Food Perks in the workplace: Keep the coffee hot
What’s better than a salad with crispy, dark green lettuce and fresh croutons, or a club sandwich piled high with turkey, bacon, and perfectly ripe tomatoes? A free salad and a free club sandwich.
Yes, there is such a thing as a free lunch, and it can be found at companies large and small throughout the country.
Why do business owners offer food perks? Two reasons:
- Many believe well-fed workers are happier, more loyal and more productive. Business owners consider the cost of food and drink an investment in their employees and in their companies.
- Let’s face it. Some companies aren't interested in happy employees per se. They believe if their employees don’t have to leave the office to find lunch, they’ll end up spending more time at their desks—and thus be more productive.
Either way, business owners, regardless of their level of compassion toward their employees, wouldn’t offer food perks if they didn’t think it would benefit their companies.
Wall Street firms have been doing this for years, and Silicon Valley companies have followed their lead.
Google provides lunch and dinner by in-house chefs, and snacks and coffee throughout the day. Facebook goes one step further and offers its employees breakfast, lunch, and dinner, including international cuisine. It also provides snacks and coffee.
LinkedIn gives it employees catered lunches, ice cream, snacks and coffee.
Twitter provides its employees with catered breakfast and lunch, snacks, and Happy Hour once a month on Fridays. Tagged tops Twitter by offering its employees breakfast, catered lunches and dinners, snacks, and a Happy Hour every Friday.
Eventbrite provides catered meals and snacks. And Gaia Online gives out restaurant-catered lunches and snacks.
Many companies you’ve never heard of offer food perks, such as:
- Catered lunch-time meetings or training sessions. Food is a definite lure if you want good attendance at voluntary events. Pizza or sandwiches work well. Companies often provide the eats at mandatory meetings scheduled for first thing in the morning or around the lunch hour, too.
- Bottled water. Local and state building codes often require companies to have water fountains, but many companies go beyond that and stock their lunch room refrigerators with bottled water.
- Fresh fruit. Bowls of fruit on lunch room tables were a rarity as recently as 10 years ago, but many employers are trying to model healthy eating by giving their employees food that's good for them. Healthy employees take fewer sick days and are more productive.
- Candy bowls. Okay, candy isn’t a health food, but it’s a happy food. This is one of those cases where small gestures, when done consistently, can go a long way. Companies set out bowls of candy throughout their buildings and assign administrative assistants to make sure they remain full.
Full candy bowls. Full stomachs. Fulfilled employees?
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By Mark Di Vincenzo. Mark is a journalist with 24 years of experience and a New York Times best-selling author.
