The evolving office lunch hour
As offices start to turn their lights back on, many changes are in the works to keep employees safe and minimize the transmission of COVID-19. One area that’s undergoing an evolution is corporate dining.
Gone may be the days of the grease-splattered communal microwave, heavily fingerprinted water cooler and shared refrigerator where leftovers go to die. In their place, fresh protocols, setups and technologies are helping companies adapt their corporate dining and food and beverage perks to a new, safer world — without losing the benefits those things have long brought to workplaces.
“People are happy when they’re eating great food and, historically, doing this with their coworkers,” says Warren Leeds, founder and CEO of Dartcor, a New Jersey-based corporate food service provider. Here’s how organizations around the country are adapting their programs while helping to preserve this hospitality, with the help of innovative culinary companies.
Breakroom and dining setups are evolving
The office breakroom still has a big role to play — now, it’s about reimagining that space to make it safe, yet still functional, says Alicia LeBeouf, senior vice president of marketing and retail strategy for Canteen, a Charlotte-based on-demand retail and food service company that works with Pinterest, UPS and Target.
Canteen is transforming full-service corporate dining facilities into market-style setups, with grab-and-go food stations in place of the typical buffet. A market concept eliminates high-touch areas and also helps promote social distancing, LeBeouf says, because picking up lunch will become quicker with fewer people in the space at one time.
Companies are taking extra precaution by opening workspaces in phases. Perkins and Will, a global design firm that works with companies such as American Express, launched an in-house app in June to track capacities in its respective offices to ensure proper social distancing. The app enables teams to set specific capacities for individual rooms, including the breakroom.
Does that mean employees will soon have to schedule a time to pick up their PB&J from the fridge? “We haven’t gotten that far,” says Larry Kline, managing director of Perkins and Will’s Miami studio, “but we’re going to encourage people to have lunch at their desk.”
Amenities inside the breakroom are shifting, too. Canteen is transitioning previous offerings such as bulkbin snacks into individually wrapped servings, and offering peeled and prepackaged fruit in exchange for whole pieces of fruit that can pick up germs.
Then there’s the issue of all-important coffee. Options for contactless coffee machines are in the works for Canteen, including one that automatically whips up your order based on your selection in its mobile app, another where you hover your finger over your choice, and a voice-activated machine in development where you simply state your order, Amazon Alexa-style, into the machine: “light roast, one shot of espresso, small cup,”
Dartcor has launched a new roaming coffee service option that’s like “a souped-up airline cart,” Leeds says. How it works: A nicely dressed hospitality concierge, wearing protective gear, pushes a cart stocked with coffee and all the accoutrements, plus healthy snacks, throughout the office space, serving each person individually.
In addition to the usual food and drink, companies are adding increased sanitation features to breakrooms.
Rising Realty Partners — which manages 5 million square feet of office space, including the historic Trust Building in downtown Los Angeles — has set up sanitary stations with hand sanitizer and plastic gloves throughout common areas of the buildings it manages. They’ve also eliminated all communal food from the fridge, and are wrapping fridge handles and cabinet pulls in NanoSeptic surface covers, which continuously disinfect high-touch surfaces.
Transforming the experience
At Jaguar-Land Rover’s North American headquarters in New Jersey, one of Dartcor’s clients, the onsite kitchen is being used to produce food for orders placed by employees through an online platform. Each order is assigned a designated pickup time to prevent having too many people in and out during busy times.
Not all communal dining options are out the window; however, they may be outside. Perkins and Will is transforming its Miami studio’s garage rooftop into an alfresco shaded dining space, allowing employees to safely eat together while social distancing in the open air.
The food options themselves are changing as a result of the pandemic, too. Dartcor has revamped its menus to include more nutrient-dense, immunity-boosting offerings. For meetings, it will offer customized Bento boxes to eliminate the need for buffet-style dishing up.
Looking ahead, the move toward sustainability in office dining may slide back, at least for a while. Companies like Rising Realty are encouraging employees to bring their own cutlery, dishes and mugs. But LeBeouf says we’re likely to see more prepackaged items, including singleuse cutlery, cups and plates, for sanitary reasons as people return to work.
Work-from-home perks
Even those who aren’t returning to offices yet are getting to enjoy some of the traditional dining perks that big technology companies and startups are known for.
Freshly, a chef-inspired healthy meal delivery service based in New York, launched a new division in April to help businesses continue to drive value for their employees.
“We started having businesses reach out to us (for help addressing) a new challenge: how to provide perks to their employees working from home,” says Freshly founder and CEO Michael Wystrach. “(Companies that had) traditionally provided snacks, or a full lunch or dinner, wanted to carry those perks to employees in their homes.”
Now, Freshly for Business is working with companies such as Nestlé, Eaton and Rippling to deliver premade, individually packaged meals that you can heat and eat. Canteen also has been offering custom snack boxes that are sent to employees’ homes every week.
When the time comes to transition back to the physical workplace, new offerings are helping companies ease the adjustment for their employees. Dartcor, through its Fresh Start program, has employee welcome kits — a tote filled with face masks, hand sanitizer, a contactless touch tool (for opening doors) and a cookie.
“When people get together, good things happen,” Leeds says. “It’s on companies to make their associates feel safe and welcome, and it’s really about reallocating and reprioritizing what’s important.”