New data show that 55% of U.S. adults, or 115 million women and men, regularly turn to prayer to help them cope with the coronavirus outbreak.
These Pew Research Center data point to the importance of including faith as part of resources for employees as they navigate work in the age of Covid-19.
Although not all Americans report that they turn to prayer in order to cope with the stresses posed by the pandemic, 115 million is a sizable number. These millions of religiously active Americans are also taking their spiritual resources into the workplace.
Workplace religious inclusion is a growing trend in corporate America that is being embraced by some of the largest and most recognizable companies. From Google to Facebook to Walmart, companies from a range of industries are recognizing that faith-friendly environments mean better workplaces and better businesses.
Following the groundbreaking Faith@Work conference in February 2020, each month the Religious Freedom & Business Foundation hosts a “Faith & Belief Employee Resource Group (ERG) Community Call” where employees and executives come together to discuss latest trends in the corporate programs that foster religious inclusion.
Since April, representatives from companies including from Intel, American Express, American Airlines, Salesforce, and most recently DELL Technologies, have shared about their multi-faith programs aimed at not only encouraging members at work but also reaching out to the communities where they work.
Two trends are helping to accelerate this more welcoming attitude toward faith in the workplace. First, religion and belief are being recognized as key elements of a company’s overall diversity and inclusion initiatives, which makes sense since America is becoming more religiously diverse.
And second, there is a groundswell of interest from within companies. It’s a grassroots movement that is being embraced by corporate leadership because it is not only good for their faith-interested employees, but it adds to the bottom line through increased morale as well as greater resources to understand marketplaces that are also becoming more religiously diverse.
Click here to learn more about the ways the Religious Freedom & Business Foundation is working with companies to build more religiously inclusive workplaces.