As a manager or employer, keep in mind that on top of having your office cleaning regularly –it is also important to have a healthy and full-of-stock office pantry.
You might wonder, why spend more money on an office pantry? Is the cost truly justified? What are the advantages? Well, a happy workplace is also a result of a healthy office pantry. Continue reading to learn why!
Makes Everyone Happy
Most of the food consumed by employees is coming from the office pantry. Thus why having a pantry full of food will be the ultimate treat for your employees. They do not have to open their wallet to stock some snacks because the office already has them all. But keep in mind that the brain will have a higher nutritional requirement if it is constantly being challenged throughout the day. If the brain does not have the proper nutrition that they need, the mental capacity and ability to perform at work will therefore be hampered.
This makes a healthy workplace pantry necessary in order to maintain your employee’s work quality. On the other side, eating processed foods, meals high in sugar, and foods containing wheat (gluten) has been shown to raise the risk of depression. Try to stock on something gluten-free instead of reaching the typical snack of ordinary potato chips.
Sustains Energy, Increases Focus
To obtain the buzz when they are tired or busy when working, employers will reach for some sugar. After the brief high, they will have a severe lethargic state, and afterward the cycle will be repeated. When they are worried or hungry, it’s natural for people to seek junk food, especially in an office situation where there is pressure to perform very well. When the system in our body spend energy processing harmful fats, this can cause sugar spikes and subsequent drops in energy levels as well as make people feel tired.
The amount of time that employees are motivated to perform their tasks is increased when sugar replacements like Fruit Cups and Fresh Fruits are made available. They could spend more time working properly and effectively as they wouldn’t be interrupted by a growling stomach.
Transforming The Workplace
It will say a lot if the employer provides and promotes a wide variety of healthy options in the pantry. It communicates to the employer just how much you respect their well-being. This could spark their awareness of better options they can make and boosts their desire to eat healthfully.
Additionally, some nutrients will also enhance memory and mental clarity. To keep your workers functioning at their best, it is important that you give them the proper nourishment.
According to Forbes Magazine, foods rich in vitamin C and nuts are effective brain nutrients. These types of food include healthy fats, nuts, and vitamin C, and will enhance cognitive capacity of a person. These healthy nutrients present in many fruits and vegetables, can enhance mental acuity and slow cognitive decline. If you want to stock up on some protein bars, remember that not all protein bars are healthy. Provide your employees with protein bars with less than 10g of sugar.
Inclusiveness
In addition to encouraging employees to broaden their palettes by offering a choice of healthier snack options like vegan and gluten-free within reach -will ensure that people who are on diets, or have certain allergies, are not left out. By modifying your office pantry, you won’t just assist in inspiring and encouraging every employee toward a healthier lifestyle, you will also make sure that your workplace is the kind of place that is inclusive for every type of person.
Sometimes it is hard to promote change toward people, especially if the changes are major and will affect their lifestyle. For example, promoting healthy snacks, rather than regular snacks is hard to do. Especially for some of the employees who prefer to have a sugar-rush fix in between working time.
One of the tips that you can implement in your office, is by using translucent containers for healthier snacks and opaque containers for regular ones. This is something that the Google headquarters office in New York does and in just 7 weeks, they discovered that employees were ingesting 3.1 million fewer calories!
In the end, employers are powerless to impose the lifestyles they would prefer their employees to pursue. But they still have the ability to sway them. All of your employees will probably be more inclined about leading a healthy lifestyle if everyone else around them is also doing that. By the time you reach the finish line, you realize that you made a positive impact on the workplace through a series of tiny gestures –and one of them is providing a healthy office pantry in your office.
