Thanks to digital services like Zoom, Slack, and Microsoft Teams, companies with a hybrid work schedule have figured out how to work remotely. Now they’re facing a new hurdle: how to bring employees together on those in-office days. One solution? Free food. And innovative food tech partners like ezCater.
According to recent survey data, free and subsidized meals are a top work perk for employees. But feeding a hybrid workforce comes with challenges. On one hand, employers have to account for fluctuating headcounts that make it hard to provide the right amount of food (not too little, not too much). On the other hand, they’re tasked with sourcing enough variety (and appetizing meals) to make the commute worth it in the first place.
It’s a demanding mix of quantity, quality, and variety. But when companies get it right, it can pay off. Eighty-six percent of employers say that food encourages employees to come into the office. Workers are happy to comply: 74% of hybrid employees agree that food is a key motivator for onsite attendance, according to ezCater’s 2024 Food for Work report.
4 ways to bring food into the hybrid workplace
Employee meals in a hybrid workplace look nothing like the corporate cafeterias of yesteryear. This new office culture requires you to come up with creative solutions. Not sure how? These four ideas are a great place to start.
1. Host team lunches with catering from local restaurants
Hybrid schedules don’t always offer enough opportunities for workers to interact. Virtual meetings and instant messages may not be as effective at team building as engaging in conversations face-to-face. But enjoying lunch together is.
Research shows that bringing teams together to share a meal has a wide range of benefits, including promoting stronger interpersonal bonds and trust. Employers surveyed for the 2024 Food for Work report have witnessed these perks first-hand, with 92% agreeing that providing food at work fosters collaboration and connection between workers.
Companies can create these lunchtime socialization opportunities with catering from a local restaurant. To boost attendance, food-ordering professionals might send out a department-wide (or company-wide) email inviting workers for a midday gathering. Announcing there will be free food — especially if it’s from a popular or new, trendy eatery — is an effective way to get employees to come into the office, even if they’re not scheduled to work on-site that day. To make logistics easier, food orderers can request an RSVP, so they’ll know how many team members to expect.
With ezCater, bringing restaurant meals into the hybrid workplace is simple. Customers can browse local eateries on the platform, enter their expected headcount, and use filters to find the right vendor quickly. After reading through online menus, they can place an order and schedule delivery for the planned employee get-together date.
Hosting team lunches isn’t so difficult with the help of ezCater, and it pays off in one big way: employers reap the perks of a more connected and engaged workforce. But beyond that, gathering teams for a midday meal enhances the mood in the office. According to the 2024 Food for Work report, 63% of employees say they’re simply happier at work when they eat a meal with coworkers instead of alone.
2. Make grab-and-go employee meals available in the workplace
Hybrid employees need quick, convenient meals that fit into their busy schedules. They may not have enough time for a proper sit-down lunch, or they may not want to leave the office to grab lunch and risk losing focus. Skipping meals is a worrying modern trend, but grab-and-go meals may be the key to reversing it.
Individually packaged and easy to eat, grab-and-go meals are ideal for fast-paced work environments. Employees can enjoy them whenever they get a break, wherever it’s convenient. This flexibility allows even the busiest workers to fuel up in the middle of the day, ensuring they don’t face the dreaded afternoon slump that lowers productivity levels.
Relish by ezCater allows companies to offer grab-and-go meals to hybrid employees. It’s simple: employers set a schedule and per-person subsidy, and employees choose exactly what they want to eat from a curated rotating list of local restaurant menus. The meals are then delivered to the workplace — individually packaged and labeled — so workers can pick them up and enjoy them when they get hungry.
Fluctuating headcounts are no issue for companies feeding the workforce with Relish. Since meals can be scaled up or down, depending on how many people are onsite on any given day, the recurring employee meal program limits both food and budget waste.
3. Set up a breakfast bar to enhance productivity and motivation
Hybrid employee meals don’t have to be restricted to just lunch. Breakfast is the most important meal of the day, and a nourishing start early in the morning translates into enhanced productivity at work. It’s a win-win for everyone, so employers have started rewarding onsite attendance with a delicious spread of pastries, savory breakfast dishes, coffee, and other drinks.
ezCater has a breakfast cuisine filter that makes finding a great caterer for a breakfast bar a piece of (pan)cake. Food-ordering professionals can sort through breakfast spots nearby, select menu items they think employees will enjoy, and schedule the delivery. Thanks to the ezCater headcount setting, food orderers can adjust their search to match their crowd size and budget.
With perks like a free breakfast spread, companies can promote higher attendance on optional in-office days and boost onsite collaboration on days when attendance tends to dip (we’re looking at you, Fridays). This can explain why nearly 40% of decision-makers who participated in the 2024 Food for Work survey say they plan to order more breakfast in the future.
4. Put food at the center of important meetings
It’s no secret that bringing employees into the office for in-person meetings has been challenging. This is a problem, as 32% of hybrid employees agree virtual meetings are less effective than in-person ones. Fortunately, catering may be the solution.
When employers offer food during in-person meetings, workers are much more likely to show up (especially if it’s an early morning meeting). It’s not wishful thinking, it’s based on data from the 2024 Food for Work report, as more than 60% of surveyed employees agree that free food not only encourages in-person attendance but also helps offset the costs of their commute.
To capitalize on this trend, employers can rely on ezCater’s group ordering feature. Here’s how it works: you pick a local restaurant, send out a link with the menu, and workers choose whatever appeals to them. The meals come pre-packaged in single-serving portions, so they’re ready to fuel employees’ focus and productivity.
One of the best things about this feature is that food orderers don’t have to worry about fluctuating headcounts typical of hybrid workplaces. Since only employees who plan to attend the meeting place an order, companies can avoid wasting money and food. Moreover, the pressure to get everyone’s order right (including food allergy and dietary restriction accommodations) is off their shoulders, allowing them to instead focus on other responsibilities.
Fuel hybrid workplaces with employee meals that make the commute worthwhile
No matter if it’s a fully on-site, remote, or hybrid workplace, food for work continues to play a crucial role in engaging employees, fostering collaboration, and making the commute worth it. While hybrid environments face a unique set of challenges, there are time-tested solutions that can keep your crew fed and fueled. Ready to embrace the future of hybrid employee meals? Explore ezCater’s corporate solutions today.
