50 years and we certainly don’t plan on going anywhere, but one thing I’ve learned in business is employees have so much more on their plate and minds that has nothing to do with work. “That’s what led me to believe that chaplains were a good thing to have for our business,” said Alan Walne, Chairman and Managing Partner, of Herb’s Paint and Body, which has seven Dallas-area locations for its car repair business.

He took over the business founded by his parents, Francis and Herb Walne, and is determined to care for his employees and ultimately his customers in the right way.

“We want to make sure our employee turnover rate is as low as it can be and make sure our people are happy. Employees have a lot on their minds that doesn’t relate to work, and that’s where chaplains can help.”

Randy Turnbow, Chairman and third-generation of EME, Inc., a chemical solvent and bonding company in Compton, California, agreed. He said having Marketplace Chaplains are key to maintaining the family environment which has lasted 50 years. Through the many ups and downs over the last 50 years at EME, Inc., Turnbow said one of the most important lessons he learned is one that is still paying benefits, the use of Marketplace Chaplains in his company.

“Years ago, I discovered that companies all over the United States used a private company, Marketplace Chaplains, who supplied chaplains to a company or corporation.  The chaplains would walk through a company and chat briefly and privately with any employee who wished to talk with them about the problems of life they were encountering.

“This could be for the spiritual or emotional problems they were having to problems with their family or their children. The conversation was often about illness or injury in a family, a lack of a job, or legal problems. These types of situations affected all employees and also affected their ability to work up to their potential because of worry and loss of time at work.  I quickly realized that no safety net existed for these types of problems for our people,” said Turnbow.

Waco, Texas’, Sturdisteel Company is one of the largest manufactures of metal stadium seats, and Sales Manager Taylor Bledsoe said it’s important that the work he and his father have started with their employees, continues with chaplains.

“We want to be known as a family company which cares, that’s where Marketplace Chaplains has helped our many employees,” said Bledsoe.

“It doesn’t matter if the company is large or small, Fortune 500 or family-owned; having a professional caregiver who is a trained and caring Marketplace Chaplain has proven to benefit the company’s bottom line and their top line, employees and their family members,” said Marketplace Chaplains’ President & COO Dick De Witt.