Free food is the holy grail for a young, poor student/intern. But beyond indulging gluttony, kitchen areas and free food actually benefit businesses. Here’s why:
1. They promote office happiness…
… which increases productivity. A study by Warwick business school has found that happier workers were 12% more productive than normal, while unhappy workers were 10 percent less productive. And as we all know, mood and blood sugar are closely linked.
2. They make people want to work there
While the droves of people desperate to work at Google or Facebook may not be entirely due to the free food, more than half of 1200 participants in a survey by Seamless said that a free lunch would strongly influence their decision to accept a job offer.
3. They build workplace relationships
A communal space like a kitchen provides a meeting place for colleagues who would not usually interact. This is good for more than just employees’ social lives – kitchen discussions with people outside the project have solved some of the hardest work-related problems I’ve faced.
4. They make employees feel valued
By providing free food and a communal eating space, a company shows that it cares about its employees as humans and recognises their human needs. Feeling that a business considers you worth spending on motivates you to do your best for the business.
5. They keep people in the office
Hunger is a massive physical distraction from work, and can act as a 7pm reminder that you should be heading home. Equally, a lunchtime trip out can easily sprawl. By providing free food, businesses keep their workers near the desk, and cut down reasons for leaving the office. It is reputedly extremely rare for Google employees to leave campus for lunch – and therefore time wastage is kept to a bare minimum.
6. The best ideas come on the go
From personal experience at least, inspiration is far more likely to strike on the walk from the desk to the kitchen or when washing up a plate (yes RCKT, WASHING UP A PLATE) than when staring at a blank desk or computer screen.
Food perks alone will not build an efficient and tight-knit team – but the environment that non-hierarchical communal eating generates and the value that it implies a corporation places on its employees do. Humans have a natural instinct to help their community, and companies can dig into this by making their office more than simply a workplace – while the employees benefit too from a workplace feeling of unity.
Overall, then, a great decision on RCKT.’s part to provide free fruit and cereal. So long and thanks for all the food!
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Miranda joined RCKT. as an intern in June 2015. The British sunshine enriches our daily office life with a huge amount of creativity and happiness. And of course, she’s a real food lover.
About #rcktwisdom
In the weekly blog format YOUR WEEKLY DOSE OF RCKT WISDOM, people at RCKT share their special knowledge and personal experience. Sometimes funny, sometimes serious, but always helpful. Every thursday, we share in a listicle what we learned by working at RCKT.