4/25/22 - Bringing Your Whole Self to Work: Julia Oltmanns, Zurich Resilience Solutions

Intro: As a Christian working woman, you have many roles from your responsibility with family and friends to community and work. How do you connect all that you do with all that you are, and still have your faith shine through? It's a challenge, but you are up to it. The sheWorks4Him podcast is the gathering place to empower Christian working women, to live out their calling at work.

By connecting them to God resources and each other through powerful faith stories from other working sisters in Christ. Welcome to sheWorks4Him.

Martha: You've tuned into, sheWorks4Him, where we connect Christian, working women to God resources and one another. Thank you so much for tuning in today, friends.

And I just pray that our conversation that we have, maybe one that inspires you in a new way, and maybe even surprises you a little bit with what God wants to speak to you through our conversation. If you have not yet decided to subscribe to our podcast and on an ongoing basis, I just encourage you to do that.

All of the links for connecting with us are found on sheWorks4Him.com that's she works the number 4 him.com. And I want to just throw out a little, save the date. We're going to talk about it later in the show, but October 21st is the next boldly conference. For Christian working women. And this is something that we at, sheWorks4Him are very excited about and want to make sure that we, like we said, we're connecting you to God resources in one another.

This is a resource. It's a one another, and it's going to connect you to God. So it covers all the bases all at one time. So October 21st is a day you're going to want to set aside on your calendar and I'm excited to anticipate. In the fall ahead.

Catherine: Thanks so much, Martha. Hey, the first picture we get of God in Genesis is as a worker, since we are created in God's image, we're also workers.

When you read through scripture, it's very clear that God wants us to partner with him in our work. And that work is a blessing. So integrating our faith into our work should be. Yet conversation about expressing faith at work often includes concerns about how one can do it appropriately. If at all, thankfully we do live in a country in which it is not only legal to bring your faith, to work companies of all sizes across the country have Christian employee resource groups.

These groups provide resources, support, and community for employees who want to honor God and contribute to the success of their organizations through the work that they do. Julia Oltmanns was part of the team that launched Zurich north America's good news Christian employee resource group in 2018.

She's an attorney and was part of the legal team at the time. She now enjoys the role of director of DEI services reserve for Zurich resilience solutions, providing training and consulting as a service for other companies. Julia, welcome to sheWorks4Him.

Julia Oltmanns: Thank you. Hi, Catherine and Martha.

Catherine: It's so good to have you. You know, we met at that time and we're going to get into a little bit of that, but we would love a, before you talk about how you integrate your faith and work and, and a little bit of the Christian employee resource group, can you tell us how you became a Jesus follower?

Julia Oltmanns: Sure. So I would describe myself as you know growing up in a Christian home, always thinking of myself as a Christian, but honestly Really around that same time in 2018, God was doing things in my personal life and in my professional life that really caused me to reevaluate, you know, whether I was really following him and all aspects of my life.

So. It was really in that 2018 timeframe where through the things I was learning at a new church that we had switched to you know, our, a small group. We were a part of right. A special class we did at our church. So there were things I was learning there. And then just how God was calling me to really live out my faith at work as well, with respect to the employee resources.

And I really feel like I had a kind of very dramatic transformation in my life in 2018 and you know, made the decision in the fall of 2018 to be rebaptized. Because I just really felt. I, I knew in a different way, I knew kind of for the first time, what it really meant to live for Jesus and to follow him.

And I saw, I really didn't feel like I maybe knew, knew that as well. At 13, when I had originally, you know, been baptized and, and made that decision, I really felt like in 2018 was a new awakening.

Catherine: Wow. So you and I connected just as you are really making a fresh commitment. And I think it's an important distinction, you know, to say, you know, it's one thing to say, you're a Christian, you believe in Jesus, but it's another thing to say you know, you're really a follower of Jesus. Right. And so I, I loved being able to come alongside you when you launched Zurich's Christian employee resource group. Good news. Can you tell us how did that even get started? Well, what was the conversation? How did that, how did that come about?

