Ask HN: Do you provide meals for your employees? | Hacker News Reader

Ask HN: Do you provide meals for your employees?

3 pointssgringwe4 comments

We are a small startup that is just about to incorporate. We are starting the process of bringing on a few employees for ~5 employees total. A big question we are trying to answer is whether or not to provide meals for employees, with the goal of course to increase productivity and time spent in office.

Does your startup provide meals? Which meals and how often? Have you found it to be successful and worth the cost?

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I own a small Drupal development shop in Minneapolis. I have 7 employees, and we recently started being more Agile than we used to be, which means we have a scrum at 9:30am every day. In the past, people came in whenever they felt like it. Now that people are in earlier, my wife actually had the great idea to have a breakfast bar available to everyone. So, we got a bar fridge in addition to the office fridge we already have, dried fruit, organic granola, yoghurt, fresh fruit, bran, flax, jam, and more and we keep it stocked. Everyone is welcome to have any amount from the breakfast nook in the mornings as they want, and we've been figuring out what people like and adjusting the contents. I think it's working out well -- people don't have to worry about eating before getting into the office, they can just do that when they get in, usually it's after the scrum.

Here's our breakfast nook: http://instagram.com/p/fqkYtYhnqe/

I work for a startup that provides lunch for employees. I can't speak about the employer's perspective, but from an employee's standpoint, it is SUCH a nice benefit. Not only is it one less expense you have to deal with, but it's one less thing you have to plan for. And, as an added benefit, it's indirect compensation that the employee doesn't have to pay taxes on. So, let's say the employer spends $8 a head for catered lunch. If that $8 instead went toward my salary, I would see maybe $5 of it, and the lunch I could buy for $8 wouldn't even be equal to the lunch I get, because of economies of scale. So, yeah, from the employee's perspective, it's a great idea.

EDIT: Er ... actually, the tax status of these lunches might not be so cut and dry: http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2013/04/08/google-facebook-lun...

How would you measure if it's worth it?

- As of now, no but I plan on providing brunch for them.

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