Diana Spellman, managing director of Partners In Purchasing, argues that businesses need to take a more proactive approach to managing their employees’ welfare and providing them with a healthier diet is the starting point
What we eat has a big impact on our performance at work – from mental clarity, to energy, stamina and productivity, food governs how well our bodies and brains function. Food makes our mood.
What we eat has a big impact on our performance at work – from mental clarity, to energy, stamina and productivity, food governs how well our bodies and brains function. Food makes our mood.
Yet food at work is too often seen as a financial afterthought by employers and is a missed opportunity to increase productivity and morale. Staff restaurants typically offer unhealthy selections while vending machines are stocked with sugary and fatty snacks.
Employers’ workplace programmes focus on wellness – getting people fitter – and how healthy employees take less time off work.
But ensuring your employees are eating the right foods is about increasing productivity, making sure that that employees are not only at work, but fully engaged, energised and mentally focused on the task in hand.
And there is plenty of research to back this up. According to a Vielife study of 15,000 people in the UK and US, employees with poor nutritional balance reported 21% more sick-related absence and 11% lower productivity than healthier colleagues.
Another research project showed that the most healthy quartile of the workforce is seven hours more productive a week than the least healthy quartile. Yet another study, this time by the International Labour Office, revealed that poor diet on the job costs countries around the world up to 20% in lost productivity, either due to malnutrition or excess weight.
The study, titled Food at Work: Workplace Solutions for Malnutrition, Obesity and Chronic Diseases, says better nutrition in the workplace can raise national productivity rates, while workplace meal programmes can prevent micronutrient deficiencies and chronic diseases such as obesity.
Such programmes require only modest investments, which can be repaid through a reduction in sick days and accidents.
The message is clear. A mind made sluggish by a high-carb lunch washed down with sugary drinks will make more mistakes, have lower output and less innovation.
Company bosses, working with catering managers, are in a unique position to make a positive contribution to a company’s fitness to compete.
And if you’re going to embrace the idea, then start by looking at what you’re currently offering employees. Water consumption is an easy win as there has been so much press attention around dehydration.
A 2% reduction in hydration reduces concentration levels by between 10–25%, which can have a dramatic impact on someone’s work. According to the NHS, we should drink about 1.2 litres of fluid every day and all non-alcoholic drinks count, but water, milk and fruit juice are the healthiest.
Fizzy water is also a great way to wean people off fizzy, sugary drinks – they feel they’re getting something special.
Then turn to the food. Western diets contain too much saturated fat and sugar, which encourages obesity and heart disease and makes us feel sluggish at work.
Consider replacing meals high in carbs such as potatoes, rice and pasta with lighter, high-protein alternatives such as beans and soups; while egg, tuna, turkey, chicken and cuttlefish make excellent nutritious salads using a wide range of vegetables, especially red-leaf varieties.
Use wholegrain alternatives for pasta, rice and bread as they contain more fibre and make people feel fuller for longer. Consider offering more fish (the NHS recommends people eat at east two portions a week) as there are direct scientific links between a diet high in fish (and the vitamin Omega 3) and people’s IQ, motor and social skills, and ability to counteract depression.
Don’t forget vending machines. Just as junk food content has been banned in schools since 2006, it makes sense for employers to follow suit and provide smoothies, juices, packets of nuts, dried fruit, seeds, yogurt/granola/fruit bars or low-sugar cereal bars instead of salty crisps and sweets.
Even the food you provide in meeting rooms can make a difference to both employee health and your corporate reputation. Ditch the meeting room biscuits and cakes and consider stylish graze boxes containing dried fruits, nuts and seeds.
Or, for companies with bigger budgets, offer fresh fruit and crudités with healthy dips such as hummus. It will become a talking point for visitors.
A healthy eating and living programme is not going to make an instant body shape difference. Most nutritionists recommend trying a new diet or lifestyle for around three months before making any judgements about its success.
Consider doing an anonymous pre-programme questionnaire about people’s lifestyles, diets, and even weight and fitness levels and then repeating the survey after three months, six months, 12 months and then yearly to get a view of how people’s lifestyle has changed and continues to develop.
There may also be some interesting correlations in their views about the organisation as a result. However, it must be emphasised that small changes in sugar reduction and increasing hydration have almost instant mental and well-being benefits.
With the research available, caterers and employers really can’t afford to ignore the business imperative – the impact on the bottom line – of putting this theory into practice. But remember, balance is everything.
Too many nutrition programmes are a turn off. The nutritionist Amanda Ursell says that they “shouldn’t be about wholemeal carrots, stone-ground eggs and free-range bread”.
Lettuce and cottage cheese have their place, but the occasional slice of “what you fancy” with a cappuccino can give people a caffeine boost and provide great mental and physical results. Naughty can be good.