Tag: work from home

Furry Friends and Working from Home: Benefits of Pets in the Home Office

Posted on by Sean Malady

In this article, we will discuss:

  • How working from home has impacted worker health and well-being.
  • The ways in which our furry friends improve worker satisfaction while working from home.
  • Tips for creating a pet-friendly home office that boost productivity.
  • Ways businesses can involve their employees’ pets in fun and engaging activities.

 Working from home has become more commonplace than ever before. According to the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics, since the COVID-19 pandemic, the number of remote workers increased from 17% before 2020 to 39% in 2021. This shift to remote work has fundamentally changed the professional landscape. Where a workday once involved a daily commute and a bustling office, workers have found that the boundaries between personal and professional life have blurred. While this change has brought flexibility, it has also brought up new challenges to employee well-being. 

Remote work has a complex impact on the health and well-being of workers. For many, the elimination of a commute, increased autonomy, and the ability to be at home with their family have been significant boons. However, some unique stressors have become obvious: social isolation and the inability to “switch off.”

The loss of casual, daily social interaction with colleagues can lead to feelings of isolation. And, with the office literally steps away from the bedroom, the temptation to work longer hours is high, leading to more cases of employee burnout. This low-grade stress and lack of clear boundaries has made it difficult for employees to find the perfect work-life balance, impacting mental health and overall job satisfaction.

However, there is one benefit to working from home that has become more prevalent: our pets. These four-legged, furry, feathered, or scaled family members provide more than just companionship. In fact, they can increase satisfaction, reduce stress, and improve connection with other remote peers. 

The Benefits of Pets in Your Home Office

Our furry friends are not just part of a video chat background; they are active contributors to the home office atmosphere. Studies have shown that the benefits of human-animal interactions are widespread, and those benefits are amplified when we work from home.

The most profound benefit of having pets in your home office is stress reduction. The simple act of petting a cat or dog has been shown to lower blood pressure and reduce the levels of the stress hormone cortisol. When a challenging email or difficult meeting raises your anxiety, reaching for your furry best friend can provide an immediate, calming reset. Our pets act as living, breathing stress balls, only much cuter and far more effective.

Pets also enforce much-needed micro-breaks. A dog waiting patiently at the door with their leash, or a cat that demands your attention by walking across your keyboard, forces you to stand up, move, and shift your focus, even if it is only for five minutes. These brief interruptions are crucial to breaking up the time workers spend staring at screens and reducing eye and cognitive fatigue. Since keeping your body moving throughout the day is necessary in any office setting where workers are at their desks for several hours at a time, a pet insisting on play and movement can make a big difference. 

Anyone who has been on a video meeting recently has likely seen one of their coworkers’ pets. Dogs, cats, and other pets are fantastic natural icebreakers and relationship builders. A dog’s sudden cameo or a cat jumping up into their favorite sunny spot in the background offers a moment of connection with colleagues and clients. These brief, authentic interruptions add a touch of personality and warmth to professional interactions, strengthening team bonds while also reducing the formality of remote communication. By being their loving, sometimes interruptive selves, our pets remind us that we are all humans working together, from home, towards a common goal.

Creating a Pet-Friendly Home Office to Boost Productivity

A pet-friendly office is one that accounts for your pet’s presence and maximizes their benefits while minimizing distraction. There are a few things remote workers can do to optimize their space and invite their furry friends to be a part of their home office. 

Designated Comfort Zones: Create a space in your office that gives your pet their own comfortable space near your desk. A cozy bed, their favorite crate, or a cat tree allows them to share their space with you without encouraging them to be in your way while you are working. 

Scheduled Breaks: Do not wait for your pet to interrupt an important meeting or get in the way while you’re racing to finish a project. Build structured pet breaks into your day, perhaps during your lunch break or that dreaded mid-afternoon slump. Taking your dog on a fifteen-minute walk benefits you both—you get exercise, and they get their energy needs met, making them calmer so you can finish your day.

Noise Management: For pets that like to be involved by meowing, barking, or chirping while you work, consider keeping a basket of their favorite toys nearby during important meetings. If necessary, invest in a noise-canceling microphone to ensure professional audio quality. 

