Professionals Tap a Higher Power in the Workplace

Workforce Management
April 2011
Although religion remains a taboo topic at some companies, more employers are allowing workers to embrace their spiritual beliefs while on the job. By Fara Warner

New employees at Tyson Foods Inc. sit through much the same orientation about policies and procedures as new hires at any other company. But they hear from someone most employees don’t: a chaplain.
One of the company’s 120 chaplains gives a short lecture on the spiritual leaders’ role at Tyson, which several years ago rewrote its mission statement to include the words “faith-friendly” and “God.” “Primarily, we are here to demonstrate to all our people how deeply we care for them,” says Richard McKinnie, Tyson’s head chaplain. “Just as we have nurses who take care of the physical parts of our employees’ lives, we are here to help with the spiritual component of their lives.”
McKinnie’s chaplain program serves as an employee resource to help people deal with issues such as work-life balance, a divorce, or a death or sickness in the family. The chaplains are quite visible as they walk the floors of the company’s plants and offices every day listening to people’s concerns and sometimes praying with them. On plant floors, chaplains wear workplace smocks or hard hats with their name and the word “chaplain” written on the front.

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