The client

Nabarro, law firm

The challenge

Stress is one of the biggest costs to employers in the modern world. In 2004-05, it resulted in 12.8 million lost days and cost UK employers £3.7bn.

What we did

The Centre for Sport and Exercise Science (CSES) linked up with Nabarro to put together a stress-busting programme for employers, including advice on both how to improve wellness in the workplace and how to deal with claims from employees.

It advises employers about what they need to know, covering employment law, health and safety issues, and disability discrimination legislation, and also tries to get across the message that it is much better to try and prevent stress in the workplace, rather than dealing with it once an employee makes a claim.

The results

Nabarro now offer this package to their clients. The package is aimed primarily at the public sector, but also at call centres and the financial services sector, where workplace stress is known to be a major problem. The programme seeks to reduce the amount of litigation faced by Nabarro's clients.

They say

"I'm a litigator by background, and I'm all too well aware of the emotional and physical cost of stress on the employee - and the business cost to the employer. I met up with the team from Sheffield Hallam at an event and when we started talking about what we did, it was clear there was a real opportunity to work together on this."

"The bottom line is that stress in the workplace is bad news for everyone involved and the more employers can do to reduce it, the better. Being a low stress employer can also give an organisation a head start when it comes to recruiting and retaining staff, so it makes real sense to tackle workplace stress before it gets out of hand."

Nicky Loadsman, Nabarro