The way to an employee’s heart is through his stomach

How do you slow down the exodus of employees? Check out the innovative employee retention measure given below.

Results from the HR Focus Employee Retention Survey, conducted in May 2000, reveal that while the ‘employee retention’ problem is certainly a serious one, many companies are coping well, and are not only able to retain their workers but also strengthen their organisations.

The survey reveals that one of the strategies adopted to retain employees, is to indulge their love for food as well as nurture healthy eating habits. Companies need to pay a lot more attention to employee well-being and health. Despite ensuring that nutritious food is served at company cafeterias, employees still flock to their favourite restaurants. That’s why it is important that companies tie up with food service providers and restaurants. Tying up with the best food service provider is a gesture that the company does care about employee needs.

Companies are investing in foodservice operations to improve taste of food, ambience of cafeterias and enhance convenience to employers.  This is a revolutionary move from the days of dull cafeterias buried away in basements to upmarket restaurants that offer a mind-boggling variety of dishes to satisfy even the most finicky employee. Food related ‘employee retention’ strategies include multiple sales points, restaurants with longer service hours, healthy-eating programmes and Internet accessibility at food joints.

“Freestanding” corporate restaurants, an emerging trend in the corporate world, are a direct reflection of the battle to recruit and retain top-quality employees. For example, Sun Microsystems’ Java Java and 3Com Corp.’s Le Bistro.

Java Java, operated by Redwood Shores is a corporate foodservice operation. Competing for dot-com employees in a very tight labour market, Sun Microsystems has added a range of perks to its employment package. And as other companies are discovering, restaurant-worthy foodservice departments, conveniently located and reasonably priced, can provide a pivotal recruiting edge.

The restaurant Le Bistro seats about 100 to 125 each and earns nearly $1 million in revenue a year. None of the Le Bistro restaurants are open for dinner, but there is a heavy schedule of evening events and corporate client entertainment. Executives, who work round the clock, need some form of entertainment after work hours. It helps them gear up for the next day. Places like Le Bistro cater to this kind of entertainment for employees.

Today, healthy-eating programmes in corporate foodservice have become a priority. Consumer surveys on this subject revealed that 45% of corporate people want more health information resources and healthy menu selections. What customers ask for, they get-in the form of handouts and flyers on nutrition, logos spotlighting healthy menu items and laminated cards which remind them about the advantages of leading a healthy lifestyle. At Motorola Food Works, health is one of the successful retention strategies. They have designed an 8-year health programme for their employees. This makes the employees feel that the company does care about their health and their eating habits. Motorola Corp. spent about $30,000 to develop the rejuvenated Natural Balance programme which caters to the needs of 60,000 people daily.

Perhaps the ultimate luxury for employees is to have menus online. Silicon Valley corporate foodservice operators have long been leaders in setting up intranet Web sites for their cafeterias. To help ease the process, Sodexho Marriott has developed a Web site template easily adaptable by client sites.

Voicing concern and taking care to serve the right food would “do the trick” and employee retention would no longer be a spectre that stalks companies.

Related reading
Cahners Magazine Division of Reed Publishing USA May 15, 2000