According to a recent 2013 Department of Labor Statistics report¹, more than 2 million people voluntarily leave their current job every month. And according to an Accenture survey², 31% leave due to a lack of feedback/recognition from supervisors.  This is an alarming trend being addressed by hundreds of CEOs who utilize the employee care benefit services of Marketplace Chaplains.

Marketplace Chaplains, based in Dallas, Texas, has added more than 100 new client companies in 2013, seemingly due to the increasing trend of corporations trying to keep talented employees by caring for their needs.

Other responses cited in the Accenture survey to “which of the following would be reasons for you to leave your current job?” included, 31% long and/or inflexible hours, 28% unable to make an impact at work, and 19% said ‘I want to leave my current job but I don’t feel I can because…’

One recent letter written by a department employee to a Marketplace Chaplains’ client company HR Director in Texas, expressed the appreciation for this unique employee service, “Today is my last day with the company, and I didn’t want to leave without telling all of you about my appreciation for one of our company’s best benefits, the (Marketplace) Chaplain Care Team.  My father passed away last December and my mom has been near death this year.  The ability to call a chaplain day or night and receive support both here and in Midland, Texas, has made a huge difference.”  It is employee letters of appreciation about the personal care such as this that set

Marketplace Chaplains apart in making a difference through such extended care.Marketplace Chaplains provides more than two dozen services for the hundreds of thousands of employees and over half a million of their family members it serves, as part of the unique and innovative benefit.

Another recent corporate study³ showcased the fact that when employees leave, it’s often not just about money.  The study went on to state that while sometimes changing jobs is about money, more often employees said they weren’t getting the personal attention, mentoring, coaching, or the training they wanted.

Company CEOs who are using Marketplace Chaplains cited it’s a way to help employees during difficult and troubling times.  Steve Troyer, President of Canada-based, Troyer Ventures, Ltd., said, “I am  the ‘boss’ who hires and fires workers so sometimes my people don’t want to talk with me about personal problems.  However, they will talk with a chaplain, a third party, as an insider yet still an outsider.”

“When you have 80 employees and 80 families, you have 80 sets of problems. That’s what our Marketplace Chaplains are here to help with,” said Johnny Bledsoe, CEO of Sturdisteel Industries in Waco, Texas, one of the largest providers of metal football bleachers and press boxes in the U.S.

“It’s another tool in my management tool box,” said Service Lighting CEO Kim Pedersen. “Someone who I can count on to help our employees.”

An e-mail from an employee to a supervisor who uses Marketplace Chaplains in their Kansas City, Kansas, company stated, “I appreciate that you can offer some help in my personal life and I plan to use it as much as possible. I think it is so cool and I never would have thought of it as an option. Thank you for caring for your employees outside the workplace.”

“These farsighted company leaders have found that taking care of their most important asset, their employees and their family members, will pay off greatly in the long term for both the employees and the company at-large,” said Richard S. De Witt, President and COO of Marketplace Chaplains.

Marketplace Chaplains was formed in 1984, with one chaplain serving 150 employees. Today, Marketplace has over 2,800 chaplains who serve over 147,000 employees in more than 3,000 locations across 44 states, 979 U.S. cities and in 23 international cities, 4 countries and 1 commonwealth.

References:

1. United States Department of Labor.  Bureau of Labor Statistics.  Economic News Release Table 4. Quit levels and rates by industry and region, seasonally adjusted.  November 22, 2013. http://www.bls.gov/news.release/jolts.t04.htm
2. Accenture. IWD 2013 Report. p. 29. http://www.accenture.com/SiteCollectionDocuments/PDF/Accenture-IWD-2013-Research-Deck-022013.pdf
3. Expert Blog.  Annie Murphy Paul.  “Why Young Workers Leave (It’s Usually Not About The Money)”.  September 18, 2012.