10 reasons free office food can’t guarantee employee retention.

Office food

What is employee retention?

Employee retention is the organizational goal of keeping productive and talented workers and reducing turnover by fostering a positive work atmosphere to promote engagement, showing appreciation to employees, providing competitive pay and benefits, and encouraging a healthy work-life balance.

Importance of employee retention.

In order for employees to develop a sense of trust and dependability among one another, employee retention is crucial to team development and cohesion in the workplace.

When talented employees leave an organization, one of the biggest losses is diminished production and loss of competitive advantage. A company’s capacity to fulfill its objective may be harmed by high personnel turnover rates due to disruptions in continuity, the loss of institutional knowledge, and the high costs of hiring new employees and providing them with training. Additionally, losing staff can weaken morale and encourage others to leave the company.

The influence on clients who discover they’re dealing with a constant stream of different individuals is another unfavorable consequence of turnover. Consumers are frequently alerted by high turnover that there is a problem with the company or brand.

Free food as a strategy?

The adage “There’s no such thing as a free lunch” isn’t always true today, at least for employees in some businesses, like many other things post-COVID.

Companies like the professional service firm, BDO, have been giving its 125 employees free lunch in its Kitchener Waterloo office. The company decided that giving out free lunch on some days of the week was a way of encouraging their workers to return to the office.

According to Rob Wayne, office managing partner at BDO in Cambridge, Ontario, “In years past pre-COVID, it would be usual that we’d have a lot of people in the office working late and we’d bring dinners in for them as we’re trying to attract folks back into the office.” he also added the statement “In these very different and difficult circumstances, we’re trying to think differently and be imaginative, so it’s been essential. It’s not just about the food, though we’ve used it as a tool to make that.”

This was one way to retain employees right? Now the big question is did it work? The answer for this company is absolutely. The company actually recorded that a staggering 50% of the employees were motivated to work and when you actually  think of it motivation to work means the employee is coming to work early the next day.

Now will this strategy always work? Well no is the answer obviously and why? You may ask. Well you’re about to find out as we are going to be going through 10 of the reasons why the free food system doesn’t always work.

Reasons why free office food can’t guarantee employee retention.

For this listing we are going to be using two approaches. The first approach will be done with the problems that office food in an office space will cause, how it will reduce productivity and also cause problems that will cause a loop in employee retention and the second approach will be the listing of the factors that causes employee retention that office food obviously cannot solve with a case scenario. So let’s begin!

1. Office food can have a negative influence on health.

Most of the office food options that are offered at work are unhealthy, like drinks, burgers, sandwiches, cookies, and other high-calorie foods. They have been discovered to have a detrimental effect on these workers’ health.

Since they are completely free, employees frequently devour as much of these office food items as they can. Due to a lack of improvement, this has caused major health problems that may eventually have an impact on the workplace. And when this happens the worker begins to eventually work in slow pace and even start to miss days in the office because of doctors appointment and when this becomes a regular thing, the worker will need to resign due to health complications especially when the employee is working in an industry that induces a lot of stress like the engineering industries as the stress level of the employee will become too much leading to even more health problems. So instead of it making the employee stay it becomes the reason the employee has to resign.

2. Workers can become greedy

The availability of a broad variety of delectable complementary office food and snacks at work can undoubtedly lead to careless eating, which fuels employees’ growing greed.

Companies who use the idea of offering free office food to employees as a working strategy need to be aware that many employees may start taking unfair advantage of the same. They can begin consuming an excessive amount of goodies or even begin bringing them covertly back to their residences.

This may ultimately lead to the creation of an uncomfortable work atmosphere, which may have an impact on the general performance of such businesses. Now imagine a scenario of two workers in the same  department having a dispute over a snack. If those two workers have a project to do together with the dispute at hand things will become difficult and might actually get so heated that one worker might actually have to leave the job for peace to reign.

3. Workers can become less productive.

Some foods that are given during these lunch breaks actually cause low metabolism rate especially for the older workers making them very tired and sleepy. This happens due to the fact that the body tends to slow down as we age and these older workers don’t have that quick metabolism rate anymore leading to unproductiveness on their part and when this is seen as a problem, the company in question will actually start having second thoughts about their retention. For example an adult doesn’t need to consume too much junk products especially soda and apparently, the most common free meal given in offices are, you guessed it, burgers and soda and as we grow to a certain age the rate at which our body process the CO2 on soda reduces gradually and now imagine having to do a job like file sorting manually with a gassy stomach.

Now  from this next point to the end we will continue this list the second approach that in the beginning.

4. Inadequate compensation.

We all work for something whether it is money as a regular worker, or for the experience as an intern but one thing is certain if you’re not getting compensated well for the work you do, then it’s time to move on and find another job. According to a Paychex poll, 70% of respondents said they would quit their jobs if the salary was too low. In this case, employees will quit their jobs if they are not being paid well no matter the food that is being given to them at  the workplace. The stress level some  jobs entail are not just worth the prices the employees are being paid. For example imagine a footballer that runs on a pitch for 90 minutes at least three to four times a week excluding training and then has to battle with composure with the fans and opposition fans pressure on his or her mind getting underpaid and then instead of the manager addressing the issue of pay he decides to start issuing free food to the players. I know right now you’re thinking like what will food do to solve the problem of the under payment? That is it exactly. The player will instead leave the team and go to an opposing team that will compensate him or  her according to the talent the player possesses.

