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It’s Time to Get Personal: How Can Food Improve Employee Experience?
The employee of today is a consumer of the workplace. With more focus than ever on work-life balance and with 3 in 10 people wanting to leave their current job in the next 12 months, the competitive job market has become all about the benefits companies can offer their staff. Workers are looking for an employer that can match their lifestyle and working environments that are both supportive and collaborative.
Business leaders are choosing to improve their employee experience with food, a benefit which can go a long way in improving and increasing employee morale. Use workplace restaurants to offer fantastic food choices that entice staff back into offices post-pandemic and see how technology can adapt office eating habits to new hybrid ways of working.
But why do employers need to pay attention? The current job market is an employee's game, and workers can choose to be picky for whom they work. Recent research has shown that happiness makes workers around 12% more productive, so employee experience is not only about attracting new staff but retaining and developing existing workers.
We’ve heard a lot about quiet quitting and quiet firing over the past year… for me, more interestingly is the ‘why’. What’s the real cause? For example, if Gen-Z isn’t as passionate about work as their older counterparts, let’s start understanding what employee experience means for different people.
Ali Khan, co-founder of SHAPE, the data-powered employee productivity and wellness platform
We know that professional networks and mentoring relationships are essential for advancement in the workplace and that building and sustaining these connections are important for psychological wellbeing. Remote working has meant that these relationships have suffered, but encouraging and supporting worker collaboration with workplace restaurants and communal eating can be hugely beneficial. As explained by James Greetham, founder and CEO of the food consultancy company The Sprung Collective: “The value of food in the workplace is that it crosses boundaries and opens communication. It's about getting people to eat together and having those conversations that can bring real value to all companies.”
Prioritising Employee Experience
It seems obvious that greater productivity translates to greater profitability, with teams closely engaged with their company much more likely to bring investment. Therefore, a variety of benefits that promote employee engagement and collaboration are essential, with a particular focus on food offerings, physical office environments, and health.
Not only is good employee experience key to keeping teams engaged, but it is also critical for talent attraction. Employee branding and consumerisation are the internal employee experiences that quickly shape your organisation's external reputation and can be detrimental to representing what an organisation stands for. The best way to appeal to the best talent out there is to look after current employees.
Progressive organisations must create new environments supporting today's agile and personalised work dynamics. Use food offerings to create memorable employee experiences associated with extraordinary customer experiences.
Hybrid working is here to stay; how can smart food offers make a difference?
With 66% of Gen Z wanting a company culture built on mental health and wellness (Sodexo six trends shaping employee experience), employers need to ensure they enable experiences in the office that not only engage their employees and improve productivity but also enhance wellbeing.
Agile food services, which offer seamless delivery of the food and drinks people want when they want it, can help businesses make the office a destination for greater collaboration and innovation for years to come.
Food is immensely important. Offering free food just doesn’t cut it anymore when trying to attract young talent. They’ll be thinking, where did it come from? What waste does this produce? As a generation that can afford to choose where they want to work, food will continue to play a huge role in the ethos and culture organisations want to convey.
Linda Hausmanis, CEO of the Institute of Workplace and Facilities Management
Food for Thought: 5 ways to boost employee experience
1. Invest in employee wellbeing by offering healthy food choices
It isn't easy to imagine a great employee experience without frequent good days. In fact, recent research showed that when Google invested more in employee support, satisfaction rose by 37%. With wellbeing so closely linked with food, one way to appeal to workers is to offer a variety of healthy food choices.
Easy access to healthy, fresh and nutritious options should be a given in today's forward-focused companies, so offer meals cooked from scratch with the freshest ingredients. This level of care makes it simple for guests to achieve their health and fitness goals while boosting their mental health and performance.
The Good Eating Company (GEC) is a Sodexo food brand passionate about food. Using a holistic approach, the GEC prioritise employee experience by providing outstanding service to customers and delivering bespoke dining experiences that are all about serving exquisite food, exceptionally well.
2. Use technology to build a positive food focussed employee experience
Technology in the workplace needs to work intuitively and be accessible to all. With younger generations expecting companies to provide integrated digital tools across all aspects of working life, it makes sense that organisations would want to redirect investment.
As far as the food options and benefits go, with the help of technology, delicious food no longer needs to remain in the domain of on-site kitchens.
Fooditude is a Sodexo brand which offers a cutting-edge, technology-driven delivery service that allows companies to do away with the need for kitchen spaces entirely. They also provide convenience food services in the form of intelligent vending machines that are a great way of adapting office spaces to varied footfall. With Millennials and Gen Z workers nearly three times more likely to value the availability of in-office food and treats compared to those 45 and older, smart vending is part of the future of the workplace.
3. Nurture a people-centric company culture with food
Nurture team building, communication, and relationships, by ensuring employees have the time to connect. Make food central to the employee experience by investing in workplace dining that encourages collaboration and social interaction. Collaborative working environments such as cafeterias not only give employees the opportunities to network, but people perform at their best when they respect and trust the people they work with.
4. Restaurant design matters
A welcoming and comfortable dining space doesn’t have to just be about food; it can be conducive to collaboration and open conversations. Great workspaces are necessary for keeping employees engaged, and dining areas should be no different. They should give employees the freedom to work in the ways they feel best, with light, temperature, and noise all critical factors.
5. Take action on climate change
People expect their employers to be reducing their company’s carbon footprint and implement processes to allow them to contribute positively to the environment. The case is no different for food services. As Linda mentions above, a tasty food offer (whilst important) doesn’t cut it for most employees anymore. They want to know where their food has come from, what waste is produced as a result, and the significance of the carbon emissions involved. More and more, people are recognising the importance of asking these questions, and being able to provide answers is only set to become more fundamental to employee experience overall.
So, what needs to change? Make food integral to your employee experience strategy
Leading organisations are making their environments more engaging than ever to entice staff back into the office. The advent of the hybrid work model has meant that workers are commuting less than ever, so ensure the commute is worth the trip with agile workplaces that offer employee benefits.
Workplace cafeterias are the heart of any office building and, with recent research showing that 66% of employees who are offered free, regularly restocked snacks and beverages report being happy in their current job, can drastically improve employee satisfaction. Canteens have become essential for social interaction, employee bonding, and as places to boost communication between workers.
We know that professional networks and mentoring relationships are essential for advancement in the workplace and that building and sustaining these connections are important for psychological wellbeing. Remote working has meant that these relationships have suffered, but encouraging and supporting worker collaboration with workplace restaurants and communal eating can be hugely beneficial.
The value of food in the workplace is that it crosses boundaries and opens communication. It's about getting people to eat together and having those conversations that can bring real value to all companies.
James Greetham, founder and CEO of food consultancy firm The Sprung Collective
