ThinkHR’s Take Your Dog to Work Day Best Practices

Tomorrow, June 21, is Take Your Dog to Work Day. For some businesses, like ThinkHR, dogs are always welcome. On any given day, we have two to three pups under desks, in meetings, and sometimes scampering across conference room tables. Even though we’re accustomed to our furry friends, we’ve put extra thought and planning into tomorrow’s event to ensure it goes smoothly. We encourage you to borrow our ideas (or send us your better ones!) if you’re planning to have canine visitors in your office tomorrow.

Events

We are planning a few structured events for our canine visitors that include:

• Meet and greet
• Pooch parade
• Outdoor walks
• Treats
• Photoshoot

Employees can bring their dog for a specific event or all day. This flexibility allows dogs who may not be candidates for a full day in the workplace to partake of some of the fun.

Every employee is welcome to participate, even if they didn’t bring a dog or are cat people.

Things to Consider

We trust employees to use sound judgement in determining whether their dog is suited for this event. Nevertheless, we felt it was prudent to publish a few things to think about to help employees make good decisions.

Our list included:

• Does your dog get along with other dogs?
• Is your dog “chatty”? (If so, Rover might be better suited for a walk outside than time in the office.)
• Does your dog get overly excited (squirrel!) with lots of people and other furry friends?

We also ask that all dogs be on a leash while they’re in the office.

For those who decide their dog isn’t the best candidate for the event, we have treats and gifts they can take home. And our remote employees can participate by posting photos of their dogs on the #dogsofthinkhr Slack channel.

Dogs Days Are Here

If you are considering a full-time dog-friendly office, check out this Q&A. If you allow service or support animals, get tips here.