Does Offering Coffee and Tea Increase Employee Engagement?

You have been thinking about calling Galaxie Coffee to begin office coffee service at your workplace. You have been reluctant because you are not sure that just adding quality coffees and teas to your break room is going to make much of a difference. Well, you should still make that call. We will explain why in this blog post.

First, it is true that quality coffees and teas alone will not increase employee engagement or boost productivity. If they did, American workers would be constantly atop the productivity food chain given how much coffee we drink. We have been consuming large volumes of coffee for generations.

If it’s not the coffee and tea that does it, what is it? It is the environment in which it is offered. Quality does make a difference when it comes to office coffee and tea. Employees are not interested in poor quality products they don’t like. But employers who want to increase engagement and productivity have to combine high-quality coffees and teas with the right environment.

Engagement Equals Collaboration

The key to increasing engagement and productivity is collaboration. This can be easily observed by stepping back and looking at the cubicle mentality of the 1980s and 90s.

Companies began shifting to the cubicle model some 30 years ago in order to more efficiently handle office space needs and prevent workers from congregating around the water cooler. It was a model that may have worked for our parents, but it does not work in the modern office where collaboration requires people to actually spend time together outside of their cubicles.

It turns out that workers do better when they can collaborate in more relaxed spaces. They feel confined in cubicles and conference rooms. Conversely, they feel more free to pursue ideas and innovations in a lounge or café environment. That’s why so many companies are now transforming their tired break rooms into modern lounges rivaling anything the modern coffeehouse could offer.

Stocking That New Lounge

The discussion about quality coffee and tea as a way to increase employee engagement comes full circle once a company makes the effort to remodel the break room or open a lounge. If you want to make the lounge more enticing as a collaborative space, you have to offer beverages employees want. You need to offer them a reason to come to the company lounge other than grabbing a bagged lunch out of the refrigerator. That’s where quality coffee and tea become vitally important.

Quality coffee and tea products invite employees to sit down and relax for a while. Get three or four together with their favorite coffee or tea and they are likely to sit around and collaborate, innovate, and produce – all without being in their cubicles.

If you are looking to remodel your breakroom or establish a new lounge, we invite you to allow us to stock it. Galaxie Coffee serves the entire greater New York area with coffee, tea, and a full range of additional beverages.