About Cari® (the Commitment and Resilience Index)
Cari® is a Human Capital Intelligence platform built to reveal the true picture of wellbeing and performance in your organisation, and provides the insight to inform your workplace strategy.
With over 40,000 confidential wellbeing consultations delivered, Cari has achieved 92% accuracy and helped individuals improve wellbeing by an average of 35% or more. It combines neuroscience and occupational psychology to turn hidden risks into visible, actionable intelligence.
We love collaborating with organisations that are strategically committed to wellbeing, because when people thrive, business thrives too. With Cari, employees receive personalised, in-the-moment support, while leaders gain precise, data-driven insights to guide strategy, strengthen culture, and reduce risk.
Cari is part of the Maria Paviour Company Ltd, alongside NeuChem® Coaching and Optimism Consultancy, bringing decades of research and practical expertise to help organisations unlock the full potential of their people.
The origins and development of Cari.
In 1997 Cari was the first wellbeing tech solution, winning multiple UK Government awards, With over 25 years research and development, Cari is a complete wellbeing and performance solution for organisations.
The brainchild of Maria Paviour, an Occupational Psychologist, Amazon best-selling author, and international speaker, Cari has evolved from it’s inception as a paper based questionnaire, into a unique software platform that supports both employees and organisations.
With a background spanning psychology, neuroscience, biology, and multi award-winning IT innovation, Maria founded the NeuChem® coaching model, pioneering science-based approaches to human performance and leadership development, and is a member of the Policy Liaison Group on Workplace Wellbeing, lobbying for systemic change.
1995
Business begins in a small workshop on a farm in Barcombe, East Sussex.
1996
Award Winners: Micro-‘borough MultiMedia Demonstrator Programme. Maria Paviour develops interactive online materials for supporting communication, and designs and launches “Interactive Skills” psychometric tool based on Honey and Mumford’s Inventor (The Times 16/10/96, The Argus 25/09/96, Sussex Business Times Dec 1996)
1997
Case Study: Maria Paviour’s company is used as a case study for business growth by Business Link (Move Your Business
Forward’, Business Link 1996)
TV Coverage: Kate Bellingham of Tomorrow’s World Launches the Micro’ borough Project with BBC television coverage, BBC radio, and national press. (The Daily Telegraph 20/01/97, The Sussex Express 24/01/97, The Courier 24/01/97)
1998
Technology: Maria’s Learning and Tech business launches a ground breaking interactive catalogue for learning and development
Award Winner: Maria and Stuart win a second DTI technology Award under the Multimedia Demonstrator Project. Rt Hon Barbara
Roche MP comes to visit Maria and Stuart’s successful and award winning project (Financial Times 25/04/98, The Argus Business 07/04/98, South East Business 04/98, The Focus 04/98)
1999
Award Winning Technology: Maria wins a European Award for developing award winning interactive, eLeaming materials:
“Understanding Stress” (the precursor to Cari®). “Understanding Stress” launches in France and the UK. (The Argus Business 06/07/99)
Case Study: Maria Paviour’s company is used as a case study for Multimedia at Work by the Information Society Initiative, sponsored by the DTI(Multimedia at Work Case Studies’, Information Society Initiative 1999)
Pilot of Cari: An initial pilot of Cari® is run with Business Link. Early adopters included Ogilvie Booth Coles, ACCO, and the Learning and Skills Council.
Articles: Maria promotes the importance of wellbeing at work with a series of articles: “Office Stress is on the up – are you letting it get you down?” (Business News 09/99)
Technology Review: Maria’s software (Cari®) is reviewed by the CIPD’s People Management Magazine: “The package offers employees a range of strategies and measures to prevent stress becoming a serious health and safety issue”. (People Management Magazine 29/07/99)
2002
Book: Changing Vampires into Angels – Six Steps to Heaven in your Relationships published by Isiliver Books in 2002. Exploring how to improve relationships at work, with partners, in the family, and with children. Each step is simple to carry out, and an action plan helps the reader to monitor progress at every stage on their journey.
2004
Technology Development: The team launch a series of online simple psychometric tools, simplometrics, to give people an Insight into their behaviour, knowledge, and skills
Dragon’s Den: Maria is invited, and declines to appear on the first series of Dragon’s Den
The HSE launches ‘Standards’ for Managing Stress in the Workplace The Standards cover 6 key stressor areas: demands; control; support; relationships; role; organisational change – areas in which the Cari® questionnaire measures and analyses how people are thinking and feeling, and provides support for improvement. Cari® answers organisation’s need to meet the HSE Standards.
