While love and relationships were celebrated and money spent on this week’s multi-billion-dollar Valentine’s Day celebration, Marketplace Chaplains, America’s original, largest and leading workplace chaplaincy organization is providing real-life love and relationship help every day.

Marketplace’s 1,500-plus chaplains serve the help and hurt of life, 365 days a year, encouraging those with bruised relationships, family issues, or other life problems which affect today’s business place. Many company leaders said having Marketplace Chaplains work with their employees is more important than the candy and flowers which overflowed American workplaces this week.

“Marketplace Chaplains is an organization we contract with for chaplains to call on our dealerships. The chaplains come by our dealerships weekly to say hello, speak with our team members and handle any personal issues they need to talk about,” said Huffiness Auto Dealerships Owner Ray Huffiness.

“When employees have a resource to consult about issues they’re wrestling with, they are less likely to take those burdens into the workplace and better able to manage them,” said Margaret Caput, a longtime Vice-President of Human Resources. She added it affects productivity and can help reduce absenteeism.

According to a survey of over 7,500 people conducted by the National Retail Federation (NRF) and Prosper Insights & Analytics showed a 10% drop in those who celebrated Valentine’s Day this year as compared to 2016. And spending was down by $2.5 billion.¹

Relationship issues, marriage woes and family problems have not slowed down in America’s workplace no matter what happens in the economy. And handling employee problems, needs, and relationships on a full-time basis is a great company benefit according to oil company executive Hal Chappelle. “It can be whatever the employee needs it to be,” he said. “Typically chaplains visit client company offices a few times a month and stroll the hallways, popping into employees’ offices with a greeting. Those who wish can invite the chaplain in for deeper conversation or make arrangements to meet outside of work hours.”

Marketplace Chaplains Executive President and CEO Doug Fagerstrom said having trained and caring chaplains can be a key and innovative tool in a busy executive’s toolbox on Valentine’s Day and every day. “I believe every employee in the workplace is eager for this ‘touch of love’ in their lives,” he noted. “Our chaplains show and share non-judgmental words and acts of love and kindness for every company employee they serve.”

Marketplace Chaplains currently serves in 770 companies in 3,000 different locations with more than 1,500 trained, caring, and confidential chaplains serving 683,000 employees and their family members.

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.

About Marketplace Chaplains:  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.

¹http://www.investopedia.com/news/valentines-day-spending-drops-2017m-jwn/