RELIGION IN THE WORKPLACE

At $125 million/8,500-member Ensign Federal Credit Union (www.ensignfcu.org) in southern Nevada, a credit union serving members of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, most of the 45 staff members are LDS, as are nearly all volunteers and even members. Religion is, obviously, a foundational

element of this credit union, and that influence is reflected at board meetings (which all begin with prayer), annual meetings (which begin with prayer) and religious discussions. While the credit union doesn't have group prayers or sanction special times for religious discussion, it's not uncommon to hear details of a Sunday school lesson or a Sunday sermon in the office on Monday. It's simply part of the credit union's culture.

$822 million/74,000-member Community First Credit Union (www.communityfirstcu.org) in Appleton, Wis., has an active Christian, non-denominational prayer group that has been in place for many years. The group meets on Thursday mornings before work in a conference room and a senior team member manages the prayer group as well as a "prayer chain." This team member also provides a daily e-mail Bible verse that employees can sign up to receive (50 of the credit union's 300 employees have signed up). The e-mail, while allowed to go through the credit union's system, is sent before or after work hours.

"Over the years," says President/CEO Catherine Tierney, CCUE, a CUES member, "I've had many employees thank me for allowing this at our credit union. We don't advertise or push it in any way, but those who choose to participate are very grateful to have this opportunity to share this part of their lives with co-workers."

At $12 million/2,400-member Town & Country Family Credit Union with 9 employees in Saginaw, Mich., the opinion on religion at work is: If employees do their thing on breaks and lunch hours, the credit union shouldn't have anything to say about it. As long as no one is forced to do something they don't want to do, it's the employees' time. If members or other employees were affected in a negative way, the issue would have to be addressed. In the meantime, says CEO Kathleen Jurmanovich, a CUES member, "I don't feel it should be stopped or banned."

These are just a few of the many CUs that allow-in fact, strongly support-religious expression at work. In fact, the common thread in responses from credit unions about their views on religious expression in the workplace is: "live and let live." If employees choose to participate in religious discussions, prayer groups, e-mail listserves or other forms of expression-and those activities don't infringe on the rights and preferences of others-so be it.

And, for the most part, that approach is consistent with the advice of HR and legal experts around the country. Still, it's important to understand there are certain risks inherent in allowing these types of activities to take place in the work environment. Understanding those risks and knowing what you can and should be doing to minimize any potential impact for your credit union is important-whether your credit union, like Ensign FCU, literally serves a religious mission or not.

AN AREA OF GROWING FOCUS

While Mark Albion, Ph.D., a former Harvard Business School professor and author of True to yourself: Leading a Values-Driven Business, says he hasn't conducted any scientific sampling, he believes the nation's focus on religion is on the upswing and adds, "if you can accommodate the interest, you have a competitive advantage." He's seen evidence of this interest as he speaks at conferences across the country and says, "the issue isn't really how to bring your faith into your work, but how do you bring your work into your faith?"

Lynn lieber agrees it's a growing issue-and one that can create problems in the work environment. lieber is an employment law attorney and CEO of Workplace Answers (www.workplaceanswers.com), a San Franciscobased firm that specializes in addressing the so-called "gray areas" of employment law through Web-based ethics and compliance training courses. Based on Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (tvww.eeoc.gov) statistics, she says that from 1992 to 2005 there has been about a 45 percent increase in the number of religious discrimination charges being filed-with a significant spike following 9/11.

Albion acknowledges that religion can be as divisive as it is affirming. The challenge for credit unions is to find ways in which to allow employees the freedom to be who they are-including who they are from a religious standpoint-at work, while not infringing on others' rights or sensibilities.

"If people can bring the values they have on Sunday to work with them on Monday, and can practice in ways that are not invasive to others, it's positive," says Albion.

THE LEGAL ISSUES

All employees have first amendment rights, says Lieber, but "those rights are reduced in the workplace, because they butt up against harassment and discrimination laws. At a certain point you don't have the right to proselytize, to convert somebody to your religion, or to go to your temple or place of worship."

