With a busy schedule and a demanding work week, it can be difficult to maintain high energy levels. And when menial work tasks start to feel a little soul-sucking, we oftentimes feel the need to nurture ourselves with food for us to feel alive again.
Same goes with your employees, everyone needs to munch on a quick bite in order to perform better or do amazing things. In fact, surveying 100 employees and office managers, it has been found that 38% ranked office food as one of their top three office perks, alongside vacation time and professional development.
So if you’re not providing healthy snacks at work for your employees, you might want to consider starting after reading this article. We’ll give you 7 reasons why you should provide healthy snacks to improve your employees’ overall health, well-being, and productivity.
If you’re already on-board with healthy snacks and understand their value, check out our free guide to healthy office snacks:
First of all, what makes a healthy office snack??!
Employee healthy snacks can be anything from fresh fruits to a couple of packets of chips. The sky’s the limit when it comes to stocking up the cupboards.
Most offices tend to stick to things like peanuts, chips, fruits, veggies & dips, and maybe even some chocolates. It all depends on who is doing the buying and what the prevailing motive is. To help you further in choosing your menu, here’s our ultimate guide to Healthy Office Snacks.
Right after you discover our list of healthy office snacks, read on to learn more about their benefits and what good they can do in your workplace.
1. Healthy snacks can enhance productivity
Eating healthy is one of the best ways to ensure your energy levels are high and your productivity is at its best. Food fuels performance. The fuel that food provides is in the form of glucose, which allows brains to stay alert. However, while many of us strive to maintain a balanced diet, it’s difficult to manage our time to take a pause and grab healthy food, especially during our busy hours.
For instance, employees without access to a variety of snacks at the office leave work to go grab a snack outside. By simply offering and promoting healthy office snacks, you can change the vibe that courses through the workplace.
Employees can simply zip into the kitchen and pick their favorite treat. It is clear that this means people spend more time in the office than they otherwise would. And obviously, the more time in the office translates to greater productivity.
Lastly, eating healthy snacks improves mood. In turn, work relationships can flourish– people become problem solvers and critical thinkers. There is sudden energy within the office that becomes a positive hum instead of a drone of complaining.
2. Healthy snacks can maintain high energy
If you’ve noticed a decrease in energy and an inability to focus on your daily tasks, it might be because of the lack of nutrients in your body.
I already mentioned that food is fuel. Without it, you will quickly run out leading to decreased productivity and crabby mood. So, incorporating healthy snacks into your mid-morning and mid-afternoon can balance out your blood sugar, preventing those dreaded spikes and crashes.
You can also avoid the weekday afternoon slump that leaves your employees feeling drained of energy and sluggish. Healthy snacks can provide you and your employees with energy all day long.
Moreover, keeping healthy snacks on hand reduces decision fatigue for employees, so they can focus on making the choices their jobs require instead of agonizing over what they will eat and where they will find it. A quick bite of healthy snacks will keep them running smoothly through the rest of their day.
3. Healthy snacks can make employees happy
Healthy snacks help stave off hunger pangs, but that is only the tip of the iceberg. A fed employee is actually a happy employee!
Imagine how validating it must feel to employees of a company that shows it cares in such a visible way. Working in an office that provides this can make work just a little more enjoyable. The employees can take advantage of this perk, have more money in their pocket, be happier and healthier and brag to their friends about the awesome workplace they are in.
In fact, surveys show the benefits of providing snacks to office employees has a big impact on overall office morale. 67% of those surveyed say that they are happy with their current job because of snacks furnished on the company’s dime.
So if you’re still thinking of providing healthy snacks to your employees to really inspire happiness at work, definitely, the answer is a YES!
4. Healthy snacks can improve one’s mood
In the hustle and bustle of the office, people do not always eat when they are hungry. At times, they are simply too busy to bring their own snacks or rush to the store when they need something to eat.
This means that they will sit at their desks, hard at work, with an empty stomach. This same famished person is not very pleasant to deal with. They do not have the energy to complete their tasks accurately and efficiently. They are also quite moody which makes cooperation among colleagues very difficult.
No one wants to work with someone that is snapping at them constantly simply because their blood sugar levels have dipped. All of this can be easily solved by keeping employees fed with healthy snacks. They will no longer be distracted but will rather be energetic and focused on the task at hand.
5. Healthy snacks at work can create a better culture
Snacks, like many perks, exist to boost employee engagement. These small perks can be highly symbolic.
To begin with, it sends the right message to your team. Since perks are part of your culture, the perks you choose send explicit and implicit signals to your employees. Healthy office snacks tell your employees that they’re cared for and appreciated and that their overall welfare is important to you.
In fact, a study found that 60% of employees agree that having free food in the office makes them feel valued and appreciated.
However, too often, workplaces are either stocked with an almost empty fridge or with vending machines full of unhealthy treats. So it’s about time for you to upgrade your snacks to something healthier! It can be an easy way to kick off a more comprehensive health and wellness program, providing the foundation for larger cultural initiatives.
6. Healthy snacks can keep health and diet in check
Part of the reason healthy snacks can boost your performance at work is that food literally fuels our brain, which needs a constant supply of energy to function optimally.
So the worst thing anyone can do for mid-day mental performance is to skip meals; and the best thing anyone can do is to eat one with a balance of carbohydrates, protein, and fat.
However, when so much of our day is spent in our place of work, it is not easy to consume the recommended 5-a-day. For some instances, someone may be rushing to meet a deadline, stuck in an important meeting, or occupied talking with a client. So, having a variety of healthy snacks available throughout the day helps you and your team to meet this nutritional requirement.
Plus, when you provide your body with proper fuel throughout the day, you don’t meet mealtime with starvation. You have more control when your dinner plate lands on the table, leading to decreased portions and less chance of over-eating.
All in all, snacking choices also reflect overall health, which is directly tied to productivity. It should come as no surprise that the healthier your employees are, the more work they’re capable of doing — and the more consistently they can perform at this higher level.
7. Healthy snacks can create social bonding
The best way to break the ice is food! Who doesn’t love food anyway? More so if it’s free and easy-to-pick-up!
Eating is a social event. Sharing food has long been a way to connect and communicate. The ritual of eating has not only been about physical survival but also about cultivating deep familial and cultural connections.
In the office, an inviting, well-stocked kitchen will organically bring people together to converse, swap ideas, and collaborate in a more relaxed environment. In this way, snacks at work not only provide a positive impact on productivity and team dynamics, but it also offers different verticals of your office a chance to interact with each other in an informal setup.
All in all, just a small activity such as providing snacks for the entire office is enough to see the change in the overall enthusiasm and energy of the office. It helps bridge social gaps and gives everyone a chance to mingle with one another. Your employees can become closer, thus strengthening your team’s connections.
Takeaway
Employees like to be appreciated. The feeling of being valued can be a bigger motivator than money.
So providing healthy snacks is an incredibly positive force in your workplace. Its powers extend beyond productivity– it brings genuine happiness to them! The presence and availability of healthy snacks in the office fosters a more collaborative atmosphere and sense of fun.
Moreover, your employees can improve their overall health as well as learn about healthy eating. Snacks at work can create stronger connections, which in turn develops stronger teams.
So get your team some healthy snacks! The expense will more than pay for itself with happier, more productive employees who are fully equipped to get the job done.
Make sure to share this article with anyone you think could use it!
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This article was brought to you by Office Libations, your San Francisco Bay Area office coffee, keg delivery, and snack service. Delivering top local brands and kegs of cold brew coffee, kombucha, beer, and wine.
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