It also runs workshops on how to build personal resilience, which are open to all employees, as part of its learning and development programme.
Yana Belmega, learning and development project manager, says: “[The focus] is around increasing resilience, so looking at what [resilience] is and the difference between pressure and stress, and so on. It also looks at strategies around managing it.
The organisation extended these workshops to create an additional programme for supervisors. “We thought it would be very useful to have another workshop for supervisors, to [enable them] to identify anything in the [staff] that they are responsible for,” adds Belmega.
In partnership with insurer Aviva, the organisation has also held a talk for employees with a mindfulness professor, which detailed what mindfulness about oneself and as a leader means.
In addition, Browne Jacobson runs an annual wellbeing fair across all five of its UK offices, which promote the health and wellbeing benefits available to staff, including the resilience workshops, as well as putting staff in touch with benefits providers that can give them more information on any support that they require.
Staff also have access to a local chaplain, who makes monthly visits to the organisation and is available for all staff, and a wellbeing and faith room that staff can use during their working day.
A sports and social committee runs a variety of workplace activities for staff, and a community action committee supports an employee with two days out of work to take part in a community project in, for example, a local school or hospital.
Helen Whitt, HR adviser, says: “As a fast-paced legal environment, we have our targets to meet, our clients to support, and having well-engaged people here is critical to our business. We recognise that stress and issues arise internally from work, and externally from outside work, and we do this to support people in work.”
