Should you provide tea and coffee at work?

Being a facilities manager, you’ll likely have a lot of different tasks and responsibilities to juggle, and budgets to balance. It’s a hectic but rewarding role where the many decisions you make have a direct impact on the health, happiness and well-being of your team members.

Along with running the office, a small part of your role will be to provide tea, coffee and refreshments. Whilst legally, you don’t actually have to provide these – fresh drinking water is the minimum requirement – most people expect that employers supply tea and coffee-making facilities for free.

So should you provide tea and coffee at work?

The short answer is yes. There are many reasons why supplying these small office perks can greatly impact your team’s overall job satisfaction. Even more so today with the rise in remote and agile working, employers should be aiming to make the workplace as welcoming and accommodating as possible. Let’s take a look at why you should pay attention to these small but mighty perks!

It shows your team you care

Providing free tea and coffee isn’t just about giving out free stuff – it shows your team that you care about them. For many people, their morning cuppa is an important part of their daily routine to kick-start the working day. By providing access to these hot beverages, you’re helping make sure employees feel welcome in the office and have what they need to carry out their job effectively.

It shows you value quality

Along with showing your team that you care, providing quality tea and coffee demonstrates that you value quality too. Think about what it says about your business if you’re expecting your team to make their own tea and coffee, boiling water in an office kettle and using the cheapest instant coffee or tea bags.

If you want to ensure everyone gets the best possible drink, you should consider investing in quality products to support this. So opt for premium-grade tea made using a filtered undercounter hot water tap, and for coffee, invest in a modern bean-to-cup machine. That way, everyone can enjoy fresh and delicious teas, coffees, and other speciality drinks with minimal effort – all at the touch of a button.

It’s important to note that office workers now expect to get the same choice and quality of drinks that they can get in a high street coffee shop in the office. If you’re looking to recreate the barista experience at work, then a bean-to-cup machine will help you to achieve that. Also, you should consider offering a range of milk as more and more people are switching to plant-based dairy alternative milk.

By providing the same drinks you’d find in your local café, you’re also saving your team from forking out lots of cash on fancy coffees, something which they will definitely appreciate.

It can also support talent acquisition and retention

Look, we’re not saying that tea and coffee are going to make your workplace a dream location and ensure your team’s happiness! However, it’s a really simple and affordable office perk that really does make a difference.

You may be surprised to know that just having access to free drinks can help with employee retention. This is because it helps make a positive impression on potential hires during interviews – especially if they get to sample some delicious drinks during the process.

Plus if current staff know their employer provides high-quality office drinks, they may be less likely to look elsewhere for employment too. That means having free drinks onsite could be almost as important as offering competitive wages and other benefits when it comes to attracting top talent these days! But don’t just take our word for it! Statistics prove that:

• 71% of UK workers value office drinks, travel schemes and flexi-hours over pensions
• 75% of employees agree that having high-quality coffee shows that their employer cares for their wellbeing
• 52% of people surveyed like to drink the same beverages at work as those they get in coffee shops

Find out more

While providing quality tea and coffee in the office isn’t absolutely essential for success, it’s certainly worth considering if you want to show your team that you care about them.

Just remember that if you’re going down this route, it pays off to invest in quality machines so everyone can enjoy delicious drinks without any hassle involved in making them. Ultimately, having access to tasty teas and coffees can help boost morale amongst staff and even help with recruitment efforts, so why not give it a try? You can check out our range of undercounter hot water taps and bean-to-cup coffee machines, or just get in touch with our team if you need any advice.