She adds, however, that this is an area of law that's been changing-"and I think it's going to be a much bigger issue moving forward. With world events as they are and recognizing how much religion plays into our lives, it's clear that this is a very hot topic and there's a lot of interest."

You have only to look at recent events related to the release of The Da Vinci Code and the drunk driving arrest of actor Mel Gibson, who later apologized for anti-Semitic comments he made, to get a feel of the strong interest and the critical sensitivities these issues bring to the forefront.

Dean Schaner, a Houston-based employment attorney (www.haynesboone.com) with experience in the areas of religious harassment and religion in the workplace issues, says the cases he typically sees are related to either harassment or accommodation.

Harassment cases generally involve individuals who "proselytize" or are perceived to proselytize in the work environment. That might be the employee who believes he or she needs to convert employees to his or her religion either overdy or in more subtle ways that may be perceived as offensive by co-workers-prominendy displayed posters, religious symbols, etc. In these cases, he says, courts consider how "severe or pervasive" the issue is-does the activity "rise to the level of what's called severe or pervasive harassment that would cause a hostile work environment?"

Accommodation cases relate to the employer's duty to accommodate individuals' religious beliefs. "Title VII has an accommodation duty built into it," says Schaner, "and what the Supreme Court has done since the mid1980s is say that the employer's duty to accommodate someone's religious belief is de minimus-meaning that the accommodation needs to be just enough that it wouldn't treat co-workers unfairly or cause an undue hardship to the employer."

This issue commonly comes up for Seventh Day Adventists and many Jews, for example, who need to have time off from sundown Friday to sundown Saturday. This isn't a problem if the employee can exchange schedules with other employees. "But, if your time-off causes other people to work harder and longer, then it would be an undue hardship."

Other areas where the issue of accommodation may be raised are policies related to uniforms and dress codes and how these policies may impact employees who claim they have to wear certain kinds of clothing because it's part of their religion. Schaner references a case of a woman working in a grocery store who had multiple piercings and claimed she belonged to a religious group called the Church of Body Modification. Courts don't typically get into issues of deciding whether or not religions are "valid," he says. "Most of the time they go ahead and defer to the person's sincerely held religious beliefs." Ultimately, though, as in this case, the result might be that the employee would have to cover the piercings in certain settings-when working with the public, for example.

When it comes to navigating the increasingly complex legal issues around religious freedom and expression, credit unions need to find a balance between meeting member needs and establishing a comfortable work environment for staff.

So, for example, credit unions may be able to have certain expectations of dress and signs, etc., in work areas, when the impact on the public-members-is an issue and such exhibitions may be offensive or create discomfort. And, Lieber points out, "credit unions might have a little bit more leeway because they're dealing with members of the public and so they might have certain regulations about dress and grooming standards."

Still, they need to tread carefully. For example, she says, if an employee gets a tattoo on his wrist and it expresses some tenet of his religion that he claims he has to show, what are the employers' rights to say "we don't want tattoos on staff who work at the front counter"?

There's a balance to be struck, says Lieber, and in this case that balance might mean that the employee is able to display the tattoo when working in non-member access areas of the CU, but not while at the front counter.

WHERE IT GETS TRICKY

"One of the interesting things about religious discrimination," says Lieber, "is that you don't need to necessarily be a member of a traditionally recognized religion to be protected by these laws. So, if I decide that I want my own religion and I believe in it with strength and moral conviction, I can have, basically, my own religion and my employer might have to accommodate that."

You may remember George Costanza's self-proclaimed "Festivus" holiday, featured in a 1997 episode of Seinfeld. And, in fact, according to a posting in Wikipedia (www.wikipedia.com), some people-"influenced or inspired by Seinfeld-now celebrate the holiday, in varying degrees of seriousness. Some do it religiously; others do it in good tidings in their respect to Seinfeld."

