MCE Employee Wellbeing News

Gregory Walters (Prayer Warrior MChap Europe), George Zammitt (London City Mission), Clois Smith (Chaplain, MChap USA), Jonathan Martin (MChap Europe) meet at the Victory Service Club London, under the watchful eye of Prime Minister Winston Churchill, to pray for business leaders and their staff across Europe.

Marketplace Chaplains Europe.

100,000 people infected by Swine Flu in a week was the official statistic given today, with 840 cases being admitted to hospital. It would seem that rather than worrying about whether swine flu is going to break out, we have to face looking at what effect it will have and how we can apply that to our lives and businesses.

Broadcaster Clive James yesterday spoke of his memories of the 1918 flu pandemic and the devastation caused by that pandemic. It was important he said, that we didn’t forget advances in medical science to deal with flu had only been around for seventy years. We should be grateful for having a vaccine at all, regardless of whether it is behind schedule in becoming available.

So what does this mean for your business?

How will your employees and staff cope?

Are you prepared to deal with counselling for those involved? Especially if relatives or loved ones to your employees fall victim to the disease.

This is where Marketplace Chaplains Europe can help your business. With specially trained professionals who deal with bereavement counselling, guidance through stress and anxiety as well as even providing home visits to those who are ill, Marketplace Chaplains Europe will provide a stabilising force in your workplace helping to keep business turning over as normal as possible. The aim is to allow you as an employer to continue to do your job.

For more information on how Marketplace Chaplains Europe can help your business through the swine flu pandemic, call us now on 0845 458 1600

Markeplace Chaplains Europe

According to HR researchers at Aberdeen Group who conducted a survey in 2006, more than 4 in 5 businesses were outsourcing some of their HR function or were planning to do so in the near future.

The main reasons for this were threefold. Firstly cost reduction with lower overheads, the ability to free up time to concentrate on HR strategy and then lastly the expectation of receiving a better service from professional experts dedicated to a defined role.

There is much evidence that almost four years later, the case for outsourcing is still very much the same.

With Marketplace Chaplains Europe, clients are also buying services based on similar reasoning. The chaplains are well equipped and trained to deal with a hands on business environment. They are dedicated professionals who approach companies with a defined role, with the added bonus of a real “human” dimension.

Strategic HRO Director at NorthgateArinso points out that “Cost savings are always a major issue, particularly with the current economic climate, but it also has a lot to do with allowing an in-house team to focus on strategy and let an outsourcer take on the roll of day to day business”. He stresses that “They [businesses] want to keep hold of their strategy, though, and focus on it from within”.

This last point is a very important factor and has been one of the key elements to Marketplace Chaplains Europe’s success in the workplace. With the high degree of transparency provided by a professional chaplaincy service, MCE allow their clients to take full control of their HR strategy while taking the strain of the actual implementation.

Marketplace Chaplains Europe have just finished holding a week of training sessions with Dr Dan Truitt flying over from America to be involved and to lead some of the sessions.

These sessions follow on from the meetings held back over Easter when the initial body of UK Chaplains were brought together for a weekend together in London.

Meetings were held at the beginning of the week in Glenrothes and then further meetings held down in Poole at Marketplace Chaplains Head Office.

Outcomes from these meetings and talks will be forthcoming and the Marketplace Chaplains Europe website will be being updated accordingly over the next couple of weeks.

MCHAP

In todays Daily Telegraph it was reported that a survey carried out by Kings College London showed that employee engagement was rated by HR professionals as their key workforce priority for 2009. David Guest, Professor of Organizational Psychology and HR Management at King’s College London states that Engagement matters for two reasons.

One is the desire to retain the commitment of key employees as organizations emerge from the recession. The other is a hope that engaged employees will help firms “do more with less” and contribute to more efficient working following staff cutbacks. HR managers are acutely aware of the impact of badly implemented downsizing plans can have on employee trust and commitment.

From a Chaplaincy point of view, this is extremely important. Not only does a Chaplain in the workplace counterbalance this mistrust that can surround downsizing plans and the fear of redundancy. They can also actively help in keeping hold of key employees, those employees that a business needs to hold on to despite the economic recession.

David Guest says that in the current climate, there is real potential for managers to think that they can rely on the threat of job insecurity and limited external opportunities to ensure remaining employees meet performance needs. This is where, David Guest implies, there is a direct threat to employee engagement.

The difference that UK Chaplains with Marketplace Chaplains Europe can bring to this is that they are a direct answer to this problem of engagement. Chaplains have a personal touch and the the ability to cross boundaries that some managers simply cannot cross. This is where Marketplace Chaplains are unique and where other HR companies can’t compete, as Chaplains working in the UK can really work on a personal level as well as a business level with employees.

This is one of the principle ways in which Markeplace Chaplains provide a serious return on investment.