WWRI co-founders with the therapy dog during the Institute's site visit to Keller-Heartt.
Last week, the team at Keller-Heartt Oil Co. traded spreadsheets for tail wags when the Work &
Wellness Research Institute (WWRI) — a 501(c)(3) nonprofit dedicated to studying animal-assisted
therapy (AAT) in workplace settings — paid our Chicago office a visit.
A friendly therapy dog made the rounds through our office, greeting employees at their desks and in the break room. It's a simple idea with real research behind it: brief, voluntary interactions with a therapy animal during the workday have been linked to lower stress and a boost in mood — exactly the kind of workplace wellbeing question WWRI is built to study.
A team member steps away from her desk to say hello.
Keller-Heartt has a personal connection to this work: WWRI was co-founded by members of our own
Keller-Heartt family, and the Institute develops validated survey tools — including a workplace
wellbeing survey grounded in the Perceived Stress Scale (PSS-10) — to measure how programs like
this actually affect employees, not just how they feel about them anecdotally.
The dog gets a warm welcome from the team out on the floor.
More hellos from around the Keller-Heartt office.
For nearly a century, Keller-Heartt has built its business on relationships — with our customers, our
suppliers, and our team. Opening our doors to WWRI's research is one more way we're investing in the people who make Keller-Heartt run, and supporting good science on what actually helps a workplace thrive along the way.
A quiet moment between visits in the Keller-Heartt office.
Curious about the research behind the visit? Learn more about the Work & Wellness Research Institute at thewwri.org.