Then there's the case of the woman who claimed it was part of her religion to preach to people that abortion was a mortal sin-and who wore a button that contained the picture of an aborted fetus. "That weighs in on the offensive side," says lieber. "She might have a right to have the button in her desk drawer, but not to wear it in the workplace and potentially offend other people." Schaner indicates that, in this case, the employer was able to create an accommodation that allowed her to wear the button, but required her to cover the picture.

And what about the prayer groups that many credit unions clearly support? They're not inherently a problem, says Schaner, as long as it's clear that no one has to attend or receives any specific favors or considerations for their attendance.

That raises another issue-perception. Clearly perception has a major role in creating or defining "issues" related to religious expression. "You have to be really, really careful," says Schaner. "You have to make sure there's no perception that an employee who chooses not to go to a certain event is going to be affected in terms of conditions of employment."

For instance, suppose a credit union employee who regularly attends the CEO-led prayer session receives a sought-after promotion that another employee, who doesn't attend the sessions, also applied for. Or suppose one of your CU managers has a birthday party for her child and invites a few staff members that she is close to-but doesn't invite a staff member who may be Jewish, for example. There may be absolutely no intent to discriminate or exclude, or even any recognition that this is a potential perception, but the opportunity for risk remains.

WHAT YOU NEED TO KNOW

Despite the potential for risk, most agree the ability to offer opportunities for employees to express their religious beliefs in the workplace-and even to share those beliefs-can be positive. Studies of diversity, says lieber, indicate that an organization's effort to embrace diversity "really has a positive, bottom line impact and really can enhance teamwork." To help ensure that your well-intentioned efforts to be inclusive and to provide a forum for employees to share their beliefs don't backfire, follow these suggestions:

Be "inclusive": Scott Eblin, an HR expert, author of The Next Level: What Insiders Know About Executive Success-and a Christian businessman (www.eblin group.com)-suggests a focus on inclusion vs. exclusion. Inclusion, he says, might mean allowing small groups to meet together to discuss their faith and the impact of their faith on their work life. Exclusion, on the other hand, would involve a situation where "unless you believe the same thing we believe, in the exact same way, you're not welcome." That's when Eblin says problems can start. "But," he stresses, "if you can come up with ways to support efforts that cross denominations or religious traditions, that's usually a wonderful thing."

For example, instead of allowing for certain days of observance, consider establishing a paid time off system that allows employees to take time off based on personal preference, not mandated observances.

In addition, he points out, there should be consideration of the perspectives and preferences of those who are not religious. "There are always going to be people in the workplace that are not people of faith. Maybe they're agnostic or atheist, or whatever. An organization's goal," he says, should be to "provide a welcome and safe place for people to share with each other the challenges and the joys of their faith and to spend time in quiet reflection, or prayer, or whatever the tradition is."

Audit your hiring practices: Hiring can be an area where unintentional bias and misconceptions may negatively impact people of different religions or beliefs-however inadvertently. "You have to be very, very careful if you're interviewing someone to steer clear of the religious questions," says Leiber. That means not only during the formal interview process, but during any part of your interaction with prospective employees. Even a casual discussion in which you might mention, in an off-handed way, how you and your children spent the weekend at a Christian bible camp, or where you attended a nephew's Bar Mitzvah, could lead to claims of bias.

Teach Sensitivity: Even casual, well intentioned comments can create "hostile" environments. "The laws are broad enough now that even if you're not of that religion, you might be affected," says lieber. For example, she says, a group of employees talking about controversies in the Middle East might say something negative about Israel or Lebanon which could potentially be offensive to someone who isn't even of that national origin or religion.

Make sure you are educating staff, particularly management staff, to be aware of areas where they might be creating or contributing to the perception of insensitivity.

"You want the workforce to be diverse, but you can't reach the point where you acknowledge or even allow inappropriate behavior to go on," says lieber. "There are limits on diversity."

The bottom line, says Albion: "If religion brings us together, it's good. If it separates us, it's not."