Companies are increasingly understanding the importance of providing food at work as part of their employee benefits package, but it’s not always clear how organizations can incorporate food into their day-to-day operations. To help retain talent and boost employee satisfaction, try these six fun and effective ways to provide food at work.

1. Throw a team trivia event

Team trivia, whether virtual or in-person, is a fun and competitive way to bring your team together. To upgrade your trivia night, consider having your employees order individual meals to enjoy. With individual meal perks, you can safely feed your team no matter where they’re working, making it an effective option for hybrid teams.

2. Host a lunch and learn

A lunch and learn can be virtual or in-person, and is a great opportunity to teach employees about new software, discuss an upcoming product launch, or offer job tips, all while feeding your team.

Offering food during your event could increase attendance and make the sit-down more enjoyable. For a successful event be sure to:

  • Keep lunch-and-learn sessions to just 30-45 minutes
  • Have an agenda and share it with employees ahead of time so they know what to expect
  • Consider placing a group order for food so employees can choose their meals
  • Host more intimate sessions so you can tailor the content for a particular department or specific team

3. Celebrate your workforce’s diversity through food

Diversity and inclusion is critical for employee morale. Companies can help employees understand and embrace other cultures by using a universally powerful tool: food.

Order in from a variety of restaurants that represent a diverse cross-section of cultures and cuisines. In addition to more common options such as Mexican, Italian, and Chinese, look for choices that could expand employees’ horizons and those that reflect your workforce. These could be Ethiopian, Vietnamese, Peruvian, Cuban, Moroccan, Korean, and many additional options available for local delivery. With a Grubhub Corporate Account, you can continue to support a variety of local restaurants while serving up food your team loves.

4. Set up a lunch buddy program to foster connection

A buddy system at work allows for a mutual exchange of ideas that helps create a sense of inclusion and belonging. New hires are less likely to feel alienated or have trouble assimilating; existing employees feel valued and respected. Setting up buddy meetings over lunch injects fun into the program and makes it feel more relaxed.

5. Keep hybrid and remote workers in the loop

Employers are becoming increasingly flexible about where their team members choose to work from. After many companies switched to a remote model during the pandemic, some allowed employees to stay remote or gave the option of hybrid scheduling, where employees split their time between their home and the office.

Providing meals for your hybrid team is a great way to keep employees engaged. Some ideas for feeding your distributed team may include virtual happy hours and virtual team lunches. You can even use Grubhub’s individual meal perks to allow employees to order meals delivered to their homes.

6. Offer overtime meals for employees working after hours

When busy season or tight deadlines demand extra time from your employees, show your appreciation by covering meals when team members have to work late.

Even employees not working overtime might still be working especially hard. A hectic holiday season or crunch time before quarterly reports could amount to a lot of extra stress. Providing free lunch once or twice a week could be key to improving moods and boosting morale.

Interested in providing food at work? A Grubhub Corporate Account gives you access to a flexible range of food-related perks, including a chance to send thank-you meals to employees or catered meals that can be used for a lunch buddy program or a virtual company-wide meeting.

For more information, contact the Grubhub Corporate Accounts team today.