Right here’s a riddle for you: I’ve the ability to make your workers extra productive, much less careworn, and happier with their work. What am I?
When you guessed “the workplace break room”—perhaps as a result of the title of this text gave it away—you then’re proper! A 2023 survey of 10,000 employees discovered that individuals who take breaks through the workday are:
62% happier with their work-life steadiness
43% extra profitable at managing stress
43% extra glad with their work surroundings
13% extra productive
To encourage these breaks and get these advantages, you want a break room that beckons employees away from their desks. Fortunately, creating one is fairly easy. We spoke to 2 professionals, every with greater than a decade of expertise within the break room provide business, they usually instructed us you possibly can construct an awesome workplace break room in simply 4 steps.
Step 1: Let the Gentle In
Debbie Robe works as a enterprise growth supervisor for The FruitGuys and visits dozens of company break rooms yearly to speak about farm-fresh fruit and snack supply. “The very best break rooms,” she stated, “are those that really feel spacious and ethereal, with loads of pure gentle.”
Staff agree. In keeping with a ballot of greater than 1,600 workers, “entry to pure gentle and views of the outside” is the No. 1 perk an workplace can provide.
Home windows, skylights, and glass doorways are nice methods to deliver sunshine into the break room. If pure gentle isn’t an choice, strive utilizing synthetic lighting with a shade temperature that mimics the sunshine outside (you could find one lighting firm’s advice right here).
Step 2: Provide the Snacks
Research present that consuming at work helps workers really feel extra energized, centered, and productive. Snacks like recent fruit, protein bars, and both beef or plant-based jerky don’t have to be refrigerated, however they will nonetheless entice employees and encourage them to loosen up and join.
“The break room ought to be an area the place workers can come collectively to have informal conversations. Meals does that: It creates an surroundings the place individuals need to join and take a break,” Robe stated.
In keeping with Robe, the very best break rooms really feel like properties: half lounge, half well-stocked kitchen. The meals ought to be free, plentiful, and organized in drawers or engaging shows. Simply attempt to keep away from making issues too organized—an excessively tidy area can lose its inviting environment and begin to really feel extra like a retailer.
“Lots of the break rooms I see have moved away from merchandising machines. Now all the things is obtainable totally free, identical to it will be in somebody’s residence,” Robe stated. “Corporations must also pay attention to those that have completely different meals wants, allergic reactions, or preferences. The suitable workplace break room gives one thing for everyone.”
Step 3: Ship the Drinks
Workplace water coolers have lengthy been a go-to place for workers to assemble, so it’s no shock drinks are nonetheless a break room important.
“Corporations are recognizing the affect of progressive espresso and water gear,” stated Daniel Kim, an enterprise account govt on the Good Water Cooler designer Bevi. “These options are now not only a perk—they’re a key driver of worker well being and a lowered environmental footprint.”
Kim has greater than eleven years of expertise within the beverage area, so he is aware of what employees search for. He recommends places of work begin with foundational drinks like water and occasional. Then, take into account bonus drinks like glowing water, sizzling chocolate, kombucha, chilly brew, and extra.
You’ll be able to cut back waste and muddle by swapping in a water dispenser and huge drip espresso or espresso machine for single-use bottles and pods. Some water dispensers, just like the standing and countertop fashions from Bevi, may even get rid of the necessity for normal bottled water and different bottled and canned drinks like seltzer, power drinks, and flavored waters.
Staff can add flavors and “enhancements,” like nutritional vitamins and electrolytes, into their water with a fast faucet on the dispenser’s display. They will additionally change the water temperature and carbonate their beverage.
In keeping with The Mayo Clinic, “even delicate dehydration can drain your power and make you drained,” so giving your workforce loads of methods to hydrate is vital for his or her well being and their productiveness.
Step 4: Create Locations to Collect
Nice break rooms are comfy locations. They’ve cubicles, cafe-style tables, and different furnishings preparations that invite workers to take a seat and loosen up with their coworkers.
“I’ve seen all kinds of seating preparations within the break rooms I’ve visited. A few of them replicate a late-night lounge and others provide numerous swivel chairs, loveseats, and tables,” Robe stated.
A sensible workplace break room design can encourage collaboration and even friendship between coworkers. That’s a win-win as a result of when coworkers develop into mates, they’re extra prone to see each private {and professional} progress. A 2022 report from BetterUp discovered that greater than half of workers need to construct extra connections at work, and nearly 70% need extra alternatives to make these connections. Creating these alternatives begins with one thing as simple as shopping for a desk and chairs!
The Closing End result
Finally, in the case of constructing an awesome break room, Kim finds that much less is extra.
“A practical breakroom with the necessities—a dependable espresso maker and a water dispenser, alongside a few fashionable snacks, whether or not fruits or protein bars—goes a great distance. It’s actually all you want. These couple staples present an escape for workers with out an excessive amount of muddle within the area,” he stated.
In fact, you probably have the finances and workplace area, you possibly can nonetheless take your break room one step additional. Listed here are a couple of methods to make it an much more enjoyable, entertaining, and practical area.
Extra Workplace Break Room Concepts
Go for Greenery
Indoor crops have a stunning variety of well being advantages, they usually’re simple to include into the break room. You can begin small with tabletop crops, or get inventive with a plant wall or artwork items made out of moss.
Add Leisure
“Simply final week, I walked right into a break room the place two colleagues have been standing subsequent to a settee, taking part in Tremendous Mario on a TV display,” Robe recalled.
You’ll be able to deliver enjoyable into your workplace break room with gaming consoles, foosball or air hockey tables, and even TVs displaying firm updates and reminding workers of upcoming occasions. At Bevi headquarters, a TV shows a reside rely of single-use bottles saved by Bevi machines worldwide. Watching this quantity climb—over 500 million this 12 months—motivates workers and reinforces the corporate’s mission as they seize a snack.
Provide Home equipment and Utensils
You can also make your break room really feel much more like a second residence with a fridge, blender, toaster, and utensils for cooking and consuming. This can empower your workforce to make precisely what they’re craving. You’ll additionally get the chance to supply extra wholesome snack selections, like pre-cut veggies, string cheese, exhausting boiled eggs, and hummus packets that have to be refrigerated.
Create Alternatives for Motion & Connection
Final however not least, you possibly can flip your workplace break room right into a sort of playground or occasion area.
“Espresso and snack tastings flip break rooms into enjoyable, collaborative escapes. They offer workers a medium to supply suggestions and act as a enjoyable approach for HR to conduct a survey of which drinks and snacks their workforce likes greatest,” Kim stated.
The FruitGuys typically hosts fruit and snack tastings for its shoppers, and Robe has seen firms brainstorm different methods to construct connections, too. One break room she visited had an Airstream trailer parked inside shelling out drinks for an workplace comfortable hour. One other featured a multi-story slide that allow employees play like youngsters once more.
“A break room ought to be a spot the place you possibly can both transfer your physique or loosen up your physique,” she stated. “It ought to be someplace that you would be able to take an actual break.”
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