We all know about water cooler talks or water cooler chats, which is all about office colleagues casually gossiping or chatting about their interests, hobbies and other related things. Since these conversations often tend to take place around the coffee vending machine or watercooler, thus the name.
Needless to say, employees often spend their free time around the office watercooler. Thus, pantry and watercooler have a special place in the office and in the hearts of employees. The smaller the office, the more affection people have for the pantry. As mentioned above, this is that place in office, where employees don’t discuss work, make friends and then there is the coffee / tea machine serving your caffeine cravings.
There’s free snacks, fruits and loads of coffee in your pantry, but what about clean drinking water? Yes, most of the gastro diseases and infections are waterborne. Here’s how you can keep your pantry and watercooler area