Over the last year, many businesses have closed offices nationwide and workforces have gone remote. In recent weeks, we’ve spoken with some companies that are starting to reopen and are building their strategies to do so safely. With that comes looking at ways to reinstate meal programs, which can be essential for office culture and highly valued by employees. We know that there is no one-size-fits-all approach. Every company is different. Each office has unique needs. But there’s one thing we all have in common—safety is our number one priority.
Here are a few tips to consider when planning for meal times back at the office. These are based on guidance from health authorities and experts to help prioritize the wellbeing of your employees and meet your company’s needs.
Develop and enforce strict hygiene protocols
Reopening your office food program requires a well thought out workplace strategy. At minimum, your plan should adhere to government guidelines.
In order to get started, you should consider developing protocols and a plan for implementation and enforcement.
For those considering office reopening plans, here are a few tips to help (subject to government guidelines):
- Try to reduce the amount of contact happening with external individuals, including using Grubhub’s contact-free delivery feature and instructing delivery drivers to remain outside of the building
- Ensure washing stations are set up throughout the office, especially in the kitchen, to encourage regular hand washing
- Plan how congestion in shared spaces such as kitchens will be managed and consider establishing pick-up locations within your space to minimize crowding
- Stagger the number of employees in the office at any given time and encourage working remotely and social distancing
- Explore the adoption of grab-and-go individually boxed food items
Once you have your custom plan built, consider training and educating your team on your safety and reopening policies.
Redesign your office food program for the best outcome
When possible, offer meals that can be individually wrapped or boxed in the office. Taking these preventative steps can help greatly improve employees’ confidence in office COVID response protocols.
If you have your office at a limited capacity with staggered employees, many of our clients are extending meal perks to employees working remotely and dialing into office events. This will keep morale up and ensure everyone feels included.
Selecting food vendors to partner with during this time can be a difficult decision. Grubhub offers a variety of customizable, contact-free ordering options made to limit the amount of people entering your office and discourage large groups and food sharing. These include:
Group orders where administrators pick a restaurant and employees order together. Each order is labeled and bagged individually. Then all orders are delivered together.
Open group orders where anyone can pick a restaurant and employees order together. Then all orders are delivered together.
Individual meal perks where employers provide a meal perk for employees to order for themselves, setting budgets and rules to control spend.
Catering where you can use our new search filter so you can easily find restaurants that will individually box meals for your employees.
Helping you get back on track with operations
As employees return to the workplace and office food programs resume, it is key to have the right information and support on hand to start off on the right foot. We have been actively working to help corporate clients safely transition their food programs back to the office. Grubhub is prepared to make your move back to the office easy, safe and delicious.
Want to discuss your strategy for reopening your office food program?
