Whether you’re crafting the perfect corporate event or giving your staff the office lunch they deserve, catering has become a mainstay for businesses since the 90s. Catering used to look like large sheet cakes for company events, tin roaster pans full of lukewarm meatballs, and if you were lucky, you’d get a thin slice of pizza.
Company catering has come a long way. Now, there’s services dedicated to giving you the best catering experience possible with many highly rated local restaurants. You can provide your staff with delicious, unforgettable meals and experiences that further drive your company’s success. We’ll give you a rundown of how company catering can help your business thrive and a list of tips on how to ensure your success with catering.
How Business Catering Choices Affect Your Company
Food is something everyone can agree upon as a concept. We all have to eat, and many people have fond memories of their family foods growing up. For many people, food can be an opportunity to bond with others. 90% of employers say a sense of community is the key to success and a sense of belonging reduces employee turnover rates. If you make your catering experience fun, easy, and enjoyable, it can give your team great opportunities to have these communal bonding experiences.
Breaks can reduce fatigue by 30%, and 83% of employees from small and medium organizations state that benefits play a role in deciding where they want to work. On both fronts, you’re creating a company culture that values your employees by providing thoughtful catering choices. Food is a really simple benefit you can provide to get productivity moving, attract new talent, and keep the staff you have.
Successful Business Catering Tips
It might seem simple to find the first catering place you see and hire them for your event. To maximize the benefits of catering, however, you should try and follow these tips:
Have an Inclusive Menu
According to Food Allergy Research and Education, a food allergy sends someone to the emergency room every 10 seconds. While this is a worst-case scenario, it showcases how serious food allergies are. Including allergen warnings and considering allergens helps your team feel safe enjoying the food you provide for them. The same goes for vegan, keto, religious diets, and everything in between. Proper labeling and consideration of food is essential, as people who can’t enjoy your catering won’t be reaping the benefits from it.
Make Sure the Food is Good
This one should be obvious, if you blindly pick food you can’t vet in some fashion and it ends up bad it’s going to sour the entire experience and might even have the opposite desired effect. Even if you get a tip on a restaurant from a colleague, you should still check out their Yelp reviews to make sure it’s legit. If you have the time, show up and try the food out for yourself.
Consider Your Needs Thoroughly
Rushing is the worst thing you can do in catering situations. You’ll guarantee that something gets forgotten, and it’ll likely be noticed by the people you’re getting catering for. Give yourself plenty of time to make sure you go over your staff’s dietary needs, general preferences, and try to come up with an accurate headcount.
Think of Your Company Culture
Your company culture is the philosophy you apply to every decision your company makes. A strong company culture permeates everything, down to your catering choices. If you assert that wellness is important to your business, you should show that to your staff by giving them healthy catering options. 46% of job seekers cite company culture as very important when choosing to apply to a company. Any weakened sense of culture within your company can imply that you’re not who you say you are, or you’re wishy-washy and unstable.
Things to Avoid With Company Catering
Let’s go over some tips on how to avoid ruining the benefits of catering:
Ignoring Feedback
Asking for feedback is important, especially when you plan on doing more catered events in the future. It’s also a great way to mediate a tough situation if catering happens to go over poorly. Sometimes we misjudge situations and choose things that just don’t work out. The biggest thing you can do is listen and change for next time. Even if there weren’t any big issues, giving a platform for feedback shows you care what your staff thinks. Ignoring it completely creates a rift between you and your employees.
Overcomplicating the Ordering Process
Catering for companies has become incredibly easy in the past decade. You don’t need to call around town to gather price rates or deal with balancing multiple restaurants at the same time. Services like Zerocater specifically work for businesses of all sizes, meaning you get more time to plan the perfect event without the usual hassle that comes with traditional catering. Overcomplicating your ordering ends up wasting your time and giving you additional stress, so the best course of action is to try a service specifically made for you.
Picking the Cheapest Option
Cheap doesn’t mean good very often. You get a 50% tax deduction on most meals you provide for your staff, so why cheap out? It’s not to say you should go for the most expensive option, but usually when you set out to get the cheapest food you can possibly find, it’s going to taste cheap and look cheap of you too.
Start Successfully Catering for Your Business
Zerocater works with all company sizes and budgets, whether you’re a small startup or a large corporation. We’re set up to provide you with options no matter what your needs are, even for hybrid workers and specialized events. You and your staff will get the most out of your catering when you choose us because company catering is our specialty. If you’re ready to see what we can do for you, click “Get Pricing” and tell us more about your company size and budget. We’ll get back to you quickly with more information. We look forward to hearing from you!
