All posts by Lisa Baker, Editor, UK Business News

Lisa Baker is an experienced journalist, Owner of Need to See IT Publishing and the Editor of Business in the News. Lisa covers Business, Health, HR and Technology.
News

BCS Joins RSBG to Support Further Growth

BCS, the digital built asset consultancy, has announced it is joining RSBG SE, the patient capital investment arm of RAG Stiftung, a foundation with the long-term public purpose to deal with environmental protection.

Under the terms of the deal, RSBG will become a long-term investor in BCS which has doubled the size of its business in the past 12 months, supporting its continuing growth and development.  RSBG has over 65 locations across 30 countries which will drive expansion and internationalisation, enabling BCS to continue to support its clients in the geographies they need to be.

The move will see no changes to the BCS management team, personnel, brand or day to day operations. The company will also benefit from a strategic partnership with McBains, a leading property and construction consultancy, as part of RSBG’s Project Management pillar, and together they will be able to access the ingredients for growth offered by the group. The new parent company of The BCS Consulting Group Ltd is MBC Group Ltd. James Hart, CEO of BCS and Clive Docwra, Managing Director of McBains, will sit together on the board of MBC.

James Hart, CEO at BCS, said: “RSBG is an experienced partner and investor who specialises in the acquisition, expansion and internationalisation of medium-sized companies. We believe they have a unique model for investing in small and medium sized entrepreneurial companies and, since they launched, they have grown into a collaborative network supporting over 6,500 careers across the globe. RSBG’s mission is to generate sustainable funds for the foundation, so our work will be directly contributing to protecting the environment.”

Clive Docwra, Managing Director, McBains, said: “We very much welcome the addition of BCS as a sister company and believe it provides ourselves and the wider group with an even stronger project and cost management offering; bringing access to new sectors and a wider geography”.

News

New research finds Brits are concerned about payments fraud within businesses

Almost three-quarters of Brits are concerned about having enough funds to manage the festive shopping period

 

Amid the worsening financial crisis, a quarter are not confident that they know how much debt they have

 

Almost a quarter of individuals find managing their spending stressful

 

Over a third of Brits admit that the amount they spend on a monthly basis worries them

 

London, UK, 12 October 2022 – Almost three-quarters of Brits are concerned about having enough funds to manage the festive shopping period, a new report from fintech platform Trust Payments has found.

 

‘The Importance of Understanding Consumer Spending Habits’ surveyed 2,000 residents in the UK to find out their spending habits, purchase patterns and financial concerns and found that not only is the festive season a concern but over a quarter of Brits claim to be unsure of their current debt, while the same number claim that they have no idea how much they have accrued previously.

 

The research also found significant changes in buyer behaviour across the UK ahead of the busiest quarter for merchants and shows how businesses must realign their payment processes to how consumers want to spend during the cost of living crisis and the upcoming festive season.

 

The landscape of 2022

 

As the world recovers from the Covid-19 pandemic lockdowns and cash makes a comeback, 7 in 10 Brits over 60 and 69% of 18-29-year-olds use cash during a typical month of spending. However, contactless payments continue to be more dominant – Debit/ credit cards are used by the majority (91%) and in fact, 38% of respondents use their debit card more when they’ve just been paid compared to the end of the month

 

The research showed that while cross-border payments can be complex, there is an appetite for this in the UK, with 6 in 10 Brits willing to pay using different currencies to access retailers outside the country. Not only are inter-currency payments attractive, but variety too, with one in two Brits saying that the way they pay for things depends on what they are buying, making it challenging for businesses to track purchase habits.

 

Managing stressful spending

 

Almost a quarter of Brits would be willing to share more personal data with businesses if it offered them an enhanced customer experience. The findings demonstrate a clear business opportunity to level up product and service offerings using consented consumer data. As the cost of living puts pressure on purses, almost a quarter of individuals find managing their spending stressful, which is why it’s essential for businesses to constantly review their systems to make paying simple, stress-free and flexible.

 

As we approach the festive season and an increase in bills and inflation, it should be no surprise that 73% are concerned about having enough funds to manage the festive shopping period – a significant impact on the cost of living crisis. With over 8 in 10 Brits concerned about fraud, including identity theft (74%), bank impersonation (54%) and phishing scams (45%), secure payments have never been more important.

 

Keeping up with these customer preferences is a challenge, and utilising the expertise of acquirers and tools such as TRU Insight will be a game-changer for businesses looking to get ahead. Merchants not using data to their advantage will struggle to retain customers during the peak buying season.