2005
Publication: The Guide To Well Being at Work – to support organisations in fulfilling the HSE management standards for stress in the workplace, Maria and Stuart published a guide with a new angle for L&D Professionals to support employees and improve emotional engagement at work. ‘It hardly needs evidence to prove that the happier people are at work the better they perform; apart from the most obvious and beneficial outcome of litigation avoidance, employees themselves identify an immediate and dramatic reduction in their levels of stress with them reporting that this has a long lasting effect.” Stuart Paviour (Training Magazine 10/05)
2006
Technology Development: in-house tech team develop bespoke client relationship management database and index of all IPR
2008
Technology Launch: free online learning platform and community for trainers and HR professionals,
ww.isynergizetrainingresources.com was launched at HRD week in London’s Olympia and soon had over 1000 active members contributing, supporting each other, and sharing knowledge.
2009
Technology Development: the online development of Cari® continues, enabling touchscreen capabilities and instant reporting.
2010
Cari®: global oil and gas company Maria runs Cari® with Valiant Oil and Gas, in their UK and Norway operations. The Cari®
Report becomes a major player in the sale of the company.
2013
Maria Paviour Company Ltd Forms Maria establishes the Maria Paviour Company Ltd, and appears at Health and Wellbeing at Work Conference, and World of Learning
Free Public Seminar: Maria ran the neuroscience based, free, ‘Happiness as a Life Solution’ raising funds for Demelza Hospice Care for Children. (Sussex Express 08/02/13)
2015
Public Speaking: Maria is a speaker at Health and Wellbeing at Work conference (March 2015), Achieving Emotional Engagement at Work, chaired by Nita Clarke (Director, IPA, and Co-Chair Employee Engagement Taskforce)
2016
New premises: we are invited to become members of the Sussex Innovation Centre at the University of Sussex, and move in shortly after!
Technology Development: Maria’s original, award winning stress measurement tool receives funding, and working with a strong tech team, develops into an online app, Cari® (the Care and Resilience Index) accessible quickly and easily.
2017
Article: Maria is interviewed by the Argus Business about her work, 1 do an awful lot of skipping’ in the We Ask the Questions Segment (The Argus 31/01/17)
Online Caris Pilot Working with Brighton and Sussex University Hospitals Trust, Maria pilots Cari® with over 8000 staff members, supporting them to improve their mental health, resilience and wellbeing. Live coverage by the BBC features Maria using NeuChem® based coaching to help people rewire their thinking (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2325wemOE4)
Public Speaking: inTend national procurement conference, London
2018
Public Speaking: Health and Wellbeing @ Work 2018
Public Speaking: alongside Amber Rudd MP, Maria speaks at Future of Work 2025 Conference about Cari® software and the importance of supporting mental health and engagement at work. (Platinum Business Magazine Issue 48 2018)
Public Speaking: CIPD, London 2018 – Best Stand in Show
2019
Cari 2020 Vision Project Launches: Working with the PPMA and public sector organisations to roll out Cari for free to their people, contributing to the largest study of the mental health and wellbeing of UK public sector workers.
Cari evolves into Artificial Intelligence: Carl’s computational skills are beyond compare – picking up subtle nuances hidden to humans, meaning she can offer exactly the support that’s needed
2020
Research Published: Statistical analysis from over 4300 wellbeing consultations provides Covid-19’s negative impact on workplace wellbeing and performance.
Public Speaking: Society of Personnel & Development Scotland (SPDS) Annual Conference 2020
Public Speaking: CIPD – Using Science to improve Organisational Performance
Public Speaking: FSB – The importance of wellbeing in optimising performance and building business resilience.
Wellbeing Economy Alliance: Wellbeing With Cari sign the #buildbusinessbackbetter Pledge
Cari’s consultations are free, forever: as part of our commitment to the Wellbeing Economy, Cari’s confidential, online wellbeing consultations are now free to individuals, forever.
Research published: The initial results of Cari 2020 Vision are in, and we publish the report “Brain States: mental health and wellbeing of the public sector”
Award Winners: Wellbeing with Cari win “Most Innovative Workplace Wellbeing & Performance Support Provider – UK” at the Southern Enterprise Awards 2020.
2021
Award Winners: Wellbeing with Cari win “Performance Support Provider of the Year” at the CorporateLiveWire Innovation &
Public speaking: TechTalk on innovative digital wellbeing solutions at the MAD World Wellbeing Summit in London, Oct 2021
Public speaking: Presenting at the Let’s Improve Workplace Wellbeing. org event, Oct, 2021
Public speaking: Health Service Journal’s (HSJ) 14th Patient Safety Congress for the NHS – “Caring for our caregivers: Rolling out an effective wellbeing plan to support long-term staff needs.”, Sept 2021
Cyber Essentials Certification: UK Government-backed scheme developed by the National Cyber Security Centre, that certifies organisations who have put in place controls to mitigate risks from cyber threats to keep your data secure. Certificate awarded September 2021
2024
Launch of BENDs App: Available on the App Store and Google Play.
Book: Publication of The Vampire Default and the brain science of healthy relationships at work and home.
Public Speaking: Maria and Stuart attend the CIPD Festival of Work conference.
