Forkable | Blog Blog

Lunch is a necessary part of the workday, and can be an efficient way to sneak team building in. A Harvard study of firefighters found that eating lunch together was not only great for team building, but also improved work performance significantly. Firefighters’ collaborative behaviors as much as doubled when their team ate lunch together versus when they ate separately.

Whether to improve morale or as a perk to drive employee retention, offering in-office team lunches just makes sense. That said, having an admin spend up to an hour every day organizing lunch cuts into that efficiency win in a big way.

Don’t do it the old fashioned way – automate. There’s an AI solution for everything these days, from the most complicated business processes to the most menial, day-to-day tasks. Lunch is no different. When companies choose automated lunch services over traditional catering, the companies save money, their employees save time, and productivity increases. 

With Forkable, there’s no admin legwork for lunch. Employees have individual accounts to which they add their food preferences during account setup. Forkable’s lunch bot takes it from there. The application’s lunch bot uses each employee’s food preferences to select the perfect meal for that individual from a pool of high-quality restaurants. Orders are placed, food is prepared, and lunches are delivered to the office all at the same time, individually packaged and labeled. The entire office lunch process is fully automated, giving that time back to the admin for more profitable activities. If an employee ever has a hankering for a specific dish, it’s easy for them to override the suggested lunch through their account.

If you’re considering shifting from your traditional office caterer to an automated food service, and want to know exactly what you’ve been missing, we’ve got your back. Here are five awesome things that an automated office lunch service like Forkable can do for your team.

1. It keeps the cost down

With traditional buffet-style catering, it’s difficult to know how much food to order. With travel, sick days, and work from home options, employees are in and out of the office on irregular schedules. In many cases, offices over order with buffet catering and end up paying for food they don’t need. Forkable, on the other hand, will adjust the daily orders to the exact number of employees in the office each day. Companies only pay for employees that are actually in the office and need a meal, so there’s no risk of over ordering, nothing goes to waste, and everybody’s happy.

2. It saves you time

Ordering lunch is a major time suck for admins. Automated office lunch services eliminate the time spent coordinating office lunches and reclaim that time for admins. They no longer have to do any planning, hunt down anyone’s order, or tiptoe around a laundry list of dietary restrictions and allergies. These basic (but tedious) tasks are automated by Forkable, allowing them to focus on other parts of their job. It’s an efficiency hack.

3.  Employees will never run out of food options

Forkable partners with thousands of restaurants, ranging from local mom and pop shops to beloved nationwide chains. Customers enjoy more options, including restaurants not in the line-up of other on-demand food delivery services. With the meticulously curated and unmatched variety of restaurants available, employees can choose to explore new cuisines, indulge in old favorites, or do a bit of both. There’s never a shortage of options, and all meals are of the highest quality.

4. You don’t have to worry about food quality 

When Forkable suggests meals, it only shows the highest-rated restaurants as options. Its algorithm automatically removes anything with low ratings, so users are presented with only the best food items from the highest rated local restaurants. This results in an improvement in the overall food quality of office lunches and, in turn, an improvement in employees’ lunch experiences.

5. It encourages healthy eating

Countless studies show that one of the hardest things about sticking to a healthy eating plan is decision exhaustion. We all make thousands of decisions every day, from what socks to wear to how to word an email, and our willpower gets used up as the days wear on. With Forkable, you can plan ahead for an entire week’s lunches at once, when you’re not hangry, and consciously select wholesome lunches for future you to benefit from. This reduces the chance of cravings making you pick something unhealthy.

Still too much willpower involved? Alternately, you can set your food preferences such that the algorithm only suggests healthy meals for you. You don’t have to make a single food choice, our algorithm will keep you fit.

Whether you’re concerned about health, productivity, variety, or workplace satisfaction, there are countless reasons to introduce automated lunch services to your office. Schedule a Forkable trial for your team! We’re all about simplicity, not contracts, so you’re always welcome to start and stop service as you like.