An office fruit box delivery, if you don’t have one already, is indispensable for your work place in 2016.
You can see how we offer just that here:
What's important to you (according to your spending habits)?
Your people are important. Your business’ successes (and failures) are down to your team.
What’s more, 90% of a business’ operational costs are spent on staff wages. That means, fundamentally, every business is run on people power.
Every business.
So how your colleagues feel, act and work is of paramount importance and you need to do everything in your power to give them the platform to succeed.
Because their success is your success.
“A table, a chair, a bowl of fruit and a violin; what else does a man need to be happy?
”
So what do you need to do today?
1. Invest in People
Ever looked at Maslow’s hierarchy of needs?
It essentially says that we humans are motivated to achieve more and more. That means we want to keep learning, keep developing, and keep pushing to succeed – or the best of us do anyway.
What sort of people do you want working in your company? Hell, even what sort of people do you want to share a tea with at tea time or a beer with after work?
Fun, interesting, motivated people right?
Well to do that you need to provide an environment for those people to learn, so they can develop. So they can succeed.
Because if you don’t, someone else will.
So make sure you have the basics in place - a clean office, a coffee machine, some comfy chairs and a box of fruit - so when you do provide that opportunity to learn, your people will grab the opportunity with both hands and their feet.
2. Save People Time
“Time is the most valuable thing a man can spend.
”
People value time above all else, and you value your people above all else.
As I’ve already said, that’s why 90% of your business operating cost is spent on your people. You’ve demonstrated their value right there. It’s demonstrable.
So why would you pay them £10, £20, £100 per hour and then send them out queuing at Starbucks to get a coffee? Why would you send them to the local shop to get a chocolate bar come 3pm?
That 10-20 minute time out the office just cost your business a minimum of £3.50 today and £17.50 for the week for a 20k per annum employee. Minimum.
Multiply that by the number of people in the office and that coffee cost starts to get eye-watering.
Why, why, why would you not just provide good coffee and snacks (like that →) for the office?
There's no logic in not doing that.
If you save people time, they’ll simply spend more time doing their work. That brings more value to your company, and helps your business grow.
Oh and they’ll be happier because you’ve just saved them time from schlepping to the shops. Win:Win.
3. Optimise Decision Making
“A healthy mind is a healthy body
”
Researchers have proven we make bad decisions when we’re hungry - in fact we’re 62% likely to get things wrong.
What happens to your stomach come 11am? It grumbles.
What happens to your stomach come 4pm? It rumbles.
What does that mean? You’re hungry.
What happens at both 11am and 4pm? You make decisions.
If it happens to you it happens to others. Don’t let your team go hungry between meals and make sure there is an in-office snack supply to sate them.
I don’t mind if it is a box of celebration chocolates (although given today is today and not 1980 – really?) just as long as there is something. And I’m saying this with my best interests at heart. If you work on a nuclear submarine and you have a decision to make, have a banana first. I don’t want you to press the big red button *by mistake* and start a chain of events that ends up with me dying.
Eat the banana first, save lives.
4. Make People Happy
“The happiness of a man in this life does not consist in the absence but in the mastery of his passions.”
The quote above is a beautiful one, testifying the importance of freeing your company to do what it does well. Whether that be sell insurance, pensions or guacamole, it is never going to be ‘where to buy an apple at 10am on a Thursday’.
Now I’m going to give you three examples of people giving you something first that meant you liked them in return:
1) An old friend gets in contact giving you a pair of free tickets to the theatre tomorrow night. It was unexpected.
2) You’re about to pay for a parking ticket and a leaving stranger gives you their ticket with an hour of unused time on it. It was value adding.
3) Your parents loved you from the moment you were born, so you loved them. It was unconditional.
These three instances demonstrate that paying it forward leaves a lasting impression. To bring this closer to home, how would you feel if I walked into your office with a big box of fruit for everyone or perhaps a crate of beer? You’d smile right?
If you’d smile, tell me: giles@ourhonestfoods.com
So here is an opportunity to invest in your people, save them time, allow them to make better decisions and make them happy.
Not bad for £20 per week...
What do you think about this idea? We'd love to know, good or bad.