The office coffee system that your NYC company uses is a vital system for better or for worse. Your teams rely on the break room for refreshment, relaxation and stimulation; your management relies on the break room to provide a sense of community and character that serves as the foundation for your office culture.
What we are saying is: choosing the right office coffee system is kind of a big deal. If you have been charged with coming up with a new office coffee system for your NYC office, have no fear. The coffee experts at Corporate Essentials are here today to channel almost two decades of experience into helping you build an amazing break room for your staff to enjoy.
Talk to Your Team
The number one piece of advice we give time and again is simple: talk. Coffee preferences are as diverse as the people in your workplace – and for your new office coffee system to be adored by the masses, it has to cater to all those tastes. The best way to be sure that happens is to learn your employees’ coffee habits.
Do this passively by keeping an eye on the kind of beverages you see team members bringing into the building, counting the number of carry out drink trays you see hustling into the meeting rooms before a big presentation and keeping tabs on drink trends you notice among your coworkers. More importantly, seek out the information actively by conducting a company-wide survey to ask people:
- What kind of coffee they like?
- How much coffee they drink in an average day?
- What additives do they need to make a great drink?
- What seasonal coffee beverages do they look forward to most?
- What non-coffee products would they like to see in a break room?
The answers may surprise you, particularly where non-coffee products are concerned. All too often we ignore the simple pleasure of water or tea when trying to specify an office coffee system. NYC workers drink a lot of coffee – studies estimate around 63% of those in New York’s work force have at least one cup every day.
Switch it Up
While it is great that you lay a solid foundation for the coffee system in your NYC office by surveying your teams to find their favorite items, the next thing you have to consider in terms of your office coffee menu is the essential component of variety. One great way to be sure your office coffee system keeps working to satisfy the demand of your thirsty workers is to continue asking your teams what they like throughout the year.
Consulting with your office coffee system supplier is a great way to get a heads up on any trending beverages, but asking your teams what seasonal menu items they are most looking forward to in local cafes is a superb way to be certain you are catering to their needs. During your initial surveys, ask people if they would be interested in joining forces to create a “caffeine hit squad” and be contacted on an ongoing basis to help you choose from new and occasional offerings by your office coffee service.
Again, involving people from across a selection of teams around your firm will encourage them to work together in this new, fun adventure while giving them both a buy-in to the success of the break room area and an opportunity to be a valued contributor to the overall success of your new-found corporate coffee culture.
Choose Your Brewer Wisely
One of the biggest mistakes the Corporate Essentials coffee gurus see in floundering office coffee systems is a poorly chosen office coffee maker. The number one goal of a well-stocked break room is to provide excellent office coffee and related beverages, snacks and treats to the teams who work so diligently to make your company a success.
Choosing a coffee machine that only caters to a few people’s needs is a big mistake. Consider the beverages people in your office enjoy and evaluate the best way to provide those beverages with high-quality equipment that was built to stand up to the battery of abuse an office coffee maker must endure over time. If your teams are packed with former baristas hell bent on brewing beautiful lattes with birds laced into the micro foam, then an espresso machine is a great option for your business – and if we are honest, we are more than a little jealous.
For the rest of us, finding a machine that can serve a lot of different drinks to a wide variety of people is vital, and that is where single-serve brewers can take a lot of the guess work out of the office coffee system puzzle. Key points to consider when choosing your office coffee maker include:
- Amount of coffee consumed in a given day.
- Types of coffee consumed by staff.
- Other beverages enjoyed by staff.
- Coffee gear “savvy” staff.
- Need to cater for crowds.
This is definitely an area where the help of a seasoned coffee professional can smooth out the kinks and make specifying your office coffee system a simpler process. Whether your company is small and requires a single multi-purpose machine or you work for a massive firm that needs an assortment of single-serve, whole-pot and custom beverage brewers, the good news is there are plenty of options available.
Bring it All to the Table
The beauty of a truly well-stocked break room is that it brings your teams together for more than just a cup of Joe. Your teams build a sense of community, camaraderie and collaboration that may otherwise not exist – particularly in larger companies where teams from different departments rarely work together on projects. We have discussed adding non-coffee beverages before, but what is the point of tea without cake?
A great office coffee system will provide beverages as well as nourishing treats and satisfying snacks – perhaps a selection of fresh fruits or locally baked delights will suit your team, or maybe having a selection of high-protein ready-made snacks is more your style. Whatever recipe for success your business may wish to follow, the ingredients should be available in the portfolio of high-quality products offered by your office coffee service.
The overriding factor in all of this is creating a sense of community around the office coffee system in your NYC office. By engaging your staff from start to finish when gathering the specifics and finding a way to continually engage those people, you are setting your NYC office up for success by creating the best office coffee system in town.
When you are ready to make your NYC office coffee system dream a reality, reach out to the team of coffee system experts at Corporate Essentials. We have close to 20 years experience in making office coffee system dreams a reality.
