Why You Need Faith In The Workplace

This is a guest post by Mark Griffin, head of In His Name HR. In His Name HR provides human resource consulting for small and medium-sized kingdom-minded businesses. Mark has served in the US Air Force. In addition to serving as VP of Human Resources for an international agricultural equipment manufacturer, Mark has also worked in a variety of HR leadership roles for Fortune 100 companies such as Merck, Kodak and Quaker Oats as well as privately held and employee owned-companies such as Woolrich and Townsends. I got to meet Mark about a month ago and loved his heart for helping manage one of the most difficult aspects of running a business – human resources. Find Mark at InHisNameHR.com, twitter, linked in, and facebook.

Unfortunately today’s churches are empty. More than any other time in history your employees are spending an increased amount of time commuting to and from work, working in their workplaces, working in the evenings and on the weekends, disengaged from their families and communities. These increased hours have resulted in employees spending more waking hours at work than they are spending time at home with their families, with friends or volunteering in their communities. Because of this, we all have an opportunity and a mission; a mission to reach those who need saved. This is the world’s untapped harvest, a field of opportunity. And as God proclaims, we need more workers into his fields.

Matthew 9: 35-38 says, “ Jesus went through all the towns and villages, teaching in their synagogues, proclaiming the good news of the kingdom and healing every disease and sickness. When he saw the crowds, he had compassion on them, because they were harassed and helpless, like sheep without a shepherd. Then he said to his disciples, “The harvest is plentiful but the workers are few. Ask the Lord of the harvest, therefore, to send out workers into his harvest field.”

In the United States According to a December 2008 Gallup poll, 42 percent of U.S. residents (about 128 million Americans) say they attend religious services at least once per week. This number is probably misleading because many people may have embellished their attendance a bit out of a sense of guilt or obligation! However, assuming it is accurate that would leave a whopping 58% of U.S. residents not attending any religious services each week. This is a concern, because it clearly proves that, statistically speaking, your employees are probably not spiritually grounded.

That is where Christian business owners and executives should step in to help God fill the void. 

As a human resources professional with 20 years of experience in both public and private companies, I can tell you from firsthand experience that the lack of faith in our workplace affects every aspect of the workplace. Employees’ lack of time to focus on their own spiritual needs will undoubtedly affect productivity, quality and safety. Harder to measure but just as important, it affects their and their coworker’s morale. Employees lacking in faith will bring far more problems to the workplace than those who are Christ followers.

You can try to run your business without God or you can include him in your plans. I urge you to include him. He is the ultimate business partner!

Therefore, those of us that are hesitant to embrace Christianity in the workplace must really look at it not only from a spiritual perspective, but from a business perspective as well. Far from being self-serving, this shows the attitude of a responsible business owner, attempting to prosper their business for the financial security and future of their employees and employees’ families.

Makes Financial Sense
Leading a Company with Christ-centered values just makes business sense. Christ centered organizations experience:

• Lower absenteeism
• Higher quality products
• Less employee morale issues
• Safer work environments
• Better perceptions by customers and vendors

What I have found to work
You must have a Vision, Mission, and Core Values. Many business professionals stop there. I urge all of you to go further. Integrate your core values into your Human Resources practices. This will:

• Memorialize your standards
• Provide guiding principles in all you do
• Make your values easily understood by employees
• Drive a values-based culture with your customers

Don’t just hang your Vision, Mission, and Core Values on the wall! Integrate, Integrate and Integrate some more. Get your values into your culture and make it part of the way you do work.

I believe that employees who work for an outwardly faith based Christian organization are committed at a different level than those in non-faith based organizations. Employees are more likely to go the extra mile, to trust their leadership, to deliver on their promises and be led by those who demonstrate Christ-like servant leadership, because they can!