5. Negative work environments won’t make employees stay

Sometimes the friendly and  positive environs of a workplace can actually be what a particular worker actually needs to be able to function well in an organization.” As the saying goes employees don’t leave jobs they leave managers”, when an employee feels he or she is being pushed around or bullied in a particular organization, the worker tends to do one of three things: get depressed and start living in the shadows at work, become very rude at work or just leave the workplace and search for another job. Of the three options the latter is actually the option most people will take. With the immense pressure being mounted on the person and probably negative talks by the supervisor and also bullying from other employees (in some cases), no free food will be able to entice the person to stay as the bullying might even intensify at the lunch break time. Let’s cite a case scenario where Mrs  Laurel is a secretary to a boss who feels women should not be in an office but in a kitchen. The amount of bullying Mrs is going to receive from her boss at every opportunity he gets is going to be so demoralizing that it will certainly affect her work  rate and then let’s also chip in the fact that jobs that she does he gives the credit to other male employees. Now let me put down the rhetorical million dollar question. Do you think Mrs Laurel will decide to remain at that workplace because they have lunch at the office? Please write your answers in the comment section below.

6. Absence of Camaraderie

According to a study analysis by the Society of Human Resources Management, almost two thirds of professionals would decline a new job offer if they had coworkers at their present employer.

Social connections are crucial. Coworkers feel a duty to one another when there is a sense of community and belonging at work. A sense of commitment to the workplace and the task is sparked by dedication to coworkers. Professionals are significantly less reluctant to pursue new chances when their coworkers feel more like strangers or enemies than as partners and friends. For instance you have to be alone at a gas station handling the  gas tank without having anyone to talk to, in fact to take it up a notch you are working the nights. As an employee the work becomes so tiring and before long the thought of quitting comes to mind with questions like why am i the only one doing this? or is the job so bad that nobody also wants to do it? running through your mind. At this point free food can not guarantee these workers stay in that position because what’s the need of free food if you’re always eating it alone?

7. Overworking employees

One of the main causes of employee job turnover is overwork. According to a recent Deloitte survey, 77% of respondents felt burned out in their present employment, and 42% had quit because of it. More specifically, 84% of millennials reported having burnout on their own. The reason for resigning was mentioned by more than half of these respondents as burnout. More sustainable work-life balance is increasingly in demand from younger generations.

Increased workloads and the occasional bustle are unavoidable. It may be necessary for workers to put in more hours at busy times or on larger projects. Long stretches of overwork, however, cause worker unhappiness and burnout. Constantly working over your capacity frequently indicates understaffing, inadequate planning and human resource management, and an unfavorable work environment. When a person is being worked to the point of extremity then i don’t even think there will be an appetite for the food as the exhaustion will be too much for the person to even take the lunch break.

8. Lack of recognition

An important piece of the employee engagement puzzle is recognition. Praise-giving organizations demonstrate to employees that their efforts are valued and acknowledged. Positive feedback reassures employees that their efforts are contributing to greater objectives, making their work more fulfilling and pleasurable. An appreciation-based culture eliminates uncertainty and increases output. Most people appreciate when they get a pat on the back occasionally and are recognized for their excellent work. Not to add, giving out awards and recognizing achievement demonstrates to staff that the organization values them as more than just tools or numbers.

Giving free food won’t solve the employees feeling of dejection and the employee will eventually quit the job in search of somewhere that his or her hard work would be recognized.

9. Diversity at the workplace

The working environment is influenced by essential elements including diversity and inclusion. Every employee wants to feel secure, loved, and motivated to perform at their highest level. Discrimination causes a lot of stress for workers and can lead to burnout. In the workplace, not every identity will be treated with the same respect. However, there should be equal respect for different backgrounds, perspectives, or ideas. At employment, nobody should experience discrimination, disadvantage, or exclusion. Let’s use the scenario of a young masters degree holder  working in a firm of people way older than he is. Firstly he won’t feel safe as every mistake he makes on the job which can be easily corrected will turn into a series of scolding and he will also feel left behind as he would feel uncomfortable with even the thought of trying to join their conversation as they may take it as he is poke nosing into elderly peoples discussions. In this case free office food won’t actually entice him because what he actually needs is an office environment in which he can relate with people around him.

10. Lack of innovation in the workplace

Job happiness is a prerequisite for meaningful employment. Many workers long to make a difference in the world, resolve challenging issues, and bring about change. It’s exciting to think about coming up with new concepts and starting the future. Smart employees feel stuck when organizations don’t innovate and change. Top talent may quit their jobs to work on developing a new product, starting a business, or launching a service. Additionally, employees may worry about their future job security if businesses fail to innovate because stagnant businesses rarely maintain their market dominance.

The solution to this is innovation. Try to spice up their work with new and interesting works. I’m sure we will all agree that free food wont stop an unmotivated worker from leaving a company to where he or she can face interesting challenges that suit his or her skillset.

Conclusion

We all can agree that free food can motivate employees to work, but anything that makes it get out of hand as it is mostly junk foods that are being served will cause serious problems and reduce the rate of productivity in the office. As for the point of retaining workers we all know the only way to  do that is to tackle the main problems as free food cannot work out as a solution to these problems.