Is free lunch really enough of an incentive to entice employees back to the office? Saltmine’s Director of Customer & Product Lifecycle, Kostas Tsamis, a seasoned workplace leader, explores the role food plays in the employee experience and how organizations can implement a food program, regardless of their budget.
In the era of hybrid working, employees are actively seeking social interaction, lack of which can be bad for overall health and workplace performance, as the McKinsey Health Institute suggests in their recent study. Having a food and beverage (F&B) program is one of the ways companies are leveraging to support their return to work efforts. Not only does a free or subsidized F&B offer spark interactions and help people build connections with colleagues, but it also helps employees save on expenses and build company culture.
In this blog, I’ve drawn on examples from my time at WeWork and other companies which are constantly growing their F&B offerings, but you don’t need colossal budgets to start building a food program on a smaller scale.
The evolution of the office kitchen
Back in the eighties, people ate their lunch in small, dark corners with a few tables when there weren’t enough seats for everyone. Now, if you walk into a WeWork for example, you have plenty of tables, seating setups, and food options.
Kitchens used to occupy a small portion of the office’s real estate back in the day. These days, large enterprises dedicate up to 15% or 20% of their real estate to the kitchen and food.
As a kid, I remember going into my mom’s office who used to work in finance. When I was walking through, I’d pass reception and the next thing I would see was the infamous sea of desks. Now, food and drink have come to the forefront, and it’s the first thing you see when you first enter an office.
This is how much more important food has become in office culture. Internally, food gives employees ways to socialize, which helps with retention.
What role does food play in the employee experience?
The role food plays has changed over the years. Nowadays, it’s all about culture building and a sense of belonging.
Working in an office before the pandemic, my real network was more meaningful than it is today. Even though my LinkedIn now has more connections than ever, in reality I “know” fewer people than I used to because I rarely bump into them.
Back then, people got together on lunch breaks to discuss things besides (or not) work. Now, we’ll schedule a video meeting and chat about something work-related, but we have little to no culture and fewer opportunities for connection-building.
Meals in-person, for me, are the great equalizer when it comes to strengthening company culture, which is why I believe a food program should be a part of a company’s workplace strategy.
Integrating food into your workplace strategy: Where does the budget come from?
These days, workplace strategy teams are either renamed or enhanced by “workplace experience” experts, in an attempt to enhance office culture. These teams are very active and scrappy to organize great benefits such as fitness classes, massage sessions, or even out office activities, so I think food should be included in this operational expenditure.
Of course, let’s not forget that the investment isn’t only monetary but also spatial, as we see more and more CRE occupiers allocate a much larger portion of their real estate into F&B.
Talent retention can alone justify this expenditure. If you give people a desk to work in and a meeting room to meet people, that’s probably not enough for them to stick around, but when you give them something more that engages their social and mission aspect, your chances are greater.
When I started working at WeWork, well before the pandemic, people actually looked forward to Mondays because every Monday, dinner was served at the HQ at 6 pm. It was right after your day was supposed to end, and it was the most vibrant time of the entire week.
Different cuisines were served every week. Everyone gathered around, and no one missed it, myself included. On top of that, we had breakfast at the office every day, which was a great way to start your day.
This is a great opportunity to strengthen culture and as an individual, build your network in a meaningful way. For the org, this should be a no-brainer when trying to attract and retain the best talent. It’s a real competitive advantage to offer free food—in some capacity—to your employees.
Options for food incentives: In-house facilities, catering, and stipends
Food offerings can vary depending on the company and even on which office they’re in. They can also change over time.
Here are some famous examples in the industry that they have leveraged this incentive:
One of the most well known examples of elevated in-premises F&B offering is Meta, housing a handful of restaurants in their large HQs, providing a great selection of cuisines and comfortable seating setups to enjoy lunch or the occasional snack. Other tech companies have done this for years now, such as Pinterest that provides fully staffed and stocked cafeterias in some of their offices.
For smaller companies, employees can be given a daily allowance to buy lunch, which WeWork also leveraged back in 2021 when encouraging teams to get back into the office. People used to say: come for the food, stay for the culture.
As an employee, getting a stipend to buy lunch is a good deal. Even after WeWork stopped offering this, people kept coming to the office. They still have lunch together, even though it wasn’t paid for by WeWork and was paid off their own buck. The culture was built around food and folks would’ve rather paid for their own lunch, than lose the close culture they built.
Effective ways to start building a food program
First, consider how much money and space you can spend. Most companies start small and then grow larger. For example, they usually start with an allowance.
If you want to give employees an allowance, you can start today and stop tomorrow. If you’re willing to invest in space and build the kitchen, the seating booths or the cafeteria, you’re getting into a much larger commitment, which may or may not work for you in the long term.
There are providers like Sharebite; an app where you can order from nearby restaurants and get it delivered in the office and not at home. So, employees could only get free lunch if they came to the office.
If people start coming to the office just because they are given an allowance to buy lunch, then you know it’s working. Next, you can observe their behavior. Will they eat their lunch at their desk in front of their screen or go to the kitchen and meet in groups? Then you might consider investing in a bigger kitchen, canteen, or even outdoor space.
Free lunch is a good idea, so start small
Integrating food into your workplace strategy has a multitude of benefits.
Food is a mechanism to help build culture and attract and retain talent. Offering free or subsidized food as an incentive demonstrates how much a company cares about their employees. In many ways, it goes above and beyond to show that a company is invested in its employees.
That said, you can start small, you don’t need five restaurants or a pantry on every floor to start offering this as a benefit. Start with food allowances or catered lunches, and see how this affects employee behavior and culture. Then after some data collection, you can scale up.
Either way, humans have always gathered around food. It’s a powerful vehicle for bringing people together and exchanging ideas, and a worthwhile capital expenditure.
Check out our recent blog on hybrid workplace planning for more on what workers want from the workplace in 2024.
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