May 06, 2008 09:06 AM Eastern Daylight Time 

MetLife Named One of the Best Adoption-Friendly Workplaces in America

NEW YORK--(BUSINESS WIRE)--MetLife announced today that it was named to the Dave Thomas Foundation for Adoption’s “Best Adoption-Friendly Workplaces in America” list. MetLife ranked 19 out of 100 and number two in the insurance industry.

“MetLife is proud of the comprehensive set of programs and benefits we offer to help our associates lead fulfilling lives,” said Debra J. Capolarello, senior vice president of Human Resources for MetLife. “Earning this recognition for our adoption assistance program is a wonderful tribute to our ongoing commitment to supporting the professional and personal needs of our associates.”

Adoption benefits are employer-provided and include some combination of financial assistance, paid leave and unpaid leave. Employers are generally not required to offer them. According to the foundation’s 2008 survey results, the average adoption-friendly employer has had a policy in place for eight years, offers up to $5,000 in financial assistance and five weeks of paid leave. MetLife offers $10,000 in financial assistance, two weeks of parental leave and informational resources to help guide associates through each step of the adoption process.

Rita Soronen, the foundation’s executive director, said the list debuted in 2007 and includes the top 100 organizations that provide exceptional support to employees who adopt. “More than 50 organizations nationwide established or enhanced their adoption benefits for 2008. As a result, employers who made the list offered more robust adoption benefits packages this year to make it.”

“MetLife's adoption assistance provided my family with the peace of mind we needed to concentrate on building our new family, rather than the adoption process itself,” says Tommy Lee Hayes-Brown, a marketing manager at MetLife, who adopted three of his four sons. “My wife and I always wanted to build our family with both biological and adopted children. The assistance we received from MetLife helped us achieve the great life we now have with our four boys."

Rankings for the Best Adoption-Friendly Workplaces in America list are based on the amount of financial assistance and paid leave provided. The foundation compiled the results from survey data collected from 919 U.S. employers. Survey rankings are based first on the maximum amount of financial reimbursement per adoption, which includes any additional support for special-needs adoption, and second on the maximum number of weeks of paid leave per adoption. Employers who offer both are ranked higher than those providing only monetary support. In addition to ranking the top 100, the foundation also recognized the top 10 by size, the leaders of each industry, and companies who support the cause of adoption and adoptive families in other ways.

The Dave Thomas Foundation for Adoption, a non-profit 501(c)3 public charity is dedicated to dramatically increasing the adoptions of the more than 140,000 children in North America’s foster care systems ready and waiting to be adopted. Created by Wendy’s founder Dave Thomas, who was adopted as a child, the foundation spearheads programs such as Wendy’s Wonderful Kids, which puts adoption recruiters in all 50 states and Canada to find permanent, loving families for children in the foster care system, and Adoption-Friendly Workplace, which encourages employers to offer adoption benefits to their employees. The foundation also works with adoption advocates and officials to streamline the adoption process and make adoption more affordable for families. As the only organization dedicated exclusively to foster care adoption, the foundation is driven by Dave’s simple value: Do what’s best for the child. To learn more about the foundation’s work, go to www.DaveThomasFoundationforAdoption.org

Celebrating 140 years, MetLife is a subsidiary of MetLife, Inc. (NYSE: MET), a leading provider of insurance and financial services with operations throughout the United States and the Latin America, Europe and Asia Pacific regions. Through its domestic and international subsidiaries and affiliates, MetLife, Inc. reaches more than 70 million customers around the world and MetLife is the largest life insurer in the United States (based on life insurance in-force). The MetLife companies offer life insurance, annuities, auto and home insurance, retail banking and other financial services to individuals, as well as group insurance, reinsurance and retirement & savings products and services to corporations and other institutions. For more information, please visit www.metlife.com.