Potlucks are an office institution as old as office culture itself. It can be a great way to help your employees feel more engaged with each other and learn more about the people they work with through food. Sometimes it can be a hot mess, but with some guidance, you can facilitate some fun and interesting potlucks. 90% of employers say a sense of community is the key to success and a sense of belonging reduces employee turnover rates, so pulling off the perfect potluck can help both your employees and your business thrive.
Eating Together Has Substantial Benefits
As we mentioned before, a sense of community is important to the well-being of your team and their ability to work together. Potlucks, among other fun team-centric activities, can bring people closer together. It can even help you bring in some of your remote workers. 79% of employees are excited to get to events for the opportunity to meet other colleagues and build meaningful relationships offline.
Anything that brings your staff closer together is beneficial to strengthening your company culture. A potluck might sound like a small thing you can put together for your staff, but if done correctly, these events and activities have lasting impacts on morale and productivity.
The Importance of Company Culture
A strong company culture is the glue that keeps your business together. Without it, you’re more likely to see turnover rates rise, productivity decrease, and an overall sense of feeling lost or insecure. If you create engaging experiences, employees are 87% less likely to leave their jobs according to Forbes. That’s because a portion of someone’s life is being spent working for you and they want it to feel like it counts for something.
Office Potluck Ideas and Inspiration
Giving some direction to how you want your company potlucks to go can make a huge difference. You don’t want everyone to bring the same dish (unless you’re having a cooking contest of course), so be sure to communicate when it’s appropriate and create some guidelines for things people should bring in addition to their dish.
Culture-Centric Potlucks
Have staff bring in a dish from their culture and share. Food is one thing every culture has in common, and it can bring people closer together to learn more about each other’s cultural cuisine. Whether it’s lumpia or pretzel salad, all styles of food should be welcomed and encouraged.
Candy/Chip Salad
Recently this has become popular from TikTok and Facebook trends. The concept is incredibly accessible, especially for people who don’t enjoy cooking. You choose a theme, like “sour candy” or “spicy chips”, and each employee can bring in one or two things based on that theme. Then, your staff gets in a line, announces what they brought, and dumps it in a large bowl or bin. By the end of it, you mix everything together to create a “salad” that everyone gets to enjoy.
This is great for meetings, and staff introductions, and perfect for slow days to keep the energy up. Posting a video to social media is optional, but encouraged!
Cooking Contests/Cook-offs
Cook-offs are great for those who love a challenge (and even better for people with empty bellies). Chili, mac and cheese, desserts, whatever your staff is into. You can even include fun monetary or gift prizes to the winners as a motivation. Events like this cause buzz around the office and give people something to look forward to, both contestants and judges alike. Be sure to encourage people with dietary restrictions to participate and flex their skills as well.
Holiday Potlucks
‘Holiday’ can mean anything here, from Christmas to Halloween. Thanksgiving potlucks, for example, are popular because they allow your staff to have a sense of togetherness they might not find on other days of the year. From an organizing standpoint, this one should have a lot of communication involved. Creating signup sheets ensures there are no hiccups so you and your staff can focus on having a great time.
There are a ton of holidays to choose from, so don’t limit yourself to the ones you already know. Let your staff suggest holiday potlucks based on their cultural holidays too. The availability and openness to those types of things can help your staff grow and promotes a company culture of caring for every employee individually.
Rely On Your Catering Provider for Office Potluck Ideas
Your staff can’t do a potluck for every event, so for everything else, we’ve got you covered. Zerocater is an app that helps companies cater their events, office lunches, and more. Our AI allows us to learn more about the foods your staff likes and doesn’t like to give you new food suggestions whenever you order. We even have a phone app that allows your employees to choose the foods they want to eat, reducing wasted food and wasted money. If you’re interested in seeing what we can do to up your catering game, send us a message by clicking “Get Pricing” and tell us about yourself. We work with all company sizes and budgets.
