By Lauren Penrod

Why is there an entire holiday dedicated to bringing your dog to work? Because it's good for the pets and the people. Having dogs in the workplace has been shown to decrease work-related stress levels and can even increase worker productivity.

That's because when people interact with dogs, it increases their levels of relaxing, calming brain chemicals like oxytocin. One small study showed that both people and their dogs had elevated levels of oxytocin when they interacted. But there are plenty of other studies showing that oxytocin goes up during positive social interactions with people, so why shouldn't it be the same with dogs.

What is rarely discussed, however, is the impact this can have on a business, particularly small startups to mid-sized businesses. Aside from happy workers, the benefits of animal-related happiness extend to the inner workings of the company. Allowing dogs in the workplace is pretty much a freebie to employers, while increasing productivity. How's that for ROI?

Why?

A recent study from the Virginia Commonwealth University found that employees who brought their dogs to work experienced:

• Lower stress levels throughout the work day
• Higher levels of job satisfaction and perceived positive organizational support: Employees feel that the employer cares about his or her personal and professional development.
• Increased communication between employees: Dogs are an easy thing to chat about
• Health benefits and decreased absenteeism.
• Researchers found that groups with a dog in the room rated their group members higher on trust and team cohesion measures than those with no dog.
• Increased productivity: Having a dog reminds employees to stand up and stretch, take the dog outside, and to take breaks every so often Studies indicate this increases productivity.

Not only are you increasing productivity and workflow, you are genuinely tricking the mind into increased levels of happiness, and satisfaction. Increased employee satisfaction means employee retention, and less money spent unnecessarily training to backfill positions of lost employees.

High Returns, and Low Costs

The average start-up has little to no expendable income for frivolous things like kegerators in the break room, popcorn stations, or free gym memberships. So if your company isn’t quite to the point where you can provide free birthday vacations, unlimited Apple products, or all-inclusive gym memberships, bringing a dog to work is low cost to the employer and has added benefit to both parties. No longer will the employee have to pay for puppy day care, or worry about hurrying home to let their dog outside.

When you compare the cost of allowing dogs in the workplace, with other stress-relieving benefits, such as paid or discounted health and fitness passes, the cost-to-benefit ratio is a landslide win for the dogs. For example, if you have 100 employees, and you provide each of them with a gym membership, the annual cost could range from $12,000 to $36,000.

The average cost of dogs at work is increased "break time." But break time can not only increase employee focus, but improve employees' overall health, lowering absenteeism and health-care costs.

Plenty of research has shown the ROI on providing benefits instead of cash to employees. Millennials are no longer looking for companies with the highest salary (although it doesn’t hurt either, let’s be honest). They are looking for benefits. And not the type of benefits our parents and grandparents were looking for, rather, work-life balance benefits, fun benefits that prevent us from feeling like a machine for the man- ultimately something that separates one company from another. Keeping goodemployees happy is pays off in improved retention, and it’s the continued ability to grow and become better with the help of invested employees.

Staying out of the Dog House

Preparing for potential issues and discussing them ahead of time is one way to reduce shock and over-excitement.

There are genuine concerns when inviting furry friends into the office space, so you may want to try to integrate this policy slowly by testing it out first.

Some things to be aware of and prepare for are:

• Determine how many people in the office have allergies to dogs.
• Determine whether this is a cultural office change that employees desire
• Have specific requirements of owners:

○     Leash-trained

○     Well-behaved

○     House-broken

○     Owners must clean up after pets inside, and outside

○     All vaccinations up to date

○     Well-groomed

○     Gets along well with other animals

• Determine how many pets are allowed in the office on a daily basis- and a maximum capacity for the animals.

Getting Started       

Keeping in mind that there are legal reasons for why someone would need their animal next to them at all times, such as the case with service, dogs. But for the remainder of the animals, there ought to be protocol when implementing this type of company benefit.

Here are a few ideas of how to launch a dog atmosphere in your office:

• Have a test pet. Only one pet per week for 4 weeks. This could be used as a lottery system, and the winner gets to bring their dog.
• Start with a manager's dog. This dog could potentially have less interaction with employees, but enough to test how productive employees would still react.
• Each person can bring the dog on one 10 minute walk per week.
• Start with hypoallergenic dogs. Determine if there are any people with allergies in the office.
• Create pet-free zones, a few areas where the dogs are not allowed. Examples may be: bathrooms, a section of the building where those who are allergic sit, or in the break room.

Generally knowing whether this is a cultural shift your office is interested in should be relatively apparent. Companies that have integrated dogs into their office have reported a significant impact on the hiring process. Evidently many companies that have dogs in the office tend to hire individuals with the same interests and overall acceptance of animals. This has led to a better vibe, uniqueness, relationship building, and overall familiarity within the office- leading to higher retention of employees.

It sounds like these policies will benefit everyone involved. Now go work like a dog!

Lauren Penrod is the mother to two poodle mixes and is expecting her first child in November. She is born and raised in Boise, Idaho and spends her free time freelance writing and planning too far into the future.