Using a dog-friendly workplace is helping small businesses in Barnsley: Kevin Steel

Yoshka passed away in 2011, but his legacy lives on with a company cafe named after him and a plaque explaining he helped Google become “a dog-friendly company.”

At our organisation, well-behaved pets have been allowed to come to work with their owners at our two business centres in Barnsley for two years now and we’re pleased to report this has been a positive experience.

Each dog must be registered with site management, and their owners sign a contract to abide by strict rules monitoring behaviour and hygiene.

Pets are not allowed in communal areas or meeting rooms and owners must ensure no-one has allergies or is nervous of dogs within their own office or workshop area.

In practice, the policy is largely self-regulated.

Everyone comes here to run a successful small business – and if their dog won’t settle and support that primary aim, it stays at home.

But everyone is also clear that we’ll step in if a dog were to challenge the professional integrity of the business centre in any way, for anyone.

To be honest, we wouldn’t tolerate loud, disruptive or aggressive humans at the Business Village - and the same goes for dogs.

We have more than 120 tenant businesses based at The Business Village and about 40 dogs now accompany their humans to work, mostly on an occasional or part-time basis.

We’ve already attracted new tenants partly because we have the dog-friendly policy in place.

People have reported back many benefits.

Dog-owning business owners say that productivity has improved as taking the dog for a quick walk around the site gives them a break from the computer screen, helps clear heads and unlock ideas.

Others have found that having a dog around has boosted their general wellbeing and reduced stress.

It has even helped businesses to interact more as they have informal chats on dog walks and get to know each other better as potential collaborators.

The busy entrepreneurs have also appreciated the sheer convenience of it.

Now, I totally understand the reservations about this – especially for non-dog people.

This policy was not introduced lightly and is managed rigorously.

It followed a stringent survey of all tenants which showed 75 per cent in favour but also highlighted some concerns.

We launched the policy with a robust code of conduct for dog owners to sign up to which addresses all practicalities.

And, we tested it in a successful pilot.

It runs smoothly now and is always open to update and review.

Our aim was to introduce dogs in a practical way which protected the professional integrity of the workplace; and the consensus is that we’ve achieved that.

Kevin Steel is Business Development Manager for The Barnsley Business Village