 

Laurence Booth, Chief Data Officer at Trust Payments, commented: “There is currently a disconnect between Brits and businesses. Merchants are missing the opportunity to utilise the consensual customer data available to provide the products and services consumers want and need. The challenge businesses are facing is that they do not truly understand consumer spending habits and concerns. As the cost of living crisis reduces spending for people and tightens business margins, merchants can’t afford to avoid using this intelligence to their benefit.

 

Technology presents an opportunity for businesses struggling to build a close and long-lasting relationship with their customers with the products they want and need. If merchants want to stand out from a saturated market, they must transform how they engage, interact and act with their customers.”

 

The full report and findings can be found here. 

News

juice® sustains ongoing awards success by ‘doing the right thing’

Tech accessories manufacturer juice® has proven once again that being kind to the planet is the ‘right thing to do’, being recognised by judges across the country for its sustainability initiative.

 

Having experienced growing recognition for its ongoing sustainable campaign over the last couple of years, the forward-thinking brand is now at the receiving end of numerous acclaimed industry and business award wins and short listings, the latest being presented with the ‘Sustainability Initiative of the Year’ award at this year’s Mobile Industry Awards on Thursday 22nd September.

 

Following the removal of all single-use plastic from its packaging in July 2020, juice® founder and ambitious entrepreneur Jolyon Bennett wanted to go one step further and made the decision to begin manufacturing every single line from recycled materials and re-introduce them to market.

 

juice® successfully rolled out this ambitious project across its entire range five months ahead of schedule through the juice® ‘Made Mindfully’ campaign, utilising recycled post-consumer waste collected from oceans, beaches and landfill sites instead.

 

Jolyon Bennett explained: “2022 has been an outstanding year for the whole team at juice® as we have followed what we all believe to be the right thing in removing all virgin plastic across all of our products – something that no other tech accessories brand has yet achieved.

 

“In May, we were honoured to take home the title of ‘Best Environmental Sustainability Initiative’ at this year’s Mobile News Awards. Since then, we have been shortlisted for the ‘Sustainable Business of the Year’ at The Lloyds Bank British Business Excellence Awards 2022 as well as ‘Sustainable Business Award’ at the Cherwell Business Awards 2022, as well as ‘Sustainable Business of the Year’ at The Lloyds Bank British Business Excellence Awards 2022.

 

“The juice® Made Mindfully campaign is the most successful initiative we’ve ever introduced during our ten years in business – not only are our Eco products flying off the shelves, but juice® is being recognised again and again for our sustainable practices, with this most recent award win confirming that we are, in fact, doing the right thing. We really hope that this will encourage other companies to follow suit.”

 

juice® aims to continue leading the way as a trailblazer brand, flying the flag for sustainable technology, and is continuing to develop products that make a real impact on consumers’ lives – all whilst being a little bit kinder to planet Earth.

News

Occupational health physiotherapy practitioner appointed to national role, as stats reveal impact of musculoskeletal disorders

Tracey Atkinson named in pivotal position at Connect Health, with reports showing MSK is denting UK productivity, as second biggest cause of workplace absence

With an enviable career history forged on frontline NHS and occupational health services, and a passion for improving industry standards, Tracey Atkinson has been named Connect Health’s National Occupational Health Physiotherapy Clinical and Governance Lead.

In the role, the Northumbria University alumna, who qualified as a physiotherapist in 1993, is focused on ensuring the Occupational Health Physiotherapy Services’ division of the organisation is well positioned from a clinical quality delivery and governance perspective. This includes making sure Connect Health’s clinicians are trained to the highest standards and that its customers receive consistently excellent levels of service.

The position is pivotal against a backdrop of MSK disorders disrupting UK productivity, causing 30.7million lost working days[1] and costing the UK economy an estimated £7billion per year.

Tracey, based in Newcastle Upon Tyne, began her career on the frontline working on rotations at large teaching NHS hospitals in the North East. She later joined Northumbria Police’s occupational health team, where she was able to experience first-hand riot and firearms training to understand the functional requirements of the job, as well as supporting police officers back to work and preventing MSK issues. This also allowed the opportunity to complete postgraduate training at the University of East Anglia in Occupational Health and Ergonomics.

A chance encounter at the ACPOHE (Association of Chartered Physiotherapists in Occupational Health and Ergonomics) conference six years later, led Tracey to a Connect Health connection and she joined the healthcare provider a few months later. This year she celebrates her 21-year anniversary with the Newcastle-headquartered company.

