Employee Assistance Programs In The UAE and the Middle East

Our information packed guide will give you all the information you need to know about researching, setting up and making an Employee Assistance Program successful in the UAE.I guess you are here looking for information about an Employee Assistance Program, and specifically about an EAP for the Middle East or UAE market so I wanted to start this article with a Frequently Asked Questions section so you can get the information you need quick.

Here goes.

Question:	What is an employee assistance program?
Answer:	An employee assistance program is a service that is provided to employees that can help them, typically in different dimensions of their life, typically you’ll find an employee assistance service to provide 3 pillars of help, they are: -Emotional and psychological support -Practical life support, for example: legal help, financial education etc -Wellness, for example: health and wellness advice that can help you make a meaningful difference in your life. Some employee assistance program providers do not provide all these levels of support and might only provide psychological and emotional support.

Question:

What is an employee assistance program?

Answer:

An employee assistance program is a service that is provided to employees that can help them, typically in different dimensions of their life, typically you’ll find an employee assistance service to provide 3 pillars of help, they are:
-Emotional and psychological support
-Practical life support, for example: legal help, financial education etc
-Wellness, for example: health and wellness advice that can help you make a meaningful difference in your life.
Some employee assistance program providers do not provide all these levels of support and might only provide psychological and emotional support.

Question:	How do employees access an employee assistance program?
Answer:	Employees can access the service through email to request a call back and schedule an appointment with a counsellor or coach or SMS or live chat service through an app. Not all providers give this level of service but the good ones do. Then if 1-1 counselling is included in your package you can meet a counsellor in a clinic near or in your town or city or in our case in one of the Emirates of the UAE.

Question:

How do employees access an employee assistance program?

Answer:

Employees can access the service through email to request a call back and schedule an appointment with a counsellor or coach or SMS or live chat service through an app. Not all providers give this level of service but the good ones do. Then if 1-1 counselling is included in your package you can meet a counsellor in a clinic near or in your town or city or in our case in one of the Emirates of the UAE.

For a detailed look into the flow and process of an EAP and how an employee might use and interact with the service please see the infographic below:

Question:	What are the benefits of an employee assistance program?
Answer:	An employee assistance program provides employees with different levels of support depending on the package the company chooses+/the quality of the EAP (Employee Assistance Program). These include, relationship issues, moving house, planning retiring savings, getting legal help, work-life balance, getting a promotion and how to be a better leader, the list is endless if your employee assistance program provider gives you access to all 3 pillars of support for your employees.

Question:

What are the benefits of an employee assistance program?

Answer:

An employee assistance program provides employees with different levels of support depending on the package the company chooses+/the quality of the EAP (Employee Assistance Program).

These include, relationship issues, moving house, planning retiring savings, getting legal help, work-life balance, getting a promotion and how to be a better leader, the list is endless if your employee assistance program provider gives you access to all 3 pillars of support for your employees.

For some more examples check out the infographic below:

Question:	How do I set up an Employee assistance program (EAP)?
Answer:	If you chose a comprehensive provider, you will have a dedicated account manager and a complete process to follow. You will have a launch plan with marketing collateral and a process to follow. Then you can use that to meld with your internal policies and processes and you will have the foundation of a fantastically successful employee assistance program. Typically it takes 60-90 days once contracts have been signed to set up an EAP, although it can be done faster, however the last thing you want to do is to rush such an importance process, after all peoples lives are at stake here. Your employees will have dedicated channels to contact one of the employee assistance program providers counsellors or coaches for help and then with the help of the EAP provider you will communicate this to employees. That sounds simple, however as you know employees are going about their own lives and are often busy, so cutting through the noise to you can communicate with them effectively and get them to use the service is another thing entirely. That’s why we recommend a 90-day set up period so your employee assistance program is successful.

Question:

How do I set up an Employee assistance program (EAP)?

Answer:

If you chose a comprehensive provider, you will have a dedicated account manager and a complete process to follow. You will have a launch plan with marketing collateral and a process to follow. Then you can use that to meld with your internal policies and processes and you will have the foundation of a fantastically successful employee assistance program.

Typically it takes 60-90 days once contracts have been signed to set up an EAP, although it can be done faster, however the last thing you want to do is to rush such an importance process, after all peoples lives are at stake here.

Your employees will have dedicated channels to contact one of the employee assistance program providers counsellors or coaches for help and then with the help of the EAP provider you will communicate this to employees.

That sounds simple, however as you know employees are going about their own lives and are often busy, so cutting through the noise to you can communicate with them effectively and get them to use the service is another thing entirely.

That’s why we recommend a 90-day set up period so your employee assistance program is successful.

Question:	How can I make my EAP successful?
Answer:	There must be buy in from the key stakeholders then if you have that here are the top tips, tools and strategies to promote your employee assistance program so that it is successful. – Set up a wellness champion, someone who can answer questions about the service, to tell people who it works, It is recommended that this person is not part of the HR team so employees find it easier to approach them if they want to ask questions about the employee assistance program. – Make sure everyone knows that it is 100% confidential, this must be communicated consistently. – Let people know that they can be completely confidential and not even give the hotline they call for help their name or any other details if they wish. – Inform employees of some of the common issues people face during a crisis and how an employee assistance program can be useful in these situations. – If your staff want to use this free, independent, confidential questionnaire to see if they may need help from a psychologist they can do mind check uae.

Question:

How can I make my EAP successful?

Answer:

There must be buy in from the key stakeholders then if you have that here are the top tips, tools and strategies to promote your employee assistance program so that it is successful.

– Set up a wellness champion, someone who can answer questions about the service, to tell people who it works, It is recommended that this person is not part of the HR team so employees find it easier to approach them if they want to ask questions about the employee assistance program.

– Make sure everyone knows that it is 100% confidential, this must be communicated consistently.

– Let people know that they can be completely confidential and not even give the hotline they call for help their name or any other details if they wish.

– Inform employees of some of the common issues people face during a crisis and how an employee assistance program can be useful in these situations.

– If your staff want to use this free, independent, confidential questionnaire to see if they may need help from a psychologist they can do mind check uae.

Question:	Why is it [really] important to make sure an employee assistance program successful?
Answer:	Let take a moment to think about this, of course there are the other areas an EAP typically helps employees with such as lifestyle, work life balance, finances and practical life support but at its heart an employee assistance program is there to help people when life gets hard for them, when they suffer from mental, psychological and emotional pain and stress. If your EAP is not successful, if it is not communicated with passion and your employees don’t know about it or don’t use it then there is a very real risk of someone deteriorating from a state of being un-happy and suffering emotional turbulence to being deeply depressed and potentially taking his or her own life.

Question:

Why is it [really] important to make sure an employee assistance program successful?

Answer:

Let take a moment to think about this, of course there are the other areas an EAP typically helps employees with such as lifestyle, work life balance, finances and practical life support but at its heart an employee assistance program is there to help people when life gets hard for them, when they suffer from mental, psychological and emotional pain and stress.

If your EAP is not successful, if it is not communicated with passion and your employees don’t know about it or don’t use it then there is a very real risk of someone deteriorating from a state of being un-happy and suffering emotional turbulence to being deeply depressed and potentially taking his or her own life.