Office Amenities Shouldn’t Break the Bank

Office Amenities Shouldn’t Break the Bank

From a talent retention and recruitment standpoint many organizations have found themselves investing heavily in perks and amenities catered to employee satisfaction.  In addition, companies that rely on client facing interactions often find themselves offering similar perks to their guests and visitors. The purpose of this blog is to provide insight and guidance on how organizations can offer a strong menu of offerings to employees and guests that can boost morale while protecting your bottom line.

Breakroom Essentials 

Just about every office space in the country offers simple amenities such as coffee and water.  In fact, hot coffee and a water cooler for employees is just about as consistent as pen and paper in today’s day and age.  However, many employers simply accept this expense with very little market intelligence and true understanding of the costs and additional benefits associated with these perks.  Historically offices tend to delegate this task to HR or a front of house receptionist to simply order and restock product once inventory starts to decline.  If you’re a large-scale corporation with numerous facilities across the country this practice could be creating quite a sizable dent from an annual expense standpoint.  

The saying “power in numbers” especially holds true within this unique category.  The ability to understand the total value of these small incremental purchases, location-by-location within your company portfolio over the course of a full calendar year can be staggering once fully realized.  More often than not this category is simply treated as a sunken cost in many organizations, when in all actuality there is a lot of flexibility and cost savings opportunity once your purchasing power is realized and out to bid with suitable providers.

When it comes to identifying suitable providers to bid on this opportunity the first key metric to understand is the coverage area and range required to service this category.  The end goal is to hopefully identify a single source capable of providing competitive pricing while also servicing and delivering to your entire portfolio.  Utilizing one supplier capable of satisfying this need enables a streamlined category management and communication process while also opening the door for product standardization company-wide for even greater discounts.

Product consolidation is the next critical piece when it comes to successfully managing this category.  Historically product selection is rogue across the board with brand preferences varying by location.  Leveraging your total annual spend within a select group of standardized products across your entire portfolio will immediately establish strong discounts when compared to the unit price you were originally acquiring similar products at.

Supplier Consolidation Leading to Expansion of Amenities 

If your organization successfully consolidates this category to one awarded supplier, a world of additional value add opportunities and additional perks will be made available to your employees.  In particular, national providers such as Aramark or Sodexo may offer additional services to high volume locations with amenities such as cafes staffed with baristas capable of providing beverages and fresh food options.  

If properly negotiated and discussed with your national provider at the time of contracting, you may be to obtain these perks at no additional cost to your company which would establish a win-win for all parties involved.  Your awarded national provider would establish a small revenue stream within your organization while employees have the added perk of a full-service café just steps from their desk.  This drastically improved food and beverage service offering helps instill strong morale for employees while also establishing greater productivity with food and beverage options housed inside your facility.

In summary, food and beverage amenities provided to your employees are a crucial yet often overlooked expense within many organizations.  If this category is properly managed and effectively consolidated the reward of a strong culture and boost in employee morale can be realized while also managing to obtain significant cost savings.