CANA’s pet friendly policy benefits Eastern Innovation, their clients and pets

Liz Small, Engagement Lead at Eastern Innovation said, “We recognised that workers and pets spent a lot more time together during the pandemic, meaning that coming back to the office was likely to be a challenge for many people and their employers. We wanted to remove this hurdle for people to get out of home and co-work.”

Accordingly, Eastern Innovation collaborated with CANA to produce a pet-friendly policy for the business owners and teams who tenant the region’s innovation centre.

“The goal was to get people back in the workspace with a robust policy, prepared by a team of pet experts, that created an environment few other flexible working spaces could offer,” she said.

“Pets primarily reside in the offices of their owners, and we have wonderful outdoor spaces where they can relax too. Pets make Eastern Innovation a happier workplace and we welcome more pets in the centre. The pets also love the attention and pats, and the owners enjoy the attention their pets get. Clients with pets seem to be in the office more regularly.”

The company initially had some people who were anti pets in the office, but showing the pet friendly policy and procedures that pets would be under made them feel more comfortable, said Liz.

“Having a pet friendly office is also a fabulous sales tool. Most people say that’s amazing. It’s a nice tool in our engagement with our new potential clients,” she said.

“Other staff that like pets but do not have any of their own get the opportunity to connect with an animal at work. It also aids with connection between our clients.

“We support our clients with pets by providing spaces for their animal and guidelines for the centre. Partnering with CANA provided us with the foundation (the policy) to ensure that we could invite pets into the centre knowing that their owners understood the requirements.  This also helped with the clients that did not want pets in the centre as they have not been affected by the pets.”