Last month was Bring Your Dog To Work Day, and it was complete with hundreds of pictures of dogs looking resplendent (not to mention adorable) in workplaces up and down the land.

Of course, in most workplaces, this practice is confined to a single day of the year, but it’s rare to go into, say, a co-working space and not see a dog prowling the floors.  Does having a four legged friend at work make a difference?

That was the question posed by a new study from the University of Lincoln, and the answer appears to be a definite yes.  It found that when employees are allowed to bring their dogs to work, their satisfaction with conditions at work rises by 22%.

What’s more, they also found a greater absorption in their work of 33%, work engagement rising by 14%, and dedication levels rising by 16%.

“If you told employers there was a simple way to increase their workforce overall satisfaction with the working conditions, they’d be very keen to learn more,” the researchers explain.  “Our results show that far from being a distraction, (a fear expressed by some in our earlier work) allowing dogs in the workplace has the potential to improve employees’ focus and probably productivity too. Forward-thinking companies should consider very seriously if they can accommodate dogs in the workplace and the Purina Pets at Work programme can enable them to do this efficiently.”

So, it seems that bringing dogs to work is not only adorably cute, it’s also a practice that has very real benefits on the workplace.  What are you waiting for?