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Employee Engagement Ideas: The Power of an Office Potluck
By: Benefits by Design | Tuesday March 26, 2019
Updated : Wednesday August 19, 2020
Here’s a quick riddle for you: what’s the one thing that all people partake in, but few rarely agree on?
Food! (Okay, it’s a bad riddle, but we’re in insurance — not professional riddling!)
The point is that everyone loves food. Hosting an office potluck can work wonders for your organization and your employees (not to mention taste delicious). Here are three ways office potlucks bring people together and make work better:
#1. A Potluck Increases Employee Engagement
Hosting an office potluck lunch brings people together in more ways than one. Of course, everyone gathers together to eat all of the delicious food. But it also allows people to exchange ideas and talk to one another, and that’s proven to increase employee engagement and job satisfaction.
A potluck will also provide employees with a nice break from work and allow them to be social, both of which are proven to improve relationships and boost business outcomes.
At Benefits by Design (BBD) Inc., our committees organize our potlucks. They focus on activities and initiatives to bring health and wellness to our workplace!
#2. Opportunity for Employees to be Creative
The purpose of a potluck is to have each participant contribute something different to round out the meal. Doubling up on meals is usually avoided (can you imagine a potluck where everyone just brings a bag of chips?), so potlucks with many participants leads to some pretty creative dishes.
Employees can dive in and explore a passion for cooking or baking and create something unique! We’ve had a solar eclipse cake, a camping-themed birthday cake, a Halloween salami-stuffed skeleton, and much, much more!
#3. They Introduce Employees to New Ideas and Allows them to be Creative
When it comes to an office potluck, you never know what might be on the table. Giving employees a place to share their favourite dishes is great for bonding! We have an entire discussion thread on our employee intranet, Jostle, that is dedicated to sharing new and healthy recipes!
Encouraging social activities allows employees to express their creativity (for example, we’ve had themed potlucks in the past) and puts new ideas in their head.
Whether your workplace is small or large, office potlucks are a chance to bring people together to partake in something everyone can enjoy – eating delicious food! The planning that goes into them encourages employees to work together, coordinate dishes, and ultimately increases their engagement and job satisfaction.
A Social Committee (like the one that plans our potlucks) can work wonders for a business.
Check out how a social committee makes business better!
