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Employee Assistance Program (EAP) - HR Section

What you need to know

Personal issues and stressors are a major human health & wellbeing concern. No matter how big or small, the more these stressors linger, the more detrimental their impact becomes on a person, their family, and eventually the workforce at large.

MetLife Employee Assistance Program (EAP) helps your employees with personal issues, planning for life events, or simply managing daily life. Through the program’s confidential counseling services, beneficiaries get a 24/7-access to qualified counselors, that they can resort to year-round if they have any personal, work-related, legal, or financial issue and need to speak to an expert for support.

What are the Key Assistance Areas?

1- Emotional & mental wellbeing counseling:

- Anxiety, depression, stress,
- Grief, loss, life adjustments,
- Family & parenting, relationship or partner conflicts, etc.

 

2- Career & self-development support:

- Effective time management
- Improving public speaking skills
- Making connections at home or at work, etc.

 

3- Legal and Financial assistance:

- Legal: Divorce, adoption, family law, wills & trusts, landlord & tenant issues, etc.
- Financial: Taxes, relocation & mortgages, budgeting, debt, etc.

How Does it Work? Part 1

(Emotional Wellbeing)

Once your organization got onboarded on the program, your employees will hear about the program from you. We support you with the communication materials needed for launch, as well as for continuous engagement year-round.

24/7 telephonic access, & appointment-based counseling sessions: your employees will be able to dial dedicated numbers for each Gulf country & speak at any time with a clinical counselor that sits in the dial-in counseling center. The EAP’s dial-in center is equipped with highly qualified clinical counselors.

The intake call can serve as a counseling session on the spot - or can be used to triage the case & direct the member towards a3- or 6-sess ion model with an in-person psychologist. It all depends on the presenting case, and the member’s reason for calling.

How Does it Work? Part 2

(Legal & Financial Consultation)

Your employees will be able to dial the same program number, but in this case, ask for a legal or financial support. Their request will be transmitted to the program’s legal or financial partners (lawyers or chartered accountants’ firms) in order to set an appointment for a 30-minute phone discussion with a specialist.

Employer support – Critical Incident response

Moreover, in case of any emergency such as natural disasters or workplace incidents that affect a large group (ex: death of a colleague), as an employer HR under this benefit, you are eligible to get access for a counselor to spend some time in the office, to provide onsite one-on-one counseling to the employees in case they need it, and even proactively call consenting affected employees to offer them the support they need.

How can I offer this Benefit to my Employees?

Moreover, in case of any emergency such as natural disasters or workplace incidents that affect a large group (ex: death of a colleague), as an employer HR under this benefit, you are eligible to get access for a counselor to spend some time in the office, to provide onsite one-on-one counseling to the employees in case they need it, and even proactively call consenting affected employees to offer them the support they need.

More Questions – here’s a list of FAQs:

Psychologists: are qualified clinical experts that focus on providing psychotherapy (talk/behavioral therapy) to help patients. Psychologists do not prescribe medication.

Psychiatrists: are medical doctors that diagnose neuro-physiological and psychological conditions, manage treatment and provide a range of therapies. As doctors, Psychiatrists prescribe medication, typically to restore a chemical imbalance in the brain physiology.

In general, through an initial case assessment and understanding the symptoms of the patient, the clinical team can identify whether the case is need of:

  • A psychologist only
  • A psychiatrist only, or
  • A combination of both

The EAP program provides access to clinical psychologists.

The EAP program is billed as a lump sum and does not go into your claims experience. You will know ahead the yearly cost of this program.

However, in many instances, the presenting cases would require a psychiatric treatment. In this case, your employee will be clinically advised by the EAP psychologist to seek psychiatric care; and so, if you cover psychiatric care in your table of benefits, this would impact the claims experience. That said, based on our experience in this field, we know that the EAP program is the best place for your employee to learn more about their challenges and get channeled properly and with an expert advice to the psychiatric care if needed (or even other general medical problems to check on); which will both return positively on the quality of life of your employee, and their wellbeing.

On the other side, in the event where you have a life policy, using this program may reduce the risk of suicide or loss of life, and hence loss events and their impact on your life policy.

Because we know that confidentiality is a main element in the adoption and success of this program, it was designed to allow it to work even if the caller wishes not to disclose their name.

Callers can call the counseling center and access the service by simply using their organization’s [eligibility code], and without the need to self-identify by name.

Even in the event where the caller self-identifies, personal data is not shared with the employer.

We share only aggregate data for this program with you as an HR.

There is only one instance where the employee must present their personal information details, and that is if they go to see a psychologist session in person at a local facility. In line with the local health authorities, the member will be asked for their MetLife insurance card and local ID. That said, MetLife also does not receive these details and they remain with the clinic.

Upon joining the program, you will be given an eligibility code that will be used by your employees to self-identify on the call. This code would be included in your communication materials that the employee receives from you upon launching the program.

The member can call at any time and speak with a line counselor, for a given issue.

For the face-to-face sessions, the model is limited to a number of sessions, per issue:

  • 3 sessions
  • 6 sessions
    (price varies based on whether you take model 1 or model 2)

 

If the member has another issue, example parenting this time versus personal anxiety in the previous time, they can avail the sessions again.

No. the service is totally free to the member; co-pay is not applicable.

Through the EAP’s face to face sessions, the member would have been assigned to their country’s expert psychologist that is most suitable for their case (ex: parenting, food disorders, etc.).

Many people find the number of sessions offered through the program to be enough; while others may require a longer-term psychotherapy. In this event, the member can continue the treatment with their psychologist by paying out of pocket.

Yes. While the program is charged for the employees’ count only, their adult dependents can enjoy the benefit at no extra cost to you or to them.

All they need to know is your organization’s eligibility code, and have their MetLife card ready to be presented if they visit a local clinic.

Download the Series of Emails that will Allow you to Launch the Program:

The Key to Engaging your population & drive them to adopt

BRAND

Branding your message helps create an emotional connection with your employees

CASCADE

Cascading the message from the top makes it more impactful

DIVERSIFY

Displaying the message across different channels helps get the point across

CONSISTENCY

The conversation must be year-round. One time is never enough

“A person needs to see or hear your message at least seven times before they take action”

 - Rule of 7

View the EAP program page dedicated to your employee

Members have their own section with all the information they need

Visit member page