Tracey’s impressive and varied expertise in the sector means she is an executive committee member and membership secretary for ACPOHE and has recently been involved with the International Federation of Physical Therapists in Occupational Health and Ergonomics (IFPTOHE) through ACPOHE  After delivering a recent IFPTOHE webinar as a guest speaker, exploring Occupational Health competencies in the UK sector, Tracey will now become part of international working group looking at global standards in Occupational Health Physiotherapy.

She is also currently spearheading Connect Health’s SEQOHS (Safe, Effective Quality Occupational Health Services) re-accreditation and assessment.

Tracey explained: “When I first joined Connect Health, I had the opportunity to deliver on site clinics, ergonomic workplace assessments, and training – which meant I got to experience working with a wide range of different sectors.

“That was one of the main motivating factors for me to move – I knew very few companies at the time that had a variety of occupational health contracts, but Connect Health did. I wanted to gain experience of operating in a more diverse environment and different business sectors, and since then I’ve worked across food manufacturing, pharmaceuticals, call centres, transport, councils, banking, distribution and many more.

“I’ve been passionate about occupational health for a long time and I’m proud to work at Connect Health, where industry standards have always been extremely high. This role provides me with a fantastic opportunity to better support and influence UK-wide delivery of services.”

Graeme Wilkes, CMO Connect Health, said: “After 21 years with us and experience that incorporates every element of occupational health, Tracey’s promotion is extremely well-deserved. Her enthusiasm for the industry and determination for continual improvement across the board is infectious – there isn’t a person better fitted to lead this role, than Tracey.”

[1] In 2018, source: Public Health England

News

Taylors Solicitors advises as Keenans expands with deal for Letting Locations

A north west estate and letting agent has expanded with a swoop for a Preston-based business.

Keenans Group has acquired Letting Locations for an undisclosed sum.

Letting Locations, which trades as Guildhall Residential Lettings, operates from Blackpool Road in Ashton-on-Ribble and has 350 properties under management.

Its managing director Robert Shields is being retained by Keenans on a consultancy basis following the deal.

Keenans is an independent, family-owned group which until now has focused on Greater Manchester and East Lancashire, with 10 branches covering 115 postcodes. It deals with over 2,500 sales and 400 lettings per year and employs nearly 100 staff.

Matthew Catterall, a corporate partner at north west law firm Taylors Solicitors, advised Keenans on the acquisition. Andrew Tabernacle of Bishops Chartered Accountants in Blackburn and Blackpool provided accounting and tax advice.

Matthew said: “We are extremely pleased to have provided legal advice to Keenans and help ensure its successful acquisition of Letting Locations. This transaction will enable Keenans to continue its impressive growth and extend its reach into West Lancashire.”

Paul Keenan, managing director of Keenans, said: “We are delighted to have completed the acquisition of Letting Locations as part of our geographical expansion in the north west.

“The business is a great fit with our current branch network and it expands our lettings management portfolio.

“The staff have tremendous experience and are passionate about the lettings industry. Their commitment to excellence for landlords and tenants alike aligns perfectly with our ethos, and we extend a warm welcome to them as part of the group.”

He added: “The advice from Matthew and Andrew throughout the process has been invaluable, and we look forward to working with them on future acquisitions as we continue towards our growth target.”

News

Later Living Marketplace Lottie Donates To Care Workers’ Charity Challenge

Lottie – a Later Living Marketplace – are proud to be a Founding Member of the £500 Challenge – a fundraising campaign launched by The Care Workers’ Charity, which encourages businesses across the adult social care sector to commit to an annual donation of £500; the same as an average grant they award to a care worker experiencing financial hardship.

Social care is experiencing a workforce crisis, and it is important now more than ever that organisations in the sector come together to recognise the immense value and tireless contributions of care workers across the UK in helping services to stay open. Lottie are contributing to this worthwhile cause to ensure that there is a helping hand for care workers in these difficult times.

The number of online searches for financial and wellbeing support for carers has reached an all-time high, according to Lottie’s new research.

Over the 90 days, caregivers have turned to Google for advice on the financial help for carers – and where to put pressure on the Government to improve the support available*:

  • Over 5000% increase in online searches on Google for ‘carer’s allowance petition’
  • 350% increase in online searches on Google for ‘cost of living carers allowance’

Will Donnelly, Co-Founder at Lottie, shares, “The on-going support given to the care community by The Care Workers Charity is incredible and I’m so proud that Lottie are part of this initiative. Right now, everyone is facing financial pressures and it’s more important than ever to offer support to anyone that needs it.

