Over the last couple of weeks I’ve had the opportunity to visit with many from the “Death Care” or “Funeral” industry.  Those discussions made me realize that our profession has came a long way from the days of individual mortuaries owned only by individuals or families.

By some accounts there are about 20,000 funeral homes in the United States.  And, other accounts say that national and regional consolidators own upwards of 5,000 of those funeral homes.  That would mean that about 75% are still family owned.  They have owners and employees who are on the “Front-line” of funeral service every day,  But those 5,000 or so firms that are “corporately” owned also have “Front-line” employees doing the hard work of day-to-day funeral service as well.  . . . Sometimes we forget that.

We forget that those employees in the larger businesses are there every day too,  giving one-to-one care to the families that they serve just as the family-owned firms give that care.  We like to argue who might give the “Best” care, however, we cannot argue that there are fine and good people giving that care each day in both funeral home ownership environments.

Tom Anderson
Funeral Director Daily

I was telling a funeral home business executive just the other day that one of the things that I have noticed over the past couple of years as our profession has changed, not only with “corporate” funeral homes, but with large family-owned firms as well, is that sometimes management has forgotten that the “Front-line” funeral directors are out there 24/7/365.  In other words, I’ve found that some management does not have the same value for these employees as they do for their own management brethren.

I think sometimes it is easy for management, even those that worked that 24/7/365 life prior to management, to forget the work done on the front-line.  Especially now, where in management they maybe work a Monday thru Friday schedule.  While their management work is incredibly important to the life of the company, many times they forget the long hours and weekends that the “Front-line” staff is working.

And, in the long run, they maybe don’t realize that it may be that the way that these “Front-line” workers represent the larger company with the face-to-face consumer issues of funeral services that makes or breaks the profit points and market share of the company.  When thinking of that, management needs to understand the importance of taking care of these employees.  It may well be that the “Front-line” employees are more important to the company well-being than the management thinks.

I thought of all of this when I stumbled on this article, written by a funeral profession worker who happened to have the deaths of his parents happen 30-days apart.  The writer made the following comment about those that work in the profession:

“Despite these grim, emotionally taxing daily tasks (of being a funeral director), funeral home staff continue, day after day. We share a commitment to serve others in the darkest hours of their lives, whether answering the phone, transporting and embalming a loved one, or assisting families plan an individualized, detailed service and then seeing it through.”

At the end of the day this is just a reminder that all in funeral service do valued work. . . . From the planning of the large-corporation CEO to the custodian cleaning up of the funeral facility late on a Friday night making it spotless for when the funeral directors arrive Saturday morning to conduct a service, every one needs to be valued.  Let’s not forget that.

More news from the world of Death Care:

• Royal Neighbors of America will now offer beneficiaries “Empathy” a comprehensive bereavement support system.  Globe Newswire
• China funeral industry sees influx of young people with new ideas aimed at modernizing sector steeped in tradition.  South China Morning Post.  (China)

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