Julia Oltmanns: Yeah, so I I ended up joining Zurich insurance company in 2016.

And honestly, at that time, I really was questioning God, you know, why do you have me going to work at an insurance company? I really had no desire to work for an insurance company. I didn't really know anything about insurance. I'm, I'm an employment lawyer by experience. And but that was the door that got opened at that time in 2016.

And shortly after I joined, I learned that there was a group of Christians that have been trying to form an employee resource group as there for a while. And so coincidentally or not, you know, not really coincidentally, right. But that's my experience. I previous companies, I had been the you know, legal expert on all things, diversity and inclusion.

I had advised on employee resource groups at my prior company. And I came to Zurich and that was really the, the role that they had for me, or, you know, one of the specialty areas was for me to advise on all diversity and inclusion related initiatives, including employee resource groups. So I had actually drafted the policy on how do you get approved to be an employee resource group?

And I sat on the committee that decided anybody who applied to be an employee resource group. So. When I first heard that there was a group of Christians trying to form an, a group that was new for me, you know, I'd never been at a previous company where there had been a faith-based ERG. And I ended up being, given my role on the committee that approves I at first, I just thought I'm going to wait.

And Kind of see how this plays out, right. Because I'm on the committee and I've got to make a decision and, and God ultimately you know, put me in a situation where I felt like I you know, couldn't just sit on the sidelines, but he was really calling me to be more involved.

Martha: So what does that look like? Having an employee resource group that is for I'm I'm. I know that there's all types of them out there, but specifically the good news one, like it is, I'm assuming under the banner of Christian faith. So what kinds of resources and tools do you find that are most helpful for the people that are a part of that group?

Julia Oltmanns: Yeah, so you know, Immediately we as we, as we applied and got set up you know, there are things that you need to do that are kind of consistent, right? With the support of the company and employee resource group, right, does ultimately need to support the mission and the purpose right, of the organization.

So there are things like, leadership development, right? Like your, all of your ERG are usually providing different kinds of resources to employees to support leadership development. And. Career development and, and things like that. But on the other hand, because we are a Christian employee resource group, we also provide a weekly prayer meeting that has 50 employees who joined the weekly prayer meeting every week.

And we have Bible studies all over the country at different locations, you know, and, and throughout the week, and we do an Easter service or worship service and a Christmas worship service. So yeah, it really is a mixture o things that are more explicitly work-focused right. We need to be supporting the goals of the business, but it's also caring for the overall wellbeing of the employees.

And we're, you know, we're able to care for the employees, especially once COVID hit, right? The prayer meeting was such a blessing, right? And such a resource for employees. So we're able to do both kind of care for the wellbeing of employees, but also support the business.

Martha: So before we go to break real quick, can you give me one example of how, what kind of impact having the, the good news employee play resource group available for employees? What kind of impact that's had, maybe you have a story of, of impact just before we go.

Julia Oltmanns: Yes, definitely. Like I can think of one of my colleagues who when we first announced at the end of 2018 and we actually, the way we announced the group was we had a Christmas event where we read the Christmas story from scripture.

Right. And. And, and so one of my coworkers and you know, a woman, I didn't know at the time. But my coworker I mean, she was crying in that first meeting and she felt like she had lived for so many years compartmentalizing, right? Her life. And thinking I'm one person at work and I am a Jesus follower in my personal time, but she didn't know how to bring those two together. And by having a Christian group at work, it was just an awakening for her. Right. She was finally able to see, I can integrate these two parts of my life and I, and for her that it feels like she's a whole person now.

Right. She doesn't feel like I'm divided right between these two areas of my life. She feels. I can now come to work and be a Jesus follower at work as well. And I can really see how to do that now.

Catherine: Yeah. Living a fully integrated life. It's such a joy and it saves so much energy too, right? Well you're listening to sheWorks4Him with your host, Martha Brangenberg and Catherine Gates.

