Need a Helping of Productivity? Bring Back the Family Dinner
In many families, regular dining together is a vague memory left over from watching “Ozzie and Harriet” reruns while downing warmed-up takeout.
But some corporations have decided the family dinner hour is worth preserving.
The theory is that sharing a meal brings families together in more ways than the obvious. Happy families make for happy employees, these employers reason. And happy employees are more productive employees.
Companies are trying to beef up the family dinner in a variety of ways. Most commonly, the company cafeteria sells complete meals that employees can pick up and toss on the table at home. Some try to sneak in a wellness component, making sure the food is low in fat. A few go so far as to teach clueless employees how to cook.
As benefits go, providing food-on-the-run is neither as common nor as treasured as basics such as sick leave. But companies that provide this perk tend to have many other benefits designed with families in mind, including flextime, job sharing and child care.
At the very least, it is a low-cost way to evoke employee goodwill.
The CIGNA insurance company takes the concept seriously, even though the effect on employee productivity and health is difficult to measure, said Roxanne Korostowski, director of employee services for the Philadelphia-based health-care, insurance and financial services company.
“Like many of our work-family programs, we look for things to help keep our employees productive and focused on their jobs,” Korostowski said. Figuring out what to make for dinner is just one more distraction, and providing inexpensive meals to go helps ensure that employees head home a little more relaxed, she said.
“We really do think that you need to get away from the desk and go home to recharge your battery so you can come back the next day and be more productive,” Korostowski said.
To make that happen, CIGNA launched a program three years ago call Family Helper Market. At special kiosks at the company cafeterias at four CIGNA locations, employees can pick up all or part of that night’s dinner on their way out the door. The food can be ordered in bulk for parties, and special orders (birthday cakes, for instance) can be accommodated.
In addition, CIGNA recently began bringing local restaurant chefs to the workplace to teach employees--particularly twentysomethings--how to cook healthy food.
“We recognize that as a result of the changing times, many of our Generation X employees grew up with the absence of a stay-at-home mom and the luxury of family mealtimes,” Korostowski said.
Amgen Inc. in Thousand Oaks recently formalized a dinner-to-go program after experimenting for months.
“It’s awfully convenient,” said David Kaye, a spokesman for the biotechnology company. “A lot of people are in a situation where they come in the morning thinking they’ll be going home to cook dinner for their family, and lo and behold something happens.”
The takeout test started slowly, partly because of a requirement that the food be pre-ordered. But participation increased when the company’s three Marriott-run cafeterias allowed the more than 3,000 Amgen employees to pick up food on impulse, said Christina Erridge, a spokeswoman for Marriott Inc. in Washington.
“It’s been quite a good experiment,” Erridge said, noting that Marriott plans to test similar programs at other corporate cafeterias on the West Coast.
Another big cafeteria operator, Aramark, has run a successful program since 1985 in San Antonio for the USAA financial services company. USAA’s work force, which is predominantly female and puts in four 10-hour days a week, can pick up whatever is needed for dinner, down to milk and bread.
CIGNA’s plate is piled extra high: The company even employs a nutritionist and registered dietitian who roams the headquarters cafeteria and, among other things, critiques people’s food choices.
“I do scold them if I think they’re not eating properly, and it works,” said Phyllis Liebert, who also provides more formalized individual nutritional counseling. “I get calls about family members who are put on special diets, kids who can’t eat or won’t eat something, what to put in school lunches--you name it, I get it,” Liebert said.
Has your company developed an interesting way to help employees balance work life and family life? Write to Balancing Act, Los Angeles Times, Business Section, Times Mirror Square, Los Angeles, CA 90053. Or send e-mail to nancy.rivera.brooks@latimes.com