Providing care for a friend, family member or loved one is hugely rewarding, but it isn’t without its challenges. That’s why Lottie partnering with The Care Workers Charity is a huge step in raising awareness of the support available for carers across the country.”

“By signing up as a Founding Member, we hope to encourage other organisations to sign up themselves. We urge organisations working in adult social care to accept this challenge and show that they really care about supporting the people who make up our essential workforce. It is everyone’s responsibility to ensure that care workers are supported to stay in their jobs and have a place to go in times of crisis”.

The Care Workers’ Charity is experiencing high demand for their services – since 2020 they have made over 6000 grants to care workers in crisis. If one in ten organisations providing and organising care in the UK accepted the £500 Challenge, they could raise £2.5 million per year to support care workers.

Karolina Gerlich, CEO of The Care Workers’ Charity said:

“We are extremely grateful to Lottie who have signed up as a Founding Member of our £500 Challenge. Every organisation who signs up and spreads the word is making it more likely that our charity can support care workers across the UK, providing the right support when it is needed most.

We hope to sign up hundreds of businesses, ensuring that we have the funds we need to continue providing essential grants and mental health support in the years to come.”

Please donate what you can on The Care Workers’ Charity website.

News

Abacus Group Makes Senior Appointments to Enhance Client Engagement and Strengthen Business Growth

Abacus Group, the leading IT Managed Services Provider (“MSP”) to alternative investment firms, is today announcing it has made two key appointments to its senior management team, Mike Herman and Nileesh Gopu, to drive continued business growth and momentum, following impressive year-on-year growth of 23% in 2022.

Herman, formerly Abacus Group’s Managing Director of Service, becomes the company’s new Managing Director of Client Success, while Gopu, previously Vice President of Customer Success at Data Intensity, joins as Managing Director of Global Service Delivery.

The new appointments follow the completion of a strategic growth investment by private equity firm FFL Partners and bring the company’s employee count to 250 – more than doubling it in less than four years. Driven by this investment-fuelled growth, Abacus Group plans to expand geographically. It recently opened a new office in Miami in response to the significant trend of alternative investment managers relocating their businesses to South Florida. The company is also strategising to migrate to new markets outside the US and UK and broaden its focus throughout the financial services vertical.

As a founding member, Herman takes on his new role having amassed almost 15 years of experience at Abacus Group in a leadership position. Gopu brings over 15 years of experience in the MSP and management solutions space to the role, having scaled a service organization from 150 to 650 employees and led major initiatives to merge cross-functional support teams.

Herman and Gopu will have the opportunity to build further on the company’s already dynamic growth, driven by enhanced client engagement, with user counts rising by 20% between 2021 and 2022. Herman will lead this effort, spearheading a new client success department which will incorporate the current client relationship management team and structure.

Herman’s team are already focused on generating more reporting and data points on client success metrics and driving proactive sales of new products/services under development. Under Herman’s leadership, the team will also develop and launch a “client professional services consulting program” to improve client service.

“Our clients are increasingly interested in tapping into our expertise and consultancy. With the new client success team, we want to build on this need and ensure our service offering takes our in-depth understanding of the client and applies it to address their business challenges, just like an internal CTO would. I look forward to working more closely with our clients to understand what they need and ensure we deliver,” said Herman.

In his new role, Gopu will focus on identifying opportunities to guide service delivery to the next level.  To support this plan, Abacus Group will increase investment in hiring, employee training, and client and product profitability analytics. The company will also grow its spend on new processes, metrics, software and other tools to improve existing interdepartmental workflows while reducing escalations.

“My priority is getting to know our teams, key stakeholders, processes, and clients better and using my experience in fast-tracking business growth to identify and pursue opportunities to help guide Abacus Service Delivery to the next level,” said Gopu.

Chris Grandi, CEO of Abacus Group, said, “Nileesh’s experience with running teams and delivering efficient processes will help us improve SLA compliance and resolution time and focus ever more strongly on better communication with our clients. At the same time, Mike’s expertise in client-service facing roles make him ideally suited to run our customer service team and implement a more systematic approach to service delivery, employing data, metrics and client inputs to optimize the approach.”

News

West Midlands Police Collaborate with Mental Health Patients

West Midlands Police worked with service users from a mental health hospital to ensure they recognised and understood the needs of people with learning disabilities.