We're going to take a short break and we'll be right back to hear more from Julia Oltmanns.

Break: Did you know that God has a calling on your life? It's true. He's called you to bring Jesus to the world. For some that may look like a pulpit or a foreign mission field. But for most of us, it looks like a construction site, the cubicle, a hospital, or a classroom, wherever it is that you work live volunteer invest, that is your mission field.

To learn more about integrating your faith into your work and retirement. Check out our books: iWork4Him. sheWorks4Him and iRetire4Him by going to iWork4Him/bookstore.

Catherine: Welcome back to, sheWorks4Him. We're talking to Julia Oltmanns from Zurich Resilience Solutions. Julia, you were sharing the difference that Zurich's Good News Christian Employee Resource Group has had on employees and the organization.

And especially the, the one employee, right? I, I love that story. I know who exactly who you're talking about. Clearly it's been a positive resource for so many people who don't realize that God cares about their work. At what point did you realize God cares as much about your work as an attorney, as that of a pastor or missionary?

Julia Oltmanns: Yeah, so I think a little more background might be helpful to that. Went through a period before I joined Zurich in 2016, where I was going through a work transition. And I thought, perhaps that God wanted me to go work for a non-profit. Or a Bible college, right? Or some kind of explicitly Christian organization.

So I actually went through a period of applying for all of these jobs that I thought would give me a way to feel like I was honoring God, you know, with my work. And, and I didn't get a single one of those jobs. Every one of those doors closed. And I ended up at, at Zurich in 2016. And then as I was mentioning, you know, I was a part of this committee that was reviewing, right, whether the Christian group would be approved at Zurich or not. And I found myself in a committee meeting where there was, there was a lot of hesitancy, right? There was, there was a lot of concern that a Christian group would be very divisive in the organization, would offend, you know, people of other faiths would, you know, would really be negative and cause disagreement and division.

And so I left that committee meeting. And I just felt like God was saying to me, you're supposed to do something about this. You know, you are given your legal background, right? Given your involvement in these employee resource groups, right. For so many years and, you know You know that a Christian group could be a real positive thing, right?

How it could support the needs of the business? How, again, I mentioned leadership development, right? Integrity, excellence in your work. Right. There's so many things that are that from a Christian values perspective, I knew could be really positive for the environment. And so I left that meeting thinking., I'm supposed to do something about this. I reached out to the head of HR and expressed my views and he said, well, that's great. I think if you would be involved in this, then it would help alleviate a lot of those concerns because you are an employment lawyer and what have you.

So before I knew it, I was the co-chair of the group, but At that point in my life, I had just started attending a women's Bible study for the first time I had just started reading the Bible myself, like all the way through for the first time I had never even prayed in public, you know, in front of other people, I completely felt ill-equipped, you know, to do that.

But I really felt like God said, you know, you, I placed you here. Right. It was kind of an Esther moment. I placed you here with this experience. At this time to step forward and to help this group get formed and to help, help to lead this group. And God, you know, was saying, I will provide what you need, right.

To be able to do that. And so that's really when. I embarked on a journey to learn about faith and work. You know, I thought, okay, if I'm going to be the leader of this group, I have to learn everything I can get my hands on. And started reading every, you know, book on faith and work I could and you know, scouring the internet for resources and trying to think, okay, how do I lead a group that's trying to integrate these two things together in a corporation?

Martha: You know, what's so amazing is when I hear you explain all of that, it's almost, God kind of backdoored you in a sense. He's like, okay, I've got her attention. She wants to be intentional. I'm going to give her this opportunity to really practice it.

I mean, that's what I'm hearing, you know, as an outsider looking in. And I, and in a positive way, I don't think that, you know, God's not a conniving God, but he just was like, okay, if you really mean this, Julia, let's see you walk it out. And but yet I want don't want people to miss the fact that he equipped you for that through the education, through the learning, through your profession so that you could carry it out in a way that gave a lot of comfort, I'm sure, to a lot of people, especially your HR department. So I love that because it's like nobody better to be in that role in that moment. Like you said that Esther moment.

