Options on Dog-Friendly Employee Benefits | Pet Friendly Office

Pet insurance, "paw-ternity" leave and more.

If your workplace can't accommodate pets, you can offer other popular pet-related benefits to your team and enjoy many rewards, including employee wellbeing and retention. Take a look!

NOTE: I'm not a benefits broker, but I can find you one and help steer you through this maze to choose the ideal benefits for your company.

Pet Insurance

By offering pet insurance plans to employees, you'll be the office unicorn ... seriously!

In an article by AllWork: “78% of HR professionals believe pet insurance is an important benefit, and it helps differentiate your company in a competitive market.”
And an article by Spot Pet Insurance noted, "Rising veterinary costs make pet insurance a valuable support, reducing financial stress for pet owners."

Powerful reasons to offer pet insurance to your staff, right? So what's the best pet insurance for your company to offer? You'll find many choices offering different perks (such as group discounts).

Here’s a list of pet insurance options (their employee benefits pages).

A quick review of each one will give you an idea of what they offer employers and how they operate.

Pet Wellness Plans

Help reduce the financial burden for your employees with pets.

Think of it: wellness plans cover proactive steps to avoid pet medical problems, while pet insurance is reactive (something happened that now needs medical attention).

A Guardian Life Pet Wellness Guide states this awesome fact: "Proactive pet care can help prevent disease and help lower costs over time. By covering preventive care, wellness plans help catch health issues early, potentially reducing long-term costs and improving pets' quality of life."

Pet wellness services may include:

Routine or annual health checkups
Vaccinations and other preventatives
Baseline blood and urine testing for future reference as the pet ages
Preventive dental cleanings
Conversations about any safety or disease-exposure issues

Here's a list of pet wellness plan providers for employers to offer.

I'm merely listing the top companies I've found that currently offer pet wellness plans to employers. There may be more, but this gives you a starting point.

“Paw-ternity” Leave (aka “Fur-ternity” Leave)

Allow pet parents precious time off to welcome their furry new family member.

Everyone needs some time to bond and adjust when bringing a new pet into the household, including the pet. Picture how a new pet may react in a new home, with a new family. It takes time for everyone to establish a routine, train the animal, share responsibilities for cleanup, and so forth. Yes, people and pets need time to settle in. I know, I’ve been in this situation many wonderfluff times in my life.

What’s a typical benefit? Well, paw-ternity leave is fairly new in the HR world, so there’s no single model.

You could offer a few days to a week, paid time off (PTO) or unpaid. If your company offers a flexible PTO policy, it really doesn’t matter. The employee chooses how many days they use for this purpose.

You’ll want to set guidelines on notifying you and the employee’s work team, so they’ll be prepared for the employee’s absence.

Here’s a sample paw-ternity leave policy I curated and edited from several I found. You can adapt it for your company.

Paw-ternity/Fur-ternity Leave Policy Template

At [Company Name], we recognize the important role pets can play in your life. To support our team members in welcoming a new pet, we offer up to three (3) days of paid paw-ternity leave (aka fur-ternity leave) to eligible employees when bringing a new dog or cat into the household.

To use this benefit, you’ll need to submit a leave request and provide documentation of the new pet. This benefit may be used up to twice per year and must be taken within 30 days of the pet’s arrival.

Additional unpaid leave or flexible work arrangements may be granted at the discretion of management.

Pet Bereavement Leave

By acknowledging the shock and dismay of losing a pet, and by helping your company offer a pet bereavement benefit, you're doing employees a massive favor.

I know, firsthand, about pet bereavement. When my doggie soulmate Louie started getting very sick at age 14-1/2, I knew his time on earth was limited. I asked my compassionate and wonderful veterinarian if his own dog was suffering like that, what he would do. He said, "I'd let him go. It's the merciful thing to do."

That's when the floodgates opened. Louie went over the Rainbow Bridge on a Friday afternoon. I cried all weekend. I cried pretty much the entire next week. I still cry sometimes because I miss him so much. And I know this is a common experience when someone loses a beloved pet.

You're showing compassion and caring. You're allowing employees to grieve. That's huge to them, and they'll appreciate it more than you can imagine. For this reason, a number of leading companies offer pet bereavement leave and the trend is growing.

To get you started on your plan, here's a sample policy I curated and edited from several that I found. It's ready for you to adapt for your company.

Pet Bereavement Leave Policy Template

At [Company Name], we recognize that pets are often deeply loved family members, and the death of a pet can leave an employee distraught. That's why we offer [up to three days] of pet bereavement leave to employees following the death of a household pet.

Please notify your manager as soon as possible if you need to take pet bereavement leave.

Additional leave or flexible arrangements may be considered on a case-by-case basis.

On-Site Veterinary Visits and Grooming Days

Even if you're unable to allow pets in the office, perhaps you can offer "pet care days" in the parking lot or other nearby space.

You can arrange for a local mobile veterinary practice or groomer (or both!) to come to your office once a month (for example) to take care of employee pets' routine health exams, vaccinations, grooming needs, and more.

Why offer this benefit? Three reasons:

You'll make it easier for employees to get their pet's care taken care of, without having to take vacation or sick time.
You'll build a sense of community while supporting local pet service providers.
And your employees will appreciate the heck out of your company! Once again, it's all about retention.

What's the easiest way to set up on-site services for employee pets?

Contact local providers:

Mobile veterinary practices and groomers
Local bricks-and-mortar practices and groomers willing to set up shop at your offices

Call Script Template for Reaching Out to Pet Service Providers

"Hello, this is [Your Name] from [Your Company].
I'm reaching out because we're interested in bringing mobile pet care services on-site for our employees with pets. For instance, we'd like to offer a monthly pet care day on the premises.

Do you currently offer workplace visits or group events? We're hoping to host this at our office in [Location] on [Date], with about [number] employees interested. We anticipate scheduling a full day of clients for you. Is this possible?

That's great! Can you tell me about the services you can provide on-site and how your scheduling would work?

What are your requirements for booking, and could you share your pricing?

Wonderful, what's the best way for us to move forward? Thank you so much for your time!"

Creative Dog- and Cat-Friendly Benefits

If you really want to take this further, here's a starting list of creative and fun ideas for pet-related benefits.

Therapy Pet Visits: When you can’t allow pets in the office, you can still bring pets to the office in an outdoor or off-site setting. Schedule a therapy pet day once a month, for instance, and have employees sign up to spend time with furry stress-reducers. It may be wildly popular as it is at this company.
Local Shelter Volunteer Day: Let employees have a paid day “off” to volunteer at a local shelter, participate in a shelter fundraiser, host an adoption event at your offices, etc.
On-Site Doggy Daycare: What a massive difference you'd make if your employees could bring their pets to daycare on site. They'd know their pets are being well cared for, right at your office, and they can visit their pets)
Pet Portrait Day: Bring in a pet photographer (or 2 or 3) and invite employees to sign up for pet portraits at a discount. Since the photographers will be paid by the day, perhaps they’re willing to offer individual portraits at a reasonable cost (vs. an individual photo shoot for one pet).
Local School Outreach Day: Set up an event at your offices where school children can visit, meet your employees’ pets, and learn about responsible pet care. (Hint: invite a local veterinarian to be the teacher.)

What else can you offer for pet-related benefits?

I can help you brainstorm some amazing ideas. And if you need assistance choosing and implementing the perfect benefits for your employees, I can help you through my Pet-Friendly Office CONCIERGE SYSTEM. Contact me for an initial consultation.