UK’s most pet friendly office created in Scotland

With April National Pet Month, what better time to create the UK’s most pet friendly office as work life returns to a new normal.

A collaborative effort between pet experts at Bella & Duke, the premium raw pet food company, and the build and design team at Space Solutions, has seen the creation of what is believed to be the UK’s most pet friendly office in Rosyth.

A number of benefits, services and facilities have been implemented to improve employee welfare as well as their four legged companions’, including:

• Full-time Pet & People ‘Park Ranger’ to offer pet support ensuring that the needs of office pets as well as visiting pets are being met

• Bella & Duke‘s in-house expert behaviorist, Caroline Spencer, who’s there to ensure pets are at their happiest when in the office. There will also be the opportunity for employees to learn from Caroline and improve knowledge of dog body language and behaviour

• Inbuilt kennels for a pet safe and cosy space to relax

• Designated picket fence pet sensory garden

• Agility courses and fun interactive areas for pets to blow off steam, learn new tricks and bond with their owners

• Pet friendly decor and design, with specific plants and flowers such as areca palms, banana plants and aspidistra, as well as a selection of pet friendly herbs in the pet sensory garden

• Calming sprays

• Toys, snuffle mats and other enrichment

• Library books where pet owners can educate themselves on how to look after your pet

Working with pets at home during lockdown provided a number of benefits, which would be equally welcomed into office working space. The top five ways Brits found having a cat or dog helped owners during lockdown included:

1. Helping with mental health (59%)

2. Made working from home less lonely (52%)

3. Gave me a reason to take a break to play/go for a walk (44%)

4. Gave me a routine to stick to (41%)

5. Was a good way to build exercise into my daily routine (40%)

New survey data has found that nearly 80% of office workers in the UK are currently unable to take their pet to work due to it not having the adequate facilities, which is costing over a third of Brits (39%) on average £100 per week equating to over £5,000 annually on pet day-care.

Six in ten Brits said if offices across the UK were more pet friendly, they would take their cat or dog into work with them rather than leave them at home or put them into pet day-care. Over half (51%) of pet owners said they would request to work from home to be able to look after a pet, and nearly a quarter (22%) of pet owners would consider looking for a new job that allows pets in the office, highlighting the importance of pet wellbeing to their loving owners.

In terms of the benefits having pets in the office could bring, 43% of Brits agree having a cat or dog in the office would boost team morale, over 30% believe people work better with a cat or dog in the office and 36% agree it’s also better for the pets wellbeing to accompany their owner to work.

Mark Scott, CEO of Bella & Duke, said: “Our pets have always been right by us, even more so during lockdown, so we felt it was time we did right by them. We hear of companies talking about being pet friendly, but with pet wellbeing at the core of what our company does, we wanted to take it one step further and create the UK’s most pet friendly office. 

“Bella & Duke has over 130 employees with over 60 pets between them from cats and dogs to ferrets and snakes, so we had to make sure our new office space was adaptable to meet our employee needs as well as their companions.

“It’s our mission to help pets live a happier life, so we encourage more businesses to think about their pet friendly office and work policies to enjoy the benefits four-legged employees can bring.” 

Further tips and advice on how to set up a pet friendly workplace can be found here.

About Bella & Duke   

Bella & Duke was launched four years ago to create raw food for animal lovers to feed their pets. Having both lost dogs too young to cancer, co-founders Mark and Tony felt they had to do something about the whole dog food industry, and to establish a trusted and transparent brand that helps educate pet parents on the benefits of great nutrition.

Main image credit: © Malcolm Cochrane Photography