Staff Meal – Why Companies Are Spending Millions

Why Companies Are Spending Millions on Office Food / Staff meal 

It’s pretty simple, a full stomach is equivalent to a clear mind, and a content soul. Do you want to boost someone’s morale to function and operate optimally? Feed them. The genesis of free office meals could be traced back to the early 1980s and 1990s respectively. It first started with financial institutions and law firms, availing their employees of free lunches. However, over the years, the increasing trend of free office meals has now become a normal phenomenon, and as such has extended beyond the legal and financial industries. Many hospitality, tech, and digital firms, including several other companies operating in diverse industries now provide free meals like snacks, cappuccinos, sodas, cereals, ramen noodles, fruit baskets, coffee, et Cetera for their staff. The reason behind this is not quite far-fetched, it is latched in the fact that companies practising this consider free office meals as an investment in productivity, such that the more you invest in it, the more would get an increased ROI in return. Providing staff meals for your employees opens the door to several benefits to you as a business owner and employer, such benefits include but are not limited to, retaining your best-talented staff, having a competitive edge over your competitors, improving your recruitment processing, reducing your staff turnover rate, opening room for staff productivity, maintaining and creating a friendly working atmosphere, amongst others. In this piece, as the title implies, you would be shown 10 strong and valuable reasons why companies are spending millions in proving their staff with free meals at the workplace. Nonetheless, before with dive into addressing this core topic, this article with giving a short description of what staff meals or office food entails before extending further to discussing the reason why companies are spending millions in making it available for their staff. 

What is Staff Meal / Office Food? 

 As briefly mentioned in the above introductory section, offering free staff meals/office food to employees at the workplace began in the early 1980s and 1990s. It’s a humane and benevolent act and a show of appreciation a company extends to its members of staff which comes in form of food and drinks. Free staff meals/office food although, it may seem like a financial burden an organization bares, nonetheless, a critical study and examination of it proves that it creates a win-win situation for both employers and employees, that is, while employees are no doubt benefiting from this policy, employers, on the other hand, are also benefiting from it as it serves to them as a productivity investment. Frankly speaking, when you calculate and sum up the aggregate number of time employees would take to get themselves launch meals outside the work premise, the distraction it could cause, the proportionate effects all of these could have in the productivity level of an organization as well as the benefits it would bring to offer an in-house meal for staff you would understand how rational it is and why companies are spending millions on office meals.     

10 Strong and Valuable Reasons Why Companies Are Spending Millions on Staff Meal 

One of my favourite quotes from an international writer, and a New York Times Bestselling Author says “Behind Every Occurrence Lies a Reason.” This statement is more than meets the eye and has a strong link with the core of this piece. Truth be told, no company would be willing to spend a buck not to mention millions in proving meals for their staff if there are no contingent reasons behind it, and of course, the trend wouldn’t be increasing if there are no rational reasons either. In this section, however, you would be shown 10 strong and valuable reasons why companies are willing to spend as high as millions in making sure they provide their staff with office meals. 

These valuable reasons include but are not limited to: 

1. An avenue to invest in productivity:  

Ever wonder why the trend of free office food/staff meals keeps increasing and several companies, including the hard-head ones, are joining the trend? The reason behind this is simple. It is fact that providing free office food/staff meals for employees is an avenue to invest in productivity. Research proves that proving free meals at the workplace is one of the best ways to motivate employees and make them happy, and as such, when employees are motivated and happy at the workplace, they tend to deliver beyond the call of duty, hence increasing a company productivity level by 20%. 

2. To Show How Employee Health is Important to the Management:

One of the ways to know management that cares for the welfare and health of its staff is by availing them of free office food/staff meals at the workplace. Since healthy food leads to a healthy diet, and a healthy diet leads to a healthy state of health, thus, one of the ways management can support and show how important their employees’ health is to them is by providing free office meal that complies with balance diet rudiments.  

3. Staff Meals/Office Food Boost Employees’ Morale:

As aforementioned in the first line of this article, a full stomach births a healthy state of mind, and a healthy state of mind births a content soul which in turn brings out vitality and morale in individuals. When staff are been fed well at an appropriate time, it tends to boost their morale and charges them to work optimally.  

4. It Creates a Friendly Workplace Atmosphere:

In-house launch time or break is by far one of the moments employees utilize to have a casual chat amongst themselves. During this time, employees just want to chill out with their co-workers and unwind from their normal official duty, as a result, their interaction and togetherness tend to create a friendly and serene workplace atmosphere.    

5. Launches With Colleagues Strengthen Interpersonal Relationships:

Somewhat similar to the reason mentioned above, employees’ free launch time is an avenue for them to network and interact, hence strengthening the bond and building interpersonal relationships among them. 

 

6. Gets Employees More Concentrated and Focused:

One of the valuable reasons why companies spend millions on free office meals is to get their employees more focused and concentrated at the workplace. Providing an in-house cafeteria where staff can have access to free meals drastically reduces employees’ distractions characterized by hauling out of the work premise to source for food and drinks, hence getting them more focused and concentrated in playing their role and discharging their duty which in turn leads to reduction of human errors and omissions at the workplace.   

 

7. Retains Employees, Reduces Staff Turnover and Improves Company’s Recruitment Status: 

According to research, free office food /staff meal have a positive effect on employee retention as it increases its retention rate by 87%. Additionally, staff turnover, as well as the recruitment status of a company are also affected positively. When employees are being fed, it gives them a reason to want to stick around with such a company, and by extension it also serves as a positive sign to incoming staff, portraying the company as a good place to work.   

8. It Shows Management Gratitude and Appreciation to Staff: 

Providing free office food and staff meals is one of the ways an organization can show gratitude and appreciation to its employees. Appreciate them for not just being part of the team, but an important and integral part of the company as well as its successes.     

9. It Fosters Management and Employees Relationships: 

When employers provide free office food and staff meals to employees the gravity tends to go beyond the basket of fruits, coffee, salty snacks, and sodas, it goes as far as fostering and creating a blended rapport between management and employees.   

10. Office Food / Staff Meals  are Tax Deductibles: 

According to a research-based fact, IRS allows deduction of staff meal up to 50% of taxable income and revenues, especially since such meals are required for you to function well and be productive whilst discharging your duty. This, thus, forms one of the strong and valuable reasons why companies spend millions in providing free office food and staff meals for their employees.     

Conclusion 

The success of every company regardless of its industrial and business operations starts first by understanding the basic needs of its major stakeholders and striving to meet those needs. Understanding the fact that employees form an integral part of a company and that they fall under the purview of a company’s important stakeholders is a step to building a viable workforce and a strong business brand. However, going the extra mile by making sure these employees’ needs are met on time, and by availing certain benefits to motivate them in which providing free office food and staff meals is one them is a key factor in boosting a company’s overall productivity as well as an improving its products and service quality. Finally, I hope that this piece has given you adequate insight as to why companies are spending as high as millions to provide free office food and staff meals for their employees.