Callen Cochran had a moment of clarity standing in a pallet facility that wasn’t his own.
It was 2018, and Cochran, president of United Pallet Services in Modesto, California, was visiting James Ruder of L&R Pallet in Denver. Ruder was talking about a lot of things that day, but one detail lodged itself deep in Cochran’s thinking: L&R Pallet had a chaplain on site for his employees.
“I remember hearing about the chaplain program, and this light bulb went off,” Cochran recalled.
James Ruder didn’t just talk about his company’s transformation. He showed others in the pallet industry what was going on at his facility. Cochran admitted, “Translating that back to your company and in your circumstance, it takes time, and it’s not always easy.”
It would take a few more years before United Pallet Services formally launched its own chaplaincy program through Marketplace Chaplains. But that seed planted in 2018 eventually grew into something Cochran describes as genuinely transformative for his workforce, his leadership team and himself.
Building Trust Takes Time
United Pallet signed its agreement with Marketplace Chaplains in June 2021, and by late that year, chaplain Jose had begun making his weekly Thursday visits to the plant floor. The company’s workforce is predominantly Hispanic, many of them Spanish-speaking. Finding a bilingual chaplain who could connect culturally and personally was essential to the program’s success. At first, Cochran recalls, Jose’s car would be in the lot for about an hour. Now, he’s there the entire morning.
“He’s like family,” Cochran said. “A lot of these guys have a lot of respect for him. He really resonates with everybody.”
But the relationship didn’t build overnight, and that’s a point both Cochran and Danica Raye Dedmon, the executive director of expansion for Marketplace Chaplains, noted. Dedmon, who works with United Pallet on managing its program, wants other business owners to understand the timeline before they expect quick results.
“There’s a trust issue that has to be built,” Cochran stated. “I can tell the employees, ‘Here’s a chaplain; Jose cares about you.’ I can say that, but that doesn’t mean much. The chaplain has to earn their trust, and that takes time.”
Dedmon explained that Marketplace Chaplains typically places at least one male and one female chaplain at each client company, but United Pallet has become something of a special case. Jose has built such deep rapport there that the team has flourished with him as the singular consistent presence. His ability to connect vocationally, culturally and spiritually with the workforce has made him uniquely effective.
“This connection has then positioned him to be in a place where he could host a Good Friday service,” Dedmon explained. “That’s not something we say when we pursue a new company partner. ‘We’re going to do church service type things for you.’ The priority is finding the good fit of someone who’s going to build trust and really customize how they fit into the family of the company.”
When It Matters Most
There have been moments at United Pallet where Jose’s presence meant far more than routine morale support. In 2023, the company lost its largest customer overnight. Several million dollars of business was gone in an instant. Cochran made the painful decision to lay off 19 employees. He immediately called Jose.
“I said, ‘Jose, can you be out here that morning?’ And he did. He showed up. He was out in the parking lot and he made himself available,” Cochran explained. “Even though this feels like a transactional relationship. You’re an employee, you show up, you work hard, you get paid; we still care about you as a person.”
The presence of a chaplain during that difficult morning sent a message money couldn’t buy. There was also the tragic day that a longtime employee named Chipola was struck by a car just outside the plant gate after being picked up by his wife. Many employees witnessed the accident. He did not survive. “Jose spent a lot of time here, just ministering to people that had witnessed that tragedy,” Cochran recalled. “And the fact that they lost a close coworker who was very well liked.”
And then there was the story that perhaps best captures what the program has become. When Jose’s adult daughter passed away and he was out for several weeks, his absence was deeply felt by the plant floor. When word spread about his loss, United Pallet employees did something no manager had planned or orchestrated. They stopped production on their own, gathered in a large circle and prayed for their chaplain.
“One of our employees had such an emotional prayer that it gave me goosebumps,” Cochran said. “Here’s the chaplain you have on site to help counsel your employees, and here the employees are trying to counsel him. And it’s like, man, this is what it’s all about.”
The Business Case and Beyond
Cochran is candid that measuring the ROI of a chaplaincy program doesn’t fit neatly into a spreadsheet. But he points to one number that speaks for itself. Last year, out of a workforce of more than 100 employees, he could count on one hand how many employees actually left.
“I think that’s hard to quantify,” he commented. “But I do know that employees, when you talk to them, it seems like our company has created a culture where employees do feel seen, heard and cared for.”
The company’s first core value is “People First,” and Cochran said that he can’t imagine claiming that value without a chaplaincy service to back it up.
Dedmon emphasizes a benefit that often gets overlooked in the conversation: the relief it provides to middle managers. “So many people have risen into management because they’re really great at the work, but the people side is so heavy to carry,” she said. “When we can relieve them from some of that weight, it’s amazing how they feel so much more equipped to manage the hard people side of things.”
She also drew a sharp contrast with the employee assistance programs many companies already have in place. “The percentage of people that actually take the step to use an 800 number or online resource is so small because of that trust gap,” Dedmon explained. “Whereas when you’ve got that consistent presence of a chaplain visiting, usage just skyrockets, because it’s a safe place.”
Will Employees Engage with Chaplains?
Before a chaplain ever sets foot on the property, management meets with the chaplaincy organization to identify the need, schedule and what a program might look like. Usually a program starts with an introductory meeting involving food to bring the chaplain and employees together.
Some wonder if employees will talk to a chaplain. Cochran clarified, “There’s a lot of strict confidentiality in what employees share with Jose, and it is not something that we monitor in terms of who he talks with. If employees need to take a break to chat with the chaplain, we are not going to give them a hard time about that.” The employer does receive a report from Marketplace Chaplains indicating the number of interactions. But actual details about what an employee shares are strictly confidential. The only exception would be if somebody were threatening to hurt himself/herself or someone else.
Initially, some employees may be skeptical about a chaplain. Dedmon advised, “I have seen people in the back with arms crossed saying out loud, ‘I don’t know why our company’s doing this. We don’t need you. Nobody’s ever going to share anything.” And then this same person is calling the chaplain a year later after a major life crisis after he or she has seen the consistent presence of a chaplain.
Advice for Those Just Starting Out
For pallet companies considering a chaplaincy program, Cochran’s message is simple. He suggested, “Be patient, and don’t look for metrics right away.”
“It’s the right thing to do if you really care about the environment where your employees work,” he says. “But you’re not going to see the results on paper like your other key metrics. Over a year, two years, three years, you’re going to hear stories come out, and employees are going to tell you they feel more cared for than at any job they’ve ever had.”
Ruder’s words from that 2018 visit still resonate with Cochran. Ruder suggested, “Employees don’t leave their personal baggage at the gate when they clock in. They bring it to their workstations, and it affects their focus, their performance, and their safety. A trusted chaplain gives them somewhere to set that load down, even if only for a conversation on a Thursday morning.”
“There is so much anxiety and uncertainty in the world today. People are just facing stress from every angle,” Cochran stated. “If we can do one thing for our employees and if that can make them feel even 10% better, then that’s worth everything right there.”
Editor’s Note: Marketplace Chaplains provides workplace chaplaincy services to companies nationwide. For more information, please visit www.marketplacechaplains.com.
