Ever thought about allowing your employees to bring their pets to work? The idea may seem absurd to some but many successful companies have a pets in the workplace policy such as Google and Amazon.
There are a few considerations to be made before allowing pets into the office environment but first we'll take a look at what are the pros of having pets in the workplace:
1. They can reduce work related stress
2. Encourage office workers to take regular breaks
3. Boost morale
4. Improves interoffice relationships
Some considerations that should be taken into account before having pets in the workplace are:
1. Is everyone on board with the idea?
2. Does anyone suffer form any allergies?
3. Is the owner of the building OK with it?
4. Are the pets suitable to be indoors or in an office?
If everyone loves the idea the next step is to come up with a plan. You don't want the office over-run with pets, consider creating a pet booking system to limit the number of pets in the office at any one time, you could even have cats only days, dogs only days or even reptile only days. Make sure your employees bring in leashes, toys, bedding, water bowl and food so their pets are comfortable. It's also important that the pets are up to date on their vaccinations, flea & worm control. Obviously consideration needs to be given to toileting arrangements.
Finally, not all pets are suited to the office life. Quiet, non-aggressive pets are ideal, a noisy barking dog or out of control screaming parrot probably is simply not practical.