Earlier this year, representatives from West Midlands Police visited Cygnet Cedars, on Broadway Avenue, Birmingham to speak with service users about how the police could best communicate with someone with a learning disability. Cygnet Cedars, run by Cygnet Health Care, is a 24-bed high dependency complex care service for men with learning disabilities, associated complex needs and who may have behaviours that challenge.

Together, they created a document using inclusive language that would help those with learning disabilities understand their rights and entitlements if they are arrested.

Amy Moss, Speech and Language Therapist at Cygnet Health Care, explained: “During the training, the police mentioned that they have a ‘Rights and Entitlements’ easy read document. Cygnet Cedars service users did not find this easy read document accessible or user friendly.

“The police requested that the service users work with the Speech Therapist to create their own more accessible version of the ‘Rights and Entitlements’ easy read”.

Three dedicated service users came together every Friday morning to create the easy read document. This week, West Midlands Police were invited back to the service to discuss how the document was made.

Amy continued: “The service users worked hard to decide what words and pictures they thought would be most accessible to those with learning disabilities. The police were really impressed with the work the service users had done.

“It has made me proud to watch the service users’ work as a team to problem solve and make creative decisions to co-producing the easy read. The service users were motivated to work on this document to help ease the anxiety of being arrested for individuals with a learning disability”.

PC Luke Cooper, from the Bordesley Green neighbourhood policing team, said: “The patients had some great ideas and wanted to ask us questions regarding policing and mental health. The patients shared their experiences with us and how they thought we could improve. It was a humbling experience for me and I found it really thought-provoking.

“It is brilliant to speak with the patients and gain knowledge from their learnt experience. This will only help us provide a better service.”

News

Revitalising our town centres by tackling the housing crisis

A stroll down your local high street is not what it used to be. Once upon a time you would pass bakers and butchers and fishmongers and greengrocers. These days it’s charity shops and vape stores. Out-of-town supermarkets and internet shopping have had our high streets reeling for some time. Customers making fewer visits to the centre of town meant stores and businesses shutting down. The pandemic didn’t help. It’s easy to think that further decline is all that is ahead of the high street. But there is something that can be done. We can help by being creative about how we engage with a different crisis: housing.

Fixing two crises

According to the Conservative Party’s 2019 manifesto, we need to be building 300,000 new homes every year. To put that number into context, that is more than the number of homes in Oxfordshire or Worcestershire. In other words, we need to be building a new county’s worth of homes every year.

But we don’t just need space. Infrastructure, proximity to jobs, and people not wanting to relocate far from family and friends are all considerations. And this means trying to squeeze new homes into parts of the country that already have quite a lot of housing.

The death of the high street has led to a significant number of commercial buildings such as shops and offices becoming redundant. If we could convert some of the commercial properties in our towns into residential, we would increase the number of people living there. With new inhabitants in towns comes the need for more amenities. They will need shops. They will need bars and cafes, and restaurants. They will need entertainment and recreational venues and outdoor amenities. And these things will all automatically materialise because the demand is there from the new homeowners.

Advantages

Brownfield redevelopment has a lot going for it. First and foremost, it means we’re not concreting over the green belt. It is a vote-winner too, since few voters would object to empty buildings being recycled into homes, or to our town centres being given new leases of life. These buildings are surrounded by infrastructure, so there’s no need to undertake massive civil engineering projects to make them accessible. And they’re also in the middle of communities where people want to live – there would be no need for everyone to up sticks and relocate to areas that currently have lower populations.

Much of this brownfield land is in towns, where the retail revolution has had an interesting impact on our shops. Back in the day, the upper floors of shops would store stock. But with today’s just-in-time inventory systems, retailers no longer need the same level of storage space, and the ‘uppers’ of many shops are often unused. This makes it possible to convert these upper floors into residential use without making the store underneath unviable.

Small-scale is key

Large housebuilders have a specific business model: cookie-cutter homes with well-designed blueprints that can be plonked on any piece of virgin land anywhere in the country. The plans and drawings already exist, and the team knows how to build them. The only decision needed is which designs are going in which field. They aren’t experienced in converting buildings, and there isn’t enough money involved: converting a small building into flats produces only a fraction of the profits a new greenfield housing development would deliver.

The solution? Small-scale property developers.

