Team lunch has become an effective antidote to mid-week blues and how!
Corporates are going the extra mile to encourage lively team lunch breaks on a frequent or regular basis. Besides fuelling employees to work productively, the lunch sessions promote team engagement and prompt resolution of workplace conflicts. Be it within the office premises or outdoors, this short break enlivens and lightens up the work environment and fosters a genuine desire among team members to come together and connect.
Why team lunches should be prioritised across different industries?
Provide a Scope for Professional Networking
As team members from different departments gather together and share meals, they actively partake in networking. Lunch is rather a non-intrusive way to make employees feel at ease and interact without reeling under the pressure of doing so. Many organisations plan elaborate events to forge bonding, and sometimes the entirety becomes superficial and awkward. But with a semi-formal lunch setting, colleagues would know each other on a more personal level.
Increase Productivity
Healthier than a sugar rush or caffeine addiction, the positive experience of having a pleasant luncheon not merely increases productivity but allows employees to recharge. This refuelling increases cognitive functions. In a nutshell, employees are rewarded with positive interpersonal connection and an effective way to recharge themselves without feeling guilty about wasting away time.
Promote a Sense of Health and Well-Being
Eating alone at personal desks or silos with anxious thoughts running amok in one’s mind or doing away with lunch altogether to complete work is never healthy and, in fact, leads to fatigue, headaches and stomach ailments. With a designated lunch hour with peers, employees could be comfortable and relaxed—fully savouring the meal. Even if some choose not to engage in conversation, the entirety of this lunch setting is therapeutic for one and all. For many creative souls, it is a getaway to brief interludes of fun.
Facilitate Company Culture
Lunch meetings invoke a sense of belonging and camaraderie. They allow a positive and inclusive workplace culture. For new joinees, this hour is crucial to help them come out of their shell and mingle. In the long run, employees develop morale and confidence to collaborate and interact with different teams and work together. Cultivating such workplace practices is synonymous with making employees intrinsically happy and retaining the best talent.
Once in a while, short activities such as live music, stand-up comic or karaoke could do away with the lunchtime monotony and boost engagement.
