Earlier this week, we had a post on the findings of the Accounting Principals Workonomix Survey. As we read deeper into this survey, we felt that it would only be right to dedicate at least one more post to it.
When meeting with both current and existing customers, the most important thing we try to stress is these meetings is just how important offering quality coffee is to your employees. Well, this survey actually gives some numbers to quantify just how important.
In the section of the survey titled “Americans love their coffee,” it is revealed that half (50%) of the American workforce buys coffee regularly at work, spending more than $20 a week on coffee, an average of approximately $1,000 a year. They draw the conclusion that better coffee in the workplace might cut back on this expense, due to the fact that nearly one quarter (22%) of American workers wish their company would invest in better coffee in the office. In the survey, younger professionals (18-34) spend almost twice as much on coffee during the week than those 45 and older ($24.74 per week vs. $14.15 per week respectively).
A closer look at exactly who is buying all those caffeinated beverages breaks down like this; 45% of women surveyed said that “(they) did buy coffee throughout the week” and 54% of the men surveyed said the same thing. Men not only buy more coffee than women, but they spend nearly twice as much as their female counterparts ($25.70 vs. $15.00).
When it comes to how employees would like to see their company invest in work-related office improvements, nearly one quarter (22%) of those surveyed specifically answered “coffee.” Once again, it was younger employees leading the way in the push for better office coffee, with 35% saying that they would like to see more money spent on office coffee.
One thing that the survey did not focus on, was the loss of productivity caused when these employees leave the office to get their caffeine fix. When a company upgrades its coffee service, it not only leads to happier employees (as documented in this survey), but more productive ones as well (based on the fact that employees will be staying in the office instead of leaving to buy coffee).
The Workonomix Survey was done by Accounting Principals, and independent organization, and was not funded in any way by Corporate Essentials. Here is some background information, and methodology on the survey:
“Accounting principals polled 1,000 employed Americans about their financial attitudes closing out 2011 and looking forward to 2012. The survey also looked into the amount of people spending money on work-related expenses. the telephone survey was conducted by Braun Research on behalf of Accounting Principals among a nationally representative sample of 1,000 employed Americans aged 18 and older. The survey was fielded between December 22 and December 27, 2011. Results have a margin of error of +/-3.1% at the 95% confidence level.”
