Five Reasons Your Office Coffee Program Matters

THE COFFEE IS THE CULTURE

You can tell a lot about a workplace by the coffee it serves. Show us an office with conventional grey-walled cubicles and we’ll show you a tub of pre-ground grocery store coffee in the pantry.

Office coffee has a horrible reputation. But more recently, with the rise of tech stars like Google and Facebook, that’s begun to change. Today great coffee is one of the first things mentioned when discussing the perks of the modern workplace. Some brush it off as a frivolous expense no different from a ping pong table or bean bag chairs. But there’s real value to be created — both direct and indirect — by serving quality coffee in your workplace.

To make the case, here are five reasons to up your office brew game:

1. Your coffee is a reflection of your corporate values. Are there posters on the walls of your office that say Quality? Innovation? Empathy? Design?  Serving burnt, bland and/or uninspired brews from a broken down machine is probably not quite living up to the promise.  
2. Your people want it. And they’re leaving to get it. Millennials spend more on coffee than saving for retirement. When employees can’t get the quality coffee they want in house, they head out to a nearby coffee shop. The occasional walk is healthy, but employees would happily partake in an in-house option too. That’s why organizations like Google and Deloitte are designing their own cafes within their “workplaces of the future”.    
3. The coffee corner is the new water cooler. Serving up local, fresh roasted coffee is sure to attract employees from all walks of the office. If you’re looking for ways to strengthen relationships between people from different departments and disciplines, it’s a sure fire way to create community and drive more casual collisions without the roles and hierarchy.
4. Coffee rituals are good for the brain.  Research shows taking allotted coffee breaks can help employees better manage stress levels, build social connections and even boost output. That’s why companies around the world have begun experimenting with the Swedish Fika — a mandatory coffee break that’s proving employee wellness and efficiency are not mutually exclusive.
5. It’s a signal to employees. Studies show happy employees make productive employees. Serving good coffee is a small gesture that demonstrates you value your people. It shows you stand for more than just the status quo. You’re paying attention to the details and committed to improving the everyday employee experience.

There’s a reason Detour’s office partner list reads like a who’s who of Glassdoor’s best places to work. Great coffee reflects great culture. It’s the employee benefit with benefits — a quick, relatively low cost win that pays delicious dividends.

Want to learn more? Check out our Office Coffee Program page or email us at officecoffee@detourcoffee.com. We do custom coffee programs for offices with headcounts ranging from 8 to 8,000.