About ICAS
What is an Employee Assistance Programme (EAP)?
An Employee Assistance Programme (EAP) is a corporate wellbeing service that organisations invest in to support the health and wellbeing of their employees. Traditionally EAP’s offer free short-term counselling services to employees and their family members.
What is the ICAS EAP? What services does it typically include?
Our Employee Assistance Programme is provided by ICAS World, an independent global provider of EAP services in over 200 countries worldwide.
It offers FREE, confidential, and impartial guidance and support with a 24/7 telephone support line. You can access the service in any of the following languages: Arabic, English, Hindi, Urdu and French.
It offers counselling for emotional and psychological support. It also offers practical guidance and support on legal, financial, family and work matters. The programme also includes access to online health and wellbeing portal available in 26 languages and professional wellness coaching.
How do I know if this is a professional service?
The Employee Assistance Professionals Association (EAPA) sets the best practices and standards for EAP providers worldwide. We are the only EAPA-registered EAP provider in the MENA region. ICAS was established in 1987 and our MENA operations were set up in 2010.
Are EAP’s cost effective? What is the return on investment (ROI)?
EAP’s have a low annual per-head premium. For every $1 spent on an EAP, the organisation sees a minimum $4.3 return on investment through a reduction in healthcare costs, lower absenteeism and productivity gains.
Who can call the EAP helpline?
The EAP is available to all employees and dependents of corporate clients that are contracted with ICAS.
What are the benefits of utilizing EAP services?
To help with life’s everyday challenges that we face in our personal and work life. The program aims to help an individual in a confidential manner to work through the issue/challenge as quickly as possible to maintain a healthy work/life balance.
How many languages is the service available in?
Our 24/7/365 helpline is available in 5 languages: Arabic, English, Urdu, Hindi and French. The Lifestyle wellness portal is available in 26 languages.
About Our Services
What issues can I get support on?
Our qualified counsellors can help you with problems affecting your wellbeing or psychological health, such as stress, bereavement or relationship issues. The work-life consultants offer practical and impartial information on everyday matters, like dealing with debt, consumer rights, tenancy issues and family problems. Wellness Coaches offering professional advice on diet & nutrition and healthy exercise. You also have available access to a range of support tools to help you make positive healthy lifestyle changes via a multilingual health portal called ICAS Lifestyle.
Is the service confidential?
Our services are fully confidential. What you share stays between you and ICAS. We may have to break confidentiality in cases where an individual might be at risk of harming themselves and/or others, the company, or are involved in acts of terrorism.
Is our conversation recorded?
No, none of the calls are recorded.
What information is shared with my employer?
Every organisation receives a half-year and/or annual report. We include high-level trends such as: the number of cases, utilized services and reported topics (divided into work-related and private). The reports are anonymised so that individual service users cannot be identified.
Are there any services catered specifically to managers and HR?
HR and managers have the option to use the Management Consultancy tool. The Management Consultancy Service can provide HR and line managers with many levels of help and support.
Just to give you some idea of the many issues we can help you with, here are a few examples:
– Tackling a performance issue
– Dealing with a difficult employee
– Presenting bad news
– Addressing an absence issue
– Helping an employee with an addiction problem
– Coping with a merger or take-over
– Handling an employee’s bereavement
– Dealing with harassment or discrimination
There is also a special area on the health portal called ‘Managers Resource Centre’.
Does ICAS have a systematic complaints management process?
Yes, we have a formal complaints process. Our data privacy officer and quality manager as well as management are informed about every complaint. Each complaint is thoroughly investigated following EAP and ethical best practices.
How do you deal with individuals that might be under distress?
Our telephonic team is available 24/7/365 and provides immediate support and conducts a clinical assessment to determine the best course of action to support the individual. This might entail them being referred to additional professional support and resources such as face-to-face counselling, legal and financial guidance and wellness coaching.
COUNSELOR
QUALIFICATION
What are the qualifications of your counsellors?
All our counsellors have:
- Masters Degree in psychology or allied discipline
- Multiple years of professional experience
- Training on working within the EAP model of short-term, solution-focused counselling
- Training on the culture and nuances of the MENA region
What measures for quality assurance are in place?
ICAS has a well-defined management framework and maintains Information Security Policy Standards in line with the International Standard for Information Security (ISO/IEC 27001).
Our quality manager ensures strict compliance with our high-quality standards.
DATA PROTECTION COMPLIANCE
How and where do you save personal data of our employees?
We use a customized database solution that fulfills all security-relevant specifications. Cases are captured anonymously; i.e. we do not save any personal data. Any telephone numbers or e-mail addresses that may be required for scheduling purposes with an EAP professional are deleted upon conclusion of the case.
How do you ensure compliance with General Data Protection Regulations (GDPR)?
All data handling is carried out with strict adherence to prevailing regulations and periodic reviews are undertaken to ensure that practices remain valid. ICAS is registered as a data controller and processor with the Information Commissioner’s Office. We are fully compliant with the European Union General Data Protection Regulations (GDPR).
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