Is free food the deal breaker when it comes to flexible office space?

There is something about free food that makes it more appealing and harder to resist. We’ve all probably attended a barely relevant breakfast or drinks event in the knowledge that there will be a complimentary breakfast or good canapes. But what about free food in the office? With the war for talent hotting up and competition increasingly growing between serviced office provides, could free food be a deal breaker for members?

In a recent research report by Workthere, we found that when considering ‘services and amenities’ 61 per cent of flexible office workers think that free food and snacks are important. However, only 40 per cent are happy with their current provision. In fact, free food and snacks had the largest satisfaction gap of 21 per cent gap across the entire ‘services and amenities’ category, which included elements such as industry networking opportunities, personal storage and parcel delivery lockers. It is clear from these results that those working within flexible offices place significant importance on having a free food provision, but providers need to up their game when it comes to what’s on offer. This is particularly important given that sometimes the ‘co-working perks’ can be the thing that sets one provider apart from another.

The type of free food on offer within serviced office and coworking spaces can vary from biscuits every day to have with your tea and coffee to more ad hoc offers such as breakfasts and cakes as part of a provider’s community event schedule. There are also examples of more elaborate offers such as inviting street food traders to come in for a day to provide food for members. British Land’s Storey concept organises food trucks each week at its Broadgate, Paddington and 338 Euston Road schemes.

Not quite free, but some providers offer subsidised food for members such as X & Why, where there is a 15 per cent discount on all food.

Services and amenities within flexible office space are a huge part of its USP and what sets the sector apart from conventional space. However, it is vital that providers take the time to ensure that the provisions they are offering are in line with what members want and expect. Free food may only be a component of this, but an important one nonetheless and one where providers don’t want the novelty to wear off. 

*The What Coworkers Want report is based on a survey conducted by Savills and undertaken by YouGov between March and April 2019, which surveyed over 11,000 office-based employees based in France, Germany, Ireland, Italy, The Netherlands, Norway, Poland, Portugal, Spain, Sweden and the UK, with 1,000 workers surveyed in each country. 1,874 respondents of the overall total consider their main workplace to be either a serviced or coworking office, and we included both of these groups in the flexible office category.

Workers were questioned on various office-related topics, including asking their views, in terms of importance and satisfaction, on 48 office features.

NB: Figures may not always add to 100 per cent due to removal of ‘don’t knows/not applicable’ responses or rounding.