Elevating Employee Experience with Exceptional Meal Card Benefits
Food is an integral part of everyone’s day to day lives, without a doubt. Everyone loves good food. Food can have a lot of control over one’s mood and day. Missing meals makes people very frustrated sometimes. One bad meal, and your whole day can be ruined. People don’t realise just how much of a hold food has over them.
Therefore, providing working professionals with meal card benefits can really elevate their experience as employees in a company. There are various other benefits also which are provided by employers to ensure that their employees are satisfied with their jobs. Some of these benefits are housing loans, paid leave, telecommunication expense reimbursements, fuel reimbursements, driver’s salary allowance, other transport expense allowance/reimbursements and insurance.
Why is this important? If employees don’t feel like they are valued, they will not want to work. Oftentimes, employees accept job offers reluctantly due to the urgent work or income requirement they might have. However, these people do not end up performing very well due to the unsatisfactory terms of the job or dissatisfaction with their work environment. Employees need to feel welcome and appreciated in order to be able to give their best to the company and do their best. If this is achieved, the employer and employees together can take the company to greater heights.
Key takeaways from this article: Importance should be given to employee experience as they are the backbone of any company. Meal card benefits are a very promising way to do so and hence should be provided to all employees by their employers. Meal cards ensure employee well being and social interaction making the employees feel cared for and valued, and elevating their experience at the company, overall.
Food is something that people often end up compromising on. This could be due to deadlines, meetings that go on a little longer than expected, unmanageable workload, not enough time to cook and carry home cooked food to one’s workplace etc. This is where meal card benefits come into the picture.
What are meal card benefits?
A meal card refers to an electronic card that is provided to employees by their company, which allows them to eat meals at discounted rates. Meal cards allow employees to eat at select restaurants and cafes. More recently, meal cards have also become available through mobile apps like Pluxee. They are extremely convenient to use and are a hassle-free way to have access to food near or at your workplace, without burning a hole in your pocket.
Meal card benefits are slowly but surely becoming the norm in most corporations. They are a kind of voluntary benefit, meaning that it is up to the employer to decide whether employees are given this benefit or not. It is a nice way to make employees feel looked after and appreciated. Since the pandemic, there has been increased awareness and focus on physical health, mental health and work-life balance. Meal cards are one of the many benefits that facilitate these things.
Read more about Pluxee’s meal card here-
Did you know? According to a Gallup study, companies with engaged employees find a difference of 81% in absenteeism, and 14% in productivity, among other positive performance outcomes.
Here’s how introducing meal card benefits can help elevate employee experience in your company-
Meal cards enhance work life balance
While people often end up skipping meals or eating their meals very late due to their work load, meal cards encourage people to eat on time and also to eat healthy food and take care of their health, overall. Meal cards may also encourage people to get out of office and breathe in some much-needed fresh air, or at least to get up from their desks and go socialize. All these activities have a positive effect on one’s mental and physical well-being.
Meal card benefits can increase productivity
Having delicious meals available at discounted prices is a great incentive for employees to work hard and feel welcomed. Additionally, food plays a major role in determining one’s energy levels throughout the day. It acts as fuel for the body. Employees who are well-fed are naturally more attentive, energetic and perform their best. Lack of proper food leads to poor concentration, fatigue and as a result less effective performance as well. Meal card benefits ensure fresh meals on time for all employees. They are beneficial to both the employees as well as to the employer.
Meal cards promote health and well-being of the employees
If employees feel like they are cared for, they will be happy. Happy employees will naturally enjoy their work and work environment more. Meal cards ensure healthy, fresh meals are available to all employees therefore promoting and emphasizing the importance of health and well-being. They also increase employee retention rates.
Meal card benefits can foster social connection
Food is a universal language! It fosters social connection and team bonding. At work, lunch breaks are a very important part of the day. They can be the respite that is needed from working continuously all morning. They act as stress busters and as a form of motivation as they are an indication that the employee has made it through half of the work day. With meal voucher benefits, it’s more likely that the employees collectively go to purchase their food or even sit together in the company canteen and eat. Shared meals create more opportunities for people to mingle, chat and bond. This does not always happen if everyone brings their individual meals from their own houses.
While people often end up skipping meals or eating their meals very late due to their work load, meal cards encourage people to eat on time and also to eat healthy food and take care of their health, overall. Meal cards may also encourage people to get out of office and breathe in some much-needed fresh air, or at least to get up from their desks and go socialize. All these activities have a positive effect on one’s mental and physical well-being.
All these factors contribute to an employee’s experience in a company and also determine whether it is a pleasant one or not. It is very important for employers to make sure their employees have a good experience while working for their company and meal card benefits are one of the many ways to do so and elevate employee experience overall! Instead of meal cards – you can also use a combination of meal cards & passes.