Over the past decade, increasingly more organizations have come to realize the myriad benefits of providing employees with workplace food perks. In fact, every Big Tech company from Facebook to Twitter to Uber now provides their employees with free healthy meals and snacks.
Furthermore, as we transition back to normalcy after the COVID-19 pandemic, offering delicious meals through a corporate meal program functions as an excellent incentivization for teams to return to the office. Companies recognize some employees may require a bit more time to feel wholly comfortable back in the office environment. By welcoming your team back to the office with an empathetic approach using something as universally pleasurable as food, it makes the transition period easier for everyone.
Pre-pandemic, research had found a strong correlation between employee satisfaction and free food and beverages provided in the workplace. A recent study found that 56% of American employees were “extremely happy” in their current job. That figure leaped to 67% for employees who work at companies that offer free meals through corporate meal programs.
Offering employees healthy meals and snacks in the workplace improves employee engagement, increases productivity, and is a primary factor in overall job satisfaction and retention.
Undeniably, there are numerous benefits to having a corporate meal program including fostering stronger company culture, thereby creating a stronger company at its core. Nonetheless, the question remains. Which type of corporate meal program will best fit your company?
There are several types of available meal plans structured differently, each with its individual benefits. It’s simply a matter of deciding which type of meal program is most effective for the needs of your organization.
A corporate meal program that offers one-time credits to your team members is a good choice if you have a smaller allotted budget. Providing your entire team with a meal plan of one-time credits is an excellent means of incentivizing the return to the office. One-time credits are a good option, particularly for hybrid teams returning to the office on specific days of the week.
This is an especially great option for office parties and get-togethers. Whether you're throwing a welcome party party, a retirement party, or simply want to throw a special occasion for your team, offering a one-time Ritual credit is sure to be a crowd pleaser. One-time meal credits will let your party-goers order the food they love via our group ordering platform, which can then be picked up and brought to the party for everyone to enjoy.
Having a corporate meal program that offers recurring credits to employees would be a good fit for companies working with a larger budget. Providing a meal program that has recurring credits is best for team members who are back in the office on a full-time basis.
Employees are given an allotted dollar amount ($15, for instance) of daily recurring meal credits, and have the flexibility of when to use them throughout the workweek. This type of corporate meal program further incentivizes teams to make a full-time return to the workplace.
Depending on the needs of your organization, a corporate meal program structured with expensed meals could be another option. Typically, this type of meal program involves allocating a budget per team member, giving employees the flexibility of expensing meals wherever they are working at whatever time of the day. Receipts for expensed meals are usually automatically sent to expense management software for automatic reimbursement.
As a central Ritual product, Ritual for Companies provides corporate meal program solutions for companies to reward their employees with one-time or recurring meal credits. Ritual offers customizable meal programs that fit any budget, enabling companies to incentivize teams to return to the office - not to mention retain top team members and attract new talent.
An additional solution of Ritual for Companies is geolocation credits. Using location-based services (LBS) technology, you preselect a radius around your office location and issue meal credits to team members. Next, simply set an expiration day for your employees to redeem the geolocation credits.
Below is a synopsis of how Ritual for Companies works:
Few things in life instill a sense of togetherness and contentment faster than sharing a good meal. Welcoming your team members back to the workplace with delicious free meals and snacks through a corporate meal program is demonstrative of a familial corporate culture within your company. After a paradigm-shifting two years, providing your employees with office meals will be a token of gratitude not lost on a single team member.
