1. Make catering part of your welfare strategy.

How do you view catering? Is it simply about sustaining your staff during their working day? A great catering operation should complement your business ethos and show key stakeholders, clients and prospective clients the value that you place on your staff. The use of fresh, seasonal produce, the right craft skills and contemporary design all speak volumes about your organisation and how you look after your employees. Factoring catering into your welfare strategy will keep the focus on quality, with benefits ranging from improved retention and recruitment levels to reputational kudos.

2. Make the most of the space
You have allocated square footage of your building to a catering provision so you need to extract maximum value out of it. Think outside of the (lunch) box for a moment. How about using your staff catering facility beyond service times for employee engagement activities such as mini farmers’ markets, indoor picnics and BBQs? Think about holding hands-on cookery workshops or hosting creative brainstorming sessions outside of the usual office environment. The space is there so make it work for you.

3. Seize every opportunity for support
A good way to measure value for money in relation to the catering subsidy is to consider what you actually get from your catering partner. We’re talking more than food here.   Your catering partner should be providing practical support, technical know-how, innovation and advice. After all, why else pay a management fee?  The energy and effort involved in running a thriving catering service should not fall to you. You are paying for industry expertise and experience so ensure that you are getting it.

Source: Wilsonvale