What is the ROI of Fresh Fruit
This morning in the office we had this amazing spread of beautiful fresh fruit. Moving from the healthcare industry into the Internet of Things, I immediately think about the productive value of having healthy employees. Healthy employees have more energy and are less likely to call out sick and won’t have to miss a lot of work days because of doctor appointments. But then again, I am still in culture shock. The motives here at BuLogics and StratIS are much simpler.
People like fruit, give them some fruit, that is it.
Why I Am Beating The Skeptic Out Of Myself
I am admittedly skeptical when I see something like this outrageous display of yummy produce. Not in the conspiracy theory sort of way. It is more about trying to figure out what the business advantage is for the company.
My mind wants to reverse engineer it to find the ROI for the employer. Gary Vaynerchuk used to ask people who were hyper focused on ROI, what the ROI of their mother was.
There Are No Holes In A Company Snack Table
I have been working professionally (post college) since the year 2000. I have spent years in traditional cubical farms. I am well versed on the bottom line of business. I have been laid off more than I want to talk about and I climbed my way through one of the worst recessions this country has ever experienced. So, it is embedded in me to look through the perks and try to see the financial motivation behind a beautiful display of fresh fruit. Still it is hard for me to find holes in the value of our company snack table. In simple terms the ROI of treating your employees well is everything!
It’s All About Time And Effort
What most employers don’t get is that in 2016 your employees are extremely busy. They don’t always want to have to run out for snacks or plan ahead and bring them from home.
More importantly employees will give you so much more if they are appreciated and feel that appreciation often.
And sometimes it is as little as having some free bowls of fruit. So if employees get “hangry” during the day, provide them a low cost snack bar. It doesn’t have to be just fruit. Our co-founder Mirka seems to mix it up. Some days it is fresh veggies, crackers and dips, and other days it is bagels. Our leadership team are experts in time management. They know the value of saving time and in turn saving their engineers time.
It also helps that our Founder and CTO Ryan set up a subscription to Amazon Fresh, which delivers fresh produce directly to our office.
Occasionally it seems like the the FedEx guy tries to smuggle out some fruit but other than that it is a pretty great system.
As you can see, the fruit today went pretty fast, although we do need to step up our blueberry consumption.
Let’s Consider The Alternative
For centuries organizations didn’t put much thought into company culture. The majority viewed employees as cogs who should be glad to be employed and receiving a paycheck. They system was broken. Clearly this does not work when you want to empower some of the most creative minds in the country. According to Wikipedia the term company culture started appearing in the late 1980s and early 1990s. Corporate culture was already used by managers, sociologists, and organizational theorists by the beginning of the 80s.
More To Explore
There are many things about this office and culture that my mind has not been able to process yet, and I kind of like that. It is like exploring a completely new way of doing things. Traditional work environments just haven’t worked for me. I think it took me working in traditional offices during my entire 20s and early 30s for me to finally realize what I craved in a work culture. I am jealous of our young engineers right out of school who only know this world. Anyway, I look forward to exploring all of the things that make this work culture the most unique that I have ever entered.
If you are an interested in working with us, shoot me an email at jim@stratisems.com
