Should You Feed Your Employees?

There is one thing that goes hand in hand with the holidays, and that is food!  That’s why we thought it would be the perfect time to discuss food in the workplace. Specifically, food provided by employers for their employees.  According to recent data, employee morale can be boosted by employers who buy staff lunch. Or, more specifically, employees who are provided with food at work are happier.

The article referred to a study by Seamless and highlighted that 60% of the 1,100 employees surveyed would feel more “valued and appreciated” if employers made food available at the office. Possibly even more interesting is that 45% indicated that the availability of free lunch would strongly influence their decision to accept a job offer.

Beyond increased job satisfaction, there are a few additional benefits to feeding your employees that make a compelling case for “buying them lunch”:

Improved Productivity

Bringing lunch into the office can eliminate the time required to go out and order and eat off-site site, which means more time spent in the office, working (theoretically). Food is fuel and with it, your body is more productive so offering meals not only makes your employees happier, but it makes them more productive.

Increased Collaboration

Employees who eat lunch together, work better together. Spending some “off-time” with those you work with could encourage the thinking of new ways to work together or solutions to ongoing challenges.  At the very least, it allows people to get to know each other on a more personal level, and can improve desire to work together as a team. Allowing your team to become more open and personable with one another not only benefits you but it benefits the work being done.

Increased Loyalty

If you care enough about your employees to feed them, they’ll care for you right back.  It makes sense, right?

Benefits aside, many employers – especially small business owners – are unable to foot the expense of buying their employees’ lunches every day like the big guys, such as Facebook and Google. But that doesn’t mean you can’t buy a staff lunch (or breakfast) once a month. You can bring bagels into the office in the mornings or make some chocolate chip cookies and share them.

The upside of happier employees is a pretty powerful motivator.