As much as an office is about producing exceptional work, that cannot be done without happy well-fed employees. Having a welcoming and functional kitchen and sitting area can play a huge role in ensuring employees feel well looked after, and there are 5 aspects that you can focus on to make this happen!

I have worked in many environments where the only kitchen appliance available to employees was a single microwave. While this is fairly standard practice, it limits employees to either cold lunches, or re-heatable leftovers, and in workplaces with multiple employees, the sad solitary microwave meant taking turns, leaving some employees waiting 20 minutes of their half hour lunch break for their turn, giving them 5 minutes to reheat their lunch and 5 minutes to scoff down a leftover bolognese that like lava!

 

Microwaves and small appliances such as toasters and flat sandwich presses are reasonably inexpensive, and give employees far more options in terms of lunches, and makes them feel their they are valued. An extra microwave or two is also a great idea as it reduces waiting times, meaning employees can enjoy their lunch breaks far more.

In many offices, the kitchen is reduced to a small bench with a mini fridge and cabinetry underneath, a small sink, and the only bench space is taken up with the aforementioned solitary microwave. Investing in or finding an office with a larger kitchen and more bench space makes the space much more comfortable for employees to use, and means more than one person is able to use the kitchen at once.

It is common practices in many workplaces now to have a Puratap freely available for use. While this is great, and I applaud businesses that provide this, it is worth considering upgrading to a Zip Hydrotap or similar. These taps produce fresh filtered water chilled, sparkling and boiling instantly. While a little pricier, it is worth considering the time and energy that can potentially be saved. Every time a kettle is boiled it uses approximately the same amount as a refrigerator that has been running for 7 hours. The under bench unit will keep the water boiled, eliminating the need to have a kettle that is continuously heating up and cooling down multiple times a day. And instead of employees filling up their drink bottles to place in a fridge to get opened and shut constantly throughout the day, the zip tap will save fridge space and conserve energy by keeping the water cooled under the bench, and available instantly for use.

 

4) Reasonable Seating Space

A key component in keeping up office morale is ensuring that employees breaks actually feel like breaks. In many workplaces, employees either eat their lunch at their desk while staring at their screen fretting over all the work that still needs doing, or they are restricted to a small worn out sofa or an old table with three or four uncomfortable chairs. Investing in a couple of comfortable sofas, a nice table and chairs with some fresh decor and possibly even a nice feature wall can make a huge difference in making your employees happier!

 

Nothing speeds up productivity and eases people into their day quite like a hot cup of coffee. And I think most people can agree that a good quality fresh coffee with smooth frothy milk is a thousand times better than a teaspoon of instant coffee with long life milk. You want a great office kitchen, invest in a good coffee machine. Your employees will feel so much more valued and the workplace will be much more productive!