Safety First: With remote work comes remote workstations and plenty of computer and monitor cables. Secure any dangling cords, keep common office supplies like staples or rubber bands out of your pets’ reach, and always make sure your trash can is covered to deter a curious sniffer. 

How Employers Can Involve Pets in Remote Workplace Culture

Pets in remote workers’ home offices don’t benefit just the employee. Employers also can too. By involving employees and their pets in company culture, employers can boost company-wide morale and engagement and show their employees that they recognize and support their work-life reality. Here are some ways businesses can involve pets in their everyday operations.

Pet-Inclusive Benefits Packages: In our most recent blog, we discussed what benefits are truly important to today’s workforce. Many employers are embracing non-traditional benefits in their employee benefits packages. One of these is pet insurance. By providing employees with the ability to keep their furry family members healthy, an employer shows that they value their team’s entire life experience. 

Wellness Initiatives: Beyond insurance, encouraging employees to participate in activities like “Walk Your Dog Wednesday” or “Pet Yoga” can promote physical activity and reduce stress, framing pet time as essential to employee’s health and well-being. 

Pet Photo Contests and Calendars: Engaging employees and their pets by hosting photo contests like “Sleepiest Pet,” “Most Enthusiastic Furry Coworker,” or a pet costume contest can bring employees closer together. Use the winning photos to create a company calendar to provide fun, low-effort engagement.

Donations and Charities: Most pet-owning employees will always be excited to connect over a shared, meaningful cause. Organizing a virtual drive for a local animal shelter or rescue group reinforces the company’s commitment to community and the well-being of its employees’ extended furry family.

The Purr-fect Remote Working Partnership

As remote work continues to define the future of employment, the presence of pets is more than just a perk—it is a significant factor in employee retention, mental and physical wellness, and overall job satisfaction. Our furry friends provide essential emotional support, wellness breaks, and a bridge between our personal and professional lives. By embracing and supporting the role of pets in the work-from-home environment, both employees and their employers can create a more balanced, productive, and joyful working experience. 

At J & J Staffing, we know that attracting and retaining the right people is a constant challenge. We specialize in finding professionals who bring both dedication and balance to the modern workplace. If you’re ready to build a high-performing team that thrives in a flexible, pet-friendly remote environment, contact us today.

Staffing Services In Greater Philadelphia

J & J Staffing Resources is a professional staffing agency that connects local businesses to job seekers throughout the Greater Philadelphia area, including Pennsylvania, New Jersey, and Delaware.

We bring over 45 years of expertise in office, industrial, technical, and professional staffing placements as well as payroll management, and offer a wide range of services for both employers and job seekers.

Need help? J & J Staffing has offices in Newark, Bridgeport, Woodbury, Cherry Hill, Ewing, Princeton, Langhorne, and Horsham. Visit your local J & J staffing center or get started below.

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How the Job Lifecycle Has Changed in the Last 5 Years

Posted on by Sean Malady

Part of the struggle with filling open positions is knowing what kind of market you are currently in. If you aren’t aware of what job seekers are looking for in a position, you will likely find yourself in an open position with an overworked current staff. 

That will lead to a much greater turnover rate, increasing the number of positions you have open. It becomes a vicious cycle that can be hard to break out of. Knowing precisely what is in the job lifecycle now versus a few years ago can make all the difference.

How Has the World Changed in the Last 5 Years

The question remains: what has happened in the last 5 years that would affect the job market and the mindset/interests of those doing the job seeking?

Answer: Major world events have occurred on a widespread scale, such as the COVID-19 pandemic at the start of 2020. This event still has impact and ramifications five years out. People prefer to work from their homes instead of in crowded office buildings. The expansion of technology has been a direct result of adjustments that had to be made during this uncertain time in the recent past.

Other major factors include worker strikes, inflation, changes in the cost of living, and a desire to have more control over how workers spend their lives between their jobs and their homes.

Jobs Involve More Flexibility

One of the things that employers have become more aware of in the past five years is their employees’ desire to have a better work/life balance. People no longer want to spend all their waking hours on the job or away from their families. While this desire has been slowly simmering under the surface for at least a decade, it didn’t hit the forefront of people’s minds until lockdowns happened in early 2020.