They mostly fall into two categories: individuals looking to get into property but who are put off by the usual buy-to-let proposition being less attractive than it once was; existing landlords looking to grow their portfolios more quickly by generating regular lumps of cash. The beauty of this type of development is that you can afford to be relatively hands-off – unlike a flip, where the profits are substantially less, and you also invariably end up project managing things yourself. But with a small-scale development, you have the budget to hire a project manager, whose fee is paid for by the development finance. And this can make life a whole lot easier.

It’s this promise of more profit for less work that’s tempting more and more people to consider small-scale property development as an investment strategy. And encouraging these projects to focus on our declining high streets can only be good news for our town centres

News

Expert Tips: How to design a dog-friendly office

The dog population in the UK has been on the rise over the last few years, in large part thanks to the pandemic instigating a shift to home-based working, with recent data stating that 34%* of all UK households now feature a canine family member.

With the pandemic in the rear-view mirror and a sense of normalcy returning, offices are reviewing working policies, with some moving from entirely home-based working to a home / office hybrid model, leaving many employees wondering what to do with their dogs on the in-office days.

As UK Google searches for ‘pet sitters near me’ increased by 152%** this month versus last, Brother, the office electronics retailer, has expanded their Dog-Friendly Offices Index study and collaborated with Building Interiors to reveal what a truly dog friendly office should feature to keep our furry friends happy, safe and entertained through the nine to five. Jo Horbury, head of design at Building Interiors said:

General do’s:

  • Use robust materials that are easy to clean
  • Set aside a dedicated pooch play area
  • Dog-proof your office space as much as possible
  • Use calming, natural colours in your office design
  • Ensure you have all the necessary supplies – food, treats, cleaning products etc
  • Set boundaries and rules before pets enter the office

General don’ts:

  • Feature materials that are difficult to keep clean or prone to marking
  • Use bright, overbearing colours within your office design
  • Allow pets into an office that hasn’t been pet-proofed

Key features on how to design a safe space for dogs in the office:

  1. Provide food, water & a dedicated toilet spot

A pet-friendly office will feature animal food and water stations at an accessible height for pets to use.

Having treats available for pets to enjoy is also a nice touch. Treats will help other employees meet and play with new dogs – just be sure to share info about the treats’ ingredients for dogs with food sensitivities.

Before you allow pets into your office, you should also set out the rules when it comes to toilet breaks. Will you have a dedicated toilet spot? Or will owners need to take their pet outside?

  1. Make sure your flooring is up to the job

Where flooring is usually chosen based mainly on aesthetic, practicality is key when it comes to designing a dog-friendly office.

For a pet-friendly office, you need to choose flooring that is durable, stain-resistant, and relatively easy to sanitise and clean. Carpet should definitely be avoided. Instead, opt for glazed ceramic tiles, which are strong, easy to clean and won’t stain. Vinyl flooring, linoleum, and concrete flooring are also good options.

Perhaps surprisingly, wood, and laminate flooring should also be avoided as they are prone to scratching, can stain easily and can be very slippery under dogs paws.

  1. Create a dedicated pet-friendly office area

Agile office spaces are a major trend at the moment. Unassigned desking and breakout areas allow employees to take themselves away and either collaborate with other staff members or work privately on their own.

An area like this would also be great for pets too. Establish penned-in areas around desks and workspaces using dog gates. These areas will allow dogs to roam off their lead in contained, designated areas where they can make new friends or relax away from the over-stimulation of the wider office.

  1. Introduce a pet-friendly colour scheme

Colour scheme is also an important feature to consider when designing a pet-friendly office.

Pet toys are usually brightly coloured in order to stimulate and engage animals. Bright reds and yellows are high-energy colours that you’ll probably want to avoid in an office environment.

Instead, think about introducing muted greens and blues. These colours promote calmness and harmony amongst employees and will have the same effect on animals too.

  1. Dog-friendly details

If you want to become a pet-friendly office but want to avoid pets freely roaming around, consider introducing details such as dog lead hooks.

Dog lead hooks and handles are a great way of managing the movement of pets within an office space. They still allow dogs to wander, but within a boundary, so they can’t accidentally wander into an area they’re not allowed in.

These hooks can also help to minimise distractions, as staff will no longer have to manage where and when their dog wanders.

The key findings from Brother’s study are:

  • Over half of Brits (51%) think having dogs in the office is a good idea
  • Manchester is home to more dog-friendly offices than any other city with 49 located within a ten-mile radius
  • The survey revealed 51% of people in Bristol are in support of dogs in the workplace, ranking higher than any other city

You can find more information about the research into dog-friendly offices at https://www.brother.co.uk/business-solutions/hybrid-working/dog-friendly-office-index