Encouraging employees to bring their pets to work might be the next best thing to a generous raise in terms of cranking up the productivity meter, or so says a study by Banfield Pet Hospitals.
Of course, Banfield does have a dog in this fight — its entire business model is based on more folks having more pets and taking really good care of them.
That said, the survey did take into account input from more than 1,000 employees and 200 human resources professionals.
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What the survey found was that most offices don't permit bringing a pet to work — less than a quarter said their policies included that option.
But for those who worked among animal friends, the condition was said to be conducive to happy, productive workers. Among the group, two-thirds of employees and eight in 10 HR folks said bringing pets to work ramped up productivity.
Vast majorities of both said it improved the work environment to such a degree that people were more loyal to the company and less stressed on the job.
Pet-friendly policies are a recruiting aid, the survey found, since most pet owners will inquire about the existence of this liberal policy.
And bosses said one hidden benefit was longer hours worked by employees who no longer "needed" to get home to walk Fido or let Fuzzball in from the daily patrol of the rodent population.
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Dan Cook
Dan Cook is a journalist and communications consultant based in Portland, OR. During his journalism career he has been a reporter and editor for a variety of media companies, including American Lawyer Media, BusinessWeek, Newhouse Newspapers, Knight-Ridder, Time Inc., and Reuters. He specializes in health care and insurance related coverage for BenefitsPRO.
