Marketplace Chaplains Using 21st Century Technology to Help Solve Needs in Workplace
June 30, 2016 | 
Marketplace Matters
While many workplace companies in the U.S. and internationally are cutting IT capital spending to levels not seen in many years, Marketplace Chaplains, America’s largest and original workplace chaplaincy organization, is reversing the trend by investing in new technologies to keep up with the growing demands in the workplace.
Over the last year, Marketplace Chaplain’s headquarters has invested significant resources with the goal of making the chaplain’s job easier, faster, and more responsive to the needs of employees in a growing, tech-savvy workplace.
Among the items Marketplace Chaplains has invested in, is an innovative chaplain app for smartphones known as “MyChap” which gives employees access to their chaplain 24/7 via a call, text, email or to schedule a meeting. Another resource is Connect Care, a specialized service with dedicated chaplains which utilizes cell phones, texts, and emails to reach remote, offsite or home-based employees. A new computer system which will debut this fall, known as the Digital Care Platform (DCP), provides a single place for remote input by chaplains, and metrics and key performance indicators for field leaders to manage over 3,900 locations, and 1,797 chaplains. It also has a robust graphical reporting system for company leaders to ascertain the ROI of their employee care service. Marketplace’s new technologies are not intended to sacrifice the personal touch of chaplains but to enhance it.
The change hasn’t gone unnoticed among Marketplace company CEOs, many who have been investing in technology for years themselves, including online business eLanguages, Inc., of Venice, Florida. “As a completely virtual business (online language translations), we needed to find a way to minister to our teams around the world in a new and unorthodox way. Marketplace Chaplains gave us the solution: Connect Care. They were very flexible from the start and willing to be creative to help us reach our people,” said eLanguages CEO Pamela Peterson.
“I think it’s cool that I can just use the MyChap app on my phone to message a chaplain if I need anything or alert him or her to any issue,” added Brad Baylis, President of City Wide Mechanical in Dallas. “It’s cool technology.”
The increased spending and use of technology by Marketplace Chaplains, under the leadership of new CEO and Executive President Doug Fagerstrom and Chief Technology Officer Gary Ellis, is in contrast to many companies which are cutting their technology to new, lower levels.
In a recent report in Fortune Magazine, International Data analyst Stephen Minton said spending growth in IT is down nationally. “U.S. companies will increase their spending, but not by the rate it has been over the last two years.” Hardware spending in 2016 for all U.S. companies is expected to grow 3% to about $133 billion. Telecommunications and financial services companies—typically among the biggest spenders on IT—are expected to have flat to little growth in spending, said Minton.1
“They do a great job building personal relationships and making themselves available for support not only for the employees but also their families,” said Brett Moore, CFO of McLane Group, LP, in Temple, Texas.
“Using 21st century technology to help to hurt employees and their family members in the workplace is always a great investment for others, but no amount of technology can replace the helping, healing in-person touch of a Marketplace chaplain, “ said Fagerstrom. “It is new technology to meet the common and growing needs of hurt, lost hope, sorrow and disconnection in today’s workplace.”
Marketplace Chaplains currently serves more than 600,000 client company employees and their family members in 46 states, 9 provinces, 1,166 cities, and 6 international countries, and 1 commonwealth.
For more information on this unique employee benefit which has been featured in Marketplace Chaplains on CNN, NBC Nightly News, and in the Washington Post, the New York Times and Bloomberg BusinessWeek, visit https://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
