Office coffee is serious stuff. Without it we would have no real reason to be talking to you today. One of the things that we often forget about in the realm of office coffee is the humble office coffee maker, and overlooking its critical function in your successful break room is a huge mistake. Today we are going to take a look at four ways that office coffee machines quite literally run your office without you even knowing what they are doing.
1. Threats to Success
The first thing you need to understand about your office coffee machines is that they are capable of ruining your business. While “ruin” might seem like a strong word, consider the following scenarios:
- Defective equipment: an office coffee maker that malfunctions can cause a flood in the break room, scald or burn one of your workplace colleagues or burn the whole place to the ground. That might seem dramatic, but the reality of mixing electricity and water is that danger is present – so it is imperative that you are working with an office coffee service that has a solid agreement to maintain and repair your coffee gear.
- Slow brewing: office coffee is best served fresh, so having to stand around waiting for a cup of joe is fairly common. However, waiting too long makes people feisty, and there is little that ruins that 11 o’clock meeting faster than having a bunch of grumpy folks show up without coffee because no one wants to be last in the door. Finding office coffee machines that provide an appropriate amount of coffee on demand is vital for a smooth flow of traffic through the break room area.
- The ick factor: outdated coffee machines can still be a great asset for your teams, but a crusty old glass carafe that sits in the corner of the break room with spider webs as its only real friends is just gross. Consider updating your older equipment if it looks (and functions) less than it did in its prime.
Just three examples from many that should serve as evidence of the importance of an appropriate, well-maintained office coffee system for your firm.
2. Creating Collaboration
On the up side, office coffee machines lay the framework for teams working together behind the scenes. The cool thing about a well-stocked break room is that people from across your company are going to want to use it. And the centerpiece of any decent break room is, for better or worse, the office coffee maker.
Creating an oasis of calm in the face of deadlines, a pocket of inspiration to motivate everyone on a slow Monday and a place where people choose to linger fosters an overall climate of openness. And openness breeds communication, which leads to better understanding both within and between teams across the board.
The best part of this is that by providing great beverages, your office coffee machines are setting the stage for collaboration by giving your teams a reason to engage with one another.
3. Fostering Engagement
Collaboration is bonus that office coffee machines can provide, especially for larger companies. But more than this, the interaction provided by great office coffee serves a silent mission that keeps your people engaged in their workplace.
When people don’t need to run down the road and grab coffee for meetings, or delay their arrival in the office so they can stop on their way to work to get the caffeine they crave to kick the day off right, they have more time to spend actually doing their jobs – and they know that you value the time they are spending in the workplace. You can use the office coffee system as a platform for engagement by:
- Inviting employees to tasting events.
- Encouraging staff to complete regular surveys about which coffee products they enjoy regularly or look forward to in coming months.
- Keeping the break room stocked with all their favorite things, to encourage staff to linger longer and get to know one another even if their career paths never intersect.
4. Meeting Demands
Whatever business you are in, your company relies on systems that have taken time to cultivate and refine so that everything hums along without a hiccup. Your office coffee machines exist to satisfy the thirst that people you work with and others who visit your office have.
These machines serve the fuel that inspires, propels and sustains your teams through chaos and deadlines. Keeping everything moving forward, for your company’s continued success.
If it is time for your office coffee machines to step out of the shadow and take center stage in your break room, contact the team of experts at Corporate Essentials. We can help you find the ideal machines for the thirst in your workplace.