So what a great example for us to hear firsthand. So I want to kind of switch it a little bit to, you know, you have a very demanding job and you're wife and you're a mom and you're very involved in your church. So how do you keep that proper perspective to have the right amount of time with your family and to invest in your marriage?

Julia Oltmanns: Yes, it's a good question. At the early part of us forming Good News this has been like early 2019. We invited a local pastor to come speak on work-life balance actually to our good news group. And so he put up a visual that I still share with people today. I refer to it all the time, but it really is a set of circles.

You know, that's like God at the center and then your family, right, is your next circle. Cause your husband, your spouse, right? Your immediate family's your first ministry and your first mission that God's given you and then your church next, right. Being really an active part of the body of Christ. That's the next focus area.

And then his visual says the world is the next one. And so for me being kind of a very driven professional person, that was a very convicting image. And that was a very convicting message that he gave was that whoa my work and everything I do in the world has to be prioritized right? In such a way that, you know, my time with God, right, my priority, there is first. My, my ministry and mission to my family and to my church really comes for, you know, it has to be prioritized. And it doesn't mean again that my work is not important that I do, you know, at that point. Right. I, I knew that I did have a mission in the, in the workplace and in the marketplace, but I have always tried to refer back to that visual constantly.

If I ever feel like I'm not sure. If I should accept this invitation, right. To go to this conference or accept this invitation to go speak here or do this activity, I go back to that visual to make sure. Okay. Do I have these in alignment? Right? Am I prioritizing things? According to what I think is, is God's will right for us.

As women as you know mothers, right. As part of a family. And as long as I'm, you know, always trying to come back to that and stay in alignment with that. I, I, you know, God has given me the opportunity to do a lot of things in the world and in work, you know, and in my workplace. But but I try to always come back to that, that that's his, that's what his will is for me is sustain the alignment in that way.

Catherine: That is so powerful. That is so powerful. It's setting your priorities straight is really the most effective time management tool. Right. And so Julia, I love like the whole idea of being able to, to share those types of things with other people through a Christian employee resource group. Would you share with our listeners, if they'd like to set, to start their own explore to starting their own Christian employee resource group at their company, what would you recommend?

What steps do you think they need to take?

Julia Oltmanns: Yeah. So back in 2019 I developed a toolkit for creating a Christian employee resource group. And really, it was just I wanted to document, you know, the steps that we took, right? Like how did we overcome the hesitancy? How did we overcome some of those objections, right, that you got from the HR department and the legal department, right. In the diversity and inclusion folks. So I documented all that in a tool kit and yeah, I'm happy to share that with anybody. And that's not the only way, right? There's not just one way. There's a lot of folks who've come together in a Christian ERG network from many different companies and we share ideas with each other.

We share best practices. We help, you know, those who are looking to form a Christian group in their company. So, you know, definitely we all have stories we can share, right. And help that we can provide to others on how to do that. But the first step that I have in my toolkit at least is just gather with one or two other believers in your company and just start praying together.

And I was the fortunate beneficiary of others at Zurich who had been praying for this, you know, before I even arrived there. Right, right. Then seeking this for a period of time. But I think just start, you know, with one or two other believers, Start praying that God will show you next steps and definitely utilize the Christian ERG network of, of other, you know, Christians at other companies who are willing to help you.

Catherine: Yeah. There's a lot of other people who have gone before and can offer tips. And I love that. Just take that first step. You're listening to, sheWorks4Him with your hosts, Martha Brangenberg and Catherine Gates. We're going to take a short break and we'll be right back with Julia Oltmanns.

Break: Hey listeners. One of the huge projects Martha and I have been working on for years is making it easy for every workplace believer to find all the voices speaking, encouragement, and equipping into the faith and work movement, presenting the Awaken podcast network. Online and Awaken podcast network.com with over 130 different podcast.

Voices speaking truth into you. The workplace believer, including over 30 podcasts, dedicated to Christian working women go online to awaken podcast, network.com that's Awaken podcast, network.com.

Martha: Welcome back to sheWorks4Him. You know, this conversation today, Julia, that we're having around Christian employee resource groups.

I mean resource groups for all kinds of. But specifically this, this idea around having a Christian one, if any of you listeners are intrigued by this and want to look at bringing it into your own organization, julia is willing to share her little toolkit that she's created. Just email me at martha@iworkforhim.com and that will be in the show notes.

So you can just send me an email requesting it. I will connect you with Julia. So you can get that information because, you know, one thing I know is that you've already done the work Julia and you're willing to share that with other people. And that's the part of the resources that we want to help.

Christian working women to resources that can help them to do whatever it is that God's called them to do even better. So, as we talk about resources, is there a book that you've read recently, Julia, that is really encouraging you in this conversation of faith and work and surrendering to God that you may be can help us know about in case it's something that somebody else needs to be reading at the same time?

Julia Oltmanns: Yes, it was, it's hard to pick because there are really so many great books, but one that came to mind was called working in the presence of God by Denise Daniels. And it really gives very practical tips on how can you have the spiritual disciplines and spiritual practices throughout your day to kind of integrate prayer throughout your day, really think of your work space as being holy ground, right?

That when you come to sit down at your desk, you know, whether you work from home, right, or in an office, You know that that's holy ground, that's where God has placed you. And you should enter that with a reverence. Right. And, and, you know, really seeking to do God's will in that place. So it's very practical guidance, but really helps you to think about kind of weaving spiritual practices and disciplines throughout your work.

Catherine: That's a great suggestion. I love that. And Julia, I'm excited that you're going to be speaking at the boldly conference on a panel where you get to share a lot more of your insights. So the Boldly conference for our listeners is taking place on Friday, October 21st, 2022. And you can learn more at boldlyconference.com, but we do have to wrap up for now.

So Julia, what one final piece of wisdom would you really like to leave our listeners with?

Julia Oltmanns: Yes, I really would encourage folks to number one, you know, look at your workplace and where God's placed you and the experience you have. Right. Just using my story as an example as a very intentional placement, right.

That God has put you there for a very specific purpose. Just like he did with Esther and be, you know, have your eyes open and right. Be ready and looking for those things that you can do and be bold. I think there is a lot of fear around, you know, being openly Christian, right. And being open about your faith at work.

And there are those worries about what's HR going to say, right. Or, or, you know, am I going to get in trouble? But I really feel like it's a time for boldness, right? It's a time to be bold that God's put you there for a reason and people are in such need, right. They really need others to walk alongside them.

They need others to be praying with them. If there are people in your workplace who are hurting. And so people then, and, and really come alongside those around you. And and, and don't be afraid, you know, to kind of share that your faith is what drives you, right. To care about people. Your faith is what drives you to, to work in a certain way.

I think that boldness is necessary

Catherine: right

Julia Oltmanns: now.

Catherine: Yeah. Amen. Amen. We need to normalize that conversation, right? We need to show that, you know, we are leaning on God and that's going to give so much, so many people hope. Julia, thank you so much. I really pray that women are inspired and motivated by what you've shared today.

You've been listening to, sheWorks4Him with your hosts, Martha Brangenberg and Catherine Gates. We're Christian working women, helping other Christian working women to live out their calling: sheWorks4Him.

As Christian women. We have many roles from daughter, sister, friend, wife, and mother to analyst, accountant, executive or educator.

Is it possible to balance our roles at work and home in a way that honors God? The answer is yes. And our new book, sheWorks4Him will help show you. Written to celebrate, encourage and equip women in the workforce. sheWorks4Him. Discusses the diverse experiences of today's Christian working woman.

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