Ordering meals for corporate events can be challenging. Also, as a company admin or HR officer, you will understand that it can be difficult to find a corporate catering service that will delight your clients and guests at friendly prices.
However, knowing what corporate catering is and what to expect of it can make your work easier when you are in need of the service. Moreso, you’ll find providing food and drinks for your organization less tasking when you have an inert knowledge about corporate catering.
Hence, understanding how it works, what corporate catering is, the types, and how it can benefit your company would come easily to you by the time you’re done reading this article.
What Is Corporate Catering?
Corporate catering is the business of providing food and drinks to employees, clients, and guests of a company. It might be during an event, a long meeting, or training while some organizations, provide food for their staff daily.
Furthermore, the job of organizing corporate catering services usually falls on the company’s admin or HR officer.
SEE: Acme Catering Corporate Packages
How Does Corporate Catering Work?
Usually, the company employs the service of a catering firm. The firm may then send a specialist caterer to the company’s premises to collect the orders of every employee or the order can be collected online. Moreso, the time of delivery or preferably pick-up would be discussed.
However, most catering services demand that you order in advance for 12 to 24 hours. Also, not all catering services have corporate catering menus but they can offer their regular menus to companies.
SEE: How Does McDonald’s Catering Work Do
Types Of Corporate Catering
Different caterers offer different catering options, but there are some common patterns you will notice. Hence, the five common types of catering:
1. Buffet style
This corporate catering service style involves offering different varieties of food in large trays and metallic pots. The pots are arranged in a line with a serving spoon in each pot.
Then, the employees come with a plate and serve themselves whatever food they desire, just like at a buffet. Usually, the pot is heated from below to keep the food constantly warm during service time or events.
However, this style of service often saves costs for large groups where individual orders or platters would be too expensive or override the company’s budget. Acme catering for instance offers buffet packages.
2. Individual orders
Here, each company’s employee submits an order to the office admin or HR officer. The office admin then collates and sends it to the caterer or restaurant. who delivers everyone pacakage at once.
Also, they do this through a standard restaurant or caterer delivery service. You can also use a food delivery app instead of a dedicated corporate catering service. See Zaxby’s catering and Dickey’s bbq individual order packages.
3. Food truck
Some organizations have a limited amount of space on the premises and this makes it impossible to offer buffets services.
Hence, the food truck corporate catering option becomes the most sensible option at hand. This form of service involves a food truck company or a restaurant using a food truck to transport the food close to the company premises without necessarily entering.
Moreover, the company usually books the entire truck while employees pick up their orders conveniently. Taco cart catering is a perfect example.
SEE: Essentials For Starting A Mobile Catering Business
4. Platters
This type of corporate catering service involves offering a tray of food which usually contains the main dish and side dishes served together on one plate. Moreover, you can find platters of just about anything.
Moreso, this platter might contain 20 hamburgers of three types that you can choose from, a variety of sides, or a handful of desserts and this usually gives the company a choice of some sort to get meals for their employees at a reasonable price.
5. Pop-up restaurant
In this style of catering, a caterer or two to three representatives from the restaurant comes to the company premises to get individual orders and then comes back to deliver the food.
Therefore, upon the arrival of the food at the company’s premises, the employees then decide on where to eat the food. At this, no employee has to leave the organization’s premises.
Moreso, this style of corporate catering is not much different from being at a restaurant as the employees love to have their food together which gives it a restaurant-like gathering, hence the name pop-up restaurant.
How Corporate Catering Can Benefit Your Company
There are several benefits of corporate catering to your company and employees. Some of these benefits are:
1. Time-saving
Corporate catering saves so much time that employees can channel their time and effort to other important matters of the company. Through corporate catering, the employees have no need to leave the company premises and this does away with the likelihood of employees getting stuck in traffic while returning from lunch.
Moreso, when having meetings or training, instead of breaking for hours so everyone can go grab their lunch, you can break for a few minutes and continue on while people are finishing up.
Furthermore, asides from corporate catering saving time, you also save cost. When you buy food in bulk, it comes at a discounted market price, and this wouldn’t have been possible if the company had just given out lunch allowances to each employee.
2. Improved staff productivity
While eating together, presents the employees an opportunity to catch up and exchange ideas. Moreso, during the course of interaction, they might have some useful conversations over lunch which in turn improves their productivity.
Besides, what could possibly spark more energy in an employee than a place of deliciously served meals? Research findings have made it known that a company that offers its employees food has more productivity output than those that don’t offer it at all.
SEE: Proven Ways To Improve Employee Performance
3. Improved recruiting and retention
In this time and age when benefits are getting cut left and right, even a benefit as small as a simple lunch can make a big difference to potential employees.
Practically speaking, most employees will choose an organization that offers a decent salary plus free perks and treats from time to time over those that offer only salaries.
Furthermore, when employees are made to feel valued even with a simple meal, they are less likely to leave the company. Moreso, providing your employees with a meal is one great way of showing that you appreciate and care about them.
4. It’s good for the company’s culture
The top companies in the world place a strong emphasis on supporting their employees, meeting employees’ needs, and fostering community. Funny as it sounds, there might be no better way to do that than by providing meals for your staff.
Moreover, eating together is a big part of the human experience and this is an essential way of building community even in your organization. People tend to build stronger bonds and get to know each other as they get to talk while eating lunch.
Furthermore, the atmosphere created while enjoying a plate of meals is less formal and people tend to be freer with sharing their ideas when they know that there’s no pressure and this sparks their creativity.
SEE: Meaning, Importance, And Types Of Work Culture
5. Employees love good food
A good meal brightens up one’s mood. If after hours of laboring and working, each employee is served a plate of a sumptuous meal, then you have a whole lot to be appreciated. Strength is regained and stress is eased out when you provide your employees with meals.
Moreso, making a day-long meeting a bit more exciting or making it easier to get through a long meeting can also come through good food which the employees love. This doesn’t necessarily have to be daily, occasional meals also have their way of winning the heart of your workers.
FAQs
How do you order corporate catering?
This is very simple. Go online and search corporate catering businesses near you and you will find a lot of options to go with.
How much does corporate catering cost?
There’s no general answer, however, it might cost $5 to $90 per person depending on your catering needs.
Is corporate catering for all events?
No, it isn’t. As the name implies, it is majorly offering food services to a company.
Conclusion
Corporate catering exists to save office admins and HR officers the time and stress of having to provide meals for the company’s employees. It’s even easier getting an online vendor or caterer who offers corporate catering services.
Most restaurants offer corporate catering services. All you have to do is to go online and search for a restaurant that offers this service.
Finally, you should check the article on catering as a business if you desire to establish your own catering brand today.
I hope this article helped. Thanks for reading.