These lockdowns gave individuals more face time with their loved ones, and they didn’t want to return to how things were before. It’s been a learning curve for employers and employees to ensure workplace morale and productivity remain at all-time highs. Thus, the idea of creating a flexible work environment was born.

One of the ways you can get ahead of the curve for the current job lifecycle is to implement a plan that works best for your company’s bottom line while also helping your employees. Allow them the flexibility to have time off for family events or allow them to work from home should the situation call for it and the transition is possible for company policies.

Employees enjoy the idea of working for companies that allow them the option to pick and choose their hours within reason. Studies have shown that the typical human brain needs frequent breaks to remain at peak performance levels. On top of that, the flexibility within a workforce allows you to make more accommodations for individuals who might have mental, physical, or masked/silent disabilities.

Work from Home Is the New Norm

As we’ve previously discussed, more and more companies are moving toward a work-from-home environment or at least a hybrid one. This allows for a more positive work environment for employees and positively impacts their overall mental health. In turn, this type of arrangement benefits the company.

By allowing employees to choose where they do their work, managers and executives have seen an increase in productivity and a more highly motivated workforce. Employees are more likely to care about their work and put their best foot forward when they feel they have a bit more control over how they work. Being in an environment of comfort versus one that is cold and sometimes overwhelming has drastically changed the capabilities of most employees.

Allowing employees to take breaks and work in a manner that is most comfortable for them makes them more likely to stick with their jobs. Their personal commute costs go down, and their connection to their family and friends increases, making them a more well-rounded person.

Consider this: if your company allows employees to work remotely, you are also increasing its reach. You can now hire employees from all over the world, which can better facilitate a wider company reach within your customer base.  In addition, through the expansion of technological advancements, companies have found that their overhead costs have decreased by adopting such work practices. 

A Rise in Contract-Based Employment

Another way that the new wave of technology and work mindset has changed since the COVID-19 pandemic began is through how people want to approach work agreements. There has been an increase in employees looking to work in a contract-based environment versus something more permanent and binding.

Contract-based employees have increased to make the flexibility we mentioned above more likely. People want control over how much they work and when. Being in a contract, not bound by full-time employment agreements, allows employees to pick their hours and for how long they wish to be of service to a company.

Freelancing has become much more common in certain careers, such as writing-based positions. It gives the individual the opportunity to make a living around major life events that matter most to them. It also allows the company to spend less on each individual employee since the requirements on the company side are less for freelancers and contract-based employees. 

More and More “Gigs” and Temporary Positions

Along with contract-based employment comes the increased trend toward looking into temporary positions or part-time employment. Some people are even putting themselves in a position to only accept work that lasts for a set period of time before moving on to the next job.

These “gigs” are helpful for both the employer and the employee. Once again, temporary employment helps the company’s bottom line because it requires less overhead per employee. Plus, it helps a company get through a busier time without feeling strapped during slower times to support an extra set of hands on deck. 

No longer is it considered a life achievement to reach 10+ years or even more than 20 years. Workers today are looking more at what works for them at the moment. It’s more obvious in today’s workforce that life happens outside of work and that life dictates what each employee wants from their job. Therefore, more and more employees are looking at the short-term, not long-term. 

Why J & J is The Staffing Agency to Turn To

Last year, Forbes named J & J Staffing one of the top agencies in the United States for recruitment overall and temporary hiring. This puts us in a unique position to help companies stay ahead of the latest job lifecycle trends. We understand where the industry is currently at and where it is projected to end up in the coming years.

Let us know if you are looking for guidance on how to improve your hiring and employment practices. J & J Staffing is always ready to help. Even if you are ready to take the next steps and know exactly what you want, we can easily help you post your open positions in a fashion that will get the correct candidates as fast as possible. Contact us today.

Staffing Services In Greater Philadelphia

J & J Staffing Resources is a professional staffing agency that connects local businesses to job seekers throughout the Greater Philadelphia area, including Pennsylvania, New Jersey, and Delaware.

We bring over 45 years of expertise in office, industrial, technical, and professional staffing placements as well as payroll management, and offer a wide range of services for both employers and job seekers.

Need help? J & J Staffing has offices in Newark, Bridgeport, Woodbury, Cherry Hill, Ewing, Princeton, Langhorne, and Horsham. Visit your local J & J staffing center or get started below.

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