Bring Your Dog To Work Day: The UK’s pooch-friendly industries

In light of Bring Your Dog To Work Day today (June 25^th), new research by comparethemarket.com reveals the top industries to work in if you’re looking to bring your pooch along, as well as the workplace policies businesses have in place regarding dogs in the office.

With more than two in five UK employees (42%) looking to bring their dog into the office, there’s a clear interest in having our furry friends join us while we work. In fact, nearly half of UK employees (44%) would rather have dogs in the office than small children.

Curious where your industry stands, or if you need to enquire about a dog policy? Here are the top five industries most likely to allow dogs in the office:

Creative arts and design (47.2%)
Marketing, advertising, and PR (46.7%)
Media and internet (42.9%)
Environment and agriculture (40%)
Law (38.1%)

It comes as no surprise that creative arts and design along with marketing, advertising, and PR are within the top five industries. However, what is potentially surprising is law coming in fifth.

Of course, allowing pets in the workplace means having certain policies in place which must be adhered to and, the most common is that dogs must be fully trained before being allowed in (43%), which makes sense as nobody wants any unnecessary accidents. Also, it would appear that employers believe balance is key as over a quarter (27%) say that that they only allow them in on certain days of week.

Currently, less than three in ten employees (29%) are allowed to have dogs in the office. So when asked why they weren’t allowed, the top reasons were that they are too much hassle or maintenance throughout the day (41%), as well as some people finding them too distracting (39%).

Sometimes it’s even out of the businesses control and it’s the fact that the office building don’t allow them (39%). Moreover, businesses obviously have to consider all their employee’s health and wellbeing when making these sorts of decisions and 31% said they don’t allow dogs in the office due to allergies.

Commenting, Mubina Pirmohamed, pet expert at comparethemarket.com, says: “Our research suggests many pet owners are looking to bring their dogs into the office, which doesn’t come as too much of a surprise as over the last year, our pets have gotten used to us working from home and we’ve gotten used to having them around.

“As restrictions begin to ease and people return to the office, businesses might take a look at the policies they have in place and see if there’s a way they can make the workplace more dog-friendly”.