Corporate catering serves many purposes in the workplace. Aside from the obvious, providing meals for groups and events of all sizes, perhaps the biggest benefit is creating an overall better work environment. It’s no wonder restaurant catering offerings and corporate catering services have seen an upswing in recent years, attracting more investors and corporate clientele and even expanding into ongoing, in-house meal services for big businesses.
What is Corporate Catering?
Whether it’s for a one-off meeting, training session, or an ongoing daily meal service, corporate catering is the business of providing food for employees of a company. Most restaurants offer a catering option; however there are some companies that just specialize solely in catering services — both of which can be used as options for corporate meals.
Why do customers use Corporate Catering?
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Boosts Company Culture: Companies large and small have taken major strides to improve company culture, as it’s been proven to both promote productivity and overall happiness in the workplace. One study shows 67% of employees are happier when there is free food at work. And admit it: your mood tends to lift when you walk into a morning meeting and there are bagels, pastries and coffee waiting. Additionally, by bringing employees together to eat as a group whether it’s a seminar, meeting or group office lunch, ultimately builds strong bonds between them.
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Recruiting and Retention: These days hiring and maintaining employees is harder than ever; including perks to lure in potential employees has become almost standard for all companies. And offering a free meal is certainly something that can make a company standout from the others; not just because it helps employees save money (while in most cases hardly affecting a corporate budget), but also proving the company values their employees. In most cases, this is worth even more as when employees feel appreciated, they are less likely to leave for another job.
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It’s A Time-Saver: Guess what? When you bring meals in for staff, they aren’t leaving the office. And when they’re in the office more, they’re working more. And perhaps even during their lunch break as when people stay in the office they may engage in beneficial work conversations, so companies are essentially boosting productivity and efficiency, while doing something that makes their staff happy. That’s the definition of win-win.
Types & styles of corporate catering
Depending on the size of your office or type of event, either a restaurant or catering companies will offer various options to fit almost corporate catering requirements; below are the most common.
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Individual orders: Typically this is when each employee chooses his/her specific meal and a company admin places one large order from a restaurant. No specific catering company required.
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Platters: Platers can be ordered from restaurants or a catering company, but rather than one-offs, come in a variety of larger options like sandwiches, salads, sides and desserts. This is usually the most common type of corporate catering order.
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Buffet-style: For bigger groups restaurants and catering companies can also provide trays of various items (both cold and hot) set up buffet-style — this is usually a more cost effective option for companies when hosting large-scale events.
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Food truck: Many offices opt to hire food trucks for a certain time block of the day. Fun, right? Employees may order ahead of time or simply get a fresh meal at their convenience.
[Photo by Asiya Kiev on Unsplash]
