Should the city provide a sympathetic ear to its employees so they can unburden themselves in times of strife?
Coun. Wes Brodhead thinks so.
The first-term councillor is working behind the scenes to develop a business case to include a part-time chaplain in the 2012 budget. As a director with Edmonton Transit, Brodhead has seen the benefits of that city’s full-time chaplain.
“I thought that perhaps our civic employees in St. Albert deserved the same sort of support,” he said.
Edmonton has employed a full-time chaplain for 27 years. For the last five years that person has been John Dowds. He believes Edmonton is the only municipality in Canada to provide a chaplain to all its employees, which number 11,000.
Dowds is on call 24/7. He provides a confidential ear that people can confide in during times of stress, crisis, grief or illness. He deals with issues of spirituality and is trained in critical incident stress management.
Like many companies and municipalities, Edmonton has a formal employee assistance program that provides access to various types of counselling, but Dowds senses that employees feel more comfortable coming to him because he’s a familiar presence.
“Sometimes the idea of going to a psychologist or to a counsellor through our employee family assistance program might be just a bit too daunting so they may sort of dip their toe in the water with me first,” he said.
Chaplains are ordained ministers but approach issues in an ecumenical fashion, meaning they deal with all faiths and don’t try to change anyone’s beliefs. When warranted, they’ll refer people to other faith leaders or more specialized counsellors.
All Weather Windows, a large manufacturer with its head office in Edmonton’s west end, has two chaplains, one full-time and one part-time. They are kept very busy because the company’s 1,200 employees know and trust them, said vice-president of human resources Onkar Athwal.
The chaplains can spot trends and identify issues that are causing employee stress, allowing the company to address problems before they become significant, Athwal said.
He feels the chaplaincy program has improved employees’ mental and physical health and has improved the company’s relationship with its employees.
“It just creates an atmosphere of community within the company where people care about the company and they care about each other,” he said.
He feels this helps with employee retention.
“It’s really looking after the welfare of our employees. We look after them, they look after us,” he said.
St. Albert has experienced higher than average turnover among its staff in recent months. The city already provides free access to a private firm that offers counselling services but there might be merit to the chaplain idea, said city manager Bill Holtby.
“In modern society, corporations and businesses are becoming more and more required to provide services to have satisfied employees,” he said. “If a chaplaincy could add value to our current support systems, then I would certainly consider it.”
For Brodhead, the value of Edmonton’s chaplain was reinforced two weeks ago when an employee was killed by a transit bus while crossing a downtown street. This was traumatic for the co-workers of the deceased as well as the driver.
“The first person everybody phoned was the chaplain,” Brodhead said.
Brodhead doesn’t feel a full-time position is warranted for St. Albert, which has about 550 employees. He doesn’t yet have solid estimates for the cost of a part-time chaplain but he’s thinking in the range of $30,000 to $40,000.
“I know it’s not going to bankrupt the city,” he said.
