Amid the «great resignation» companies are rethinking how to keep employees and attract new ones. For a Zurich-based asset manager, food is key to inspiring staff.
Well-being used to be something that happened when we got out of the office building. This changed as we all began working from home during the pandemic, and the lines between our working and private lives became indefinitely blurred. Now «working» and «living» are no longer dichotomies.
Company restaurants and cafés are important factors in adapting to this new notion of work-life blending, German think tank Zukunftsinsitut, says in its food report. They are also a great way to create long-term employee loyalty.
Pleasure of Eating
For Forma Futura Invest breaking bread together goes hand in hand with working well together. The asset manager, which employs 17 people in Zurich, boasts an in-house kitchen, built with a dining room.
«Shared mealtimes are a sign of a living corporate culture, where cross-functional cooperation goes over silo mentality,» Forma Futura Invest CEO and chair of Berner Kantonalbank Antoinette Hunziker-Ebneter, says.
«Combining the pleasure of eating with the exchange of opinions and ideas is inspiring» for its staff, Hunziker-Ebneter says. It is also a way for management to show they care. By cooking for its staff once a month in pre-corona times, Forma Futura’s founding partners realized «This was a way for us to show our appreciation,» she says.
In face of a looming wave of resignations, companies could broaden their staff incentives and rethink their eating culture.
Human Interaction
After all, those who are considering leaving their jobs, are after more than just higher wages, according to a recent report by Oliver Wyman. Demands for a better work-life balance and more inspiring work feature high on employees' priority list.
Social encounters are just as important to their well being. In a survey carried out by Generali in Switzerland, 60 percent of respondents said that they missed seeing colleagues when they worked from home. Employers could take advantage of employee's need for human exchange by adapting work conditions to enable social interaction.
Gardening With Workmates
At Roche, around 40 employees get to garden together, sharing responsibilities in the headquarter’s urban garden. The produce grown is dished up in the company’s canteen. Just like with Forma Futura, the pharmaceutical company is tapping into employees personal and pleasurable experience around sustenance.
Tech companies have long understood the importance of offering staff varied food options. Google’s food program goes a step further and includes onsite cooking classes, signaling that employees' health and well being is important for the company.
During the workday food is intrinsic to how we feel and to how motivated we are. An employer who facilitates food consumption in the workplace, associates itself with the positive experience of fulfilling an employee's personal need. It can bind itself to the individual in doing so. If the way to a man's heart is through his stomach, this could also work for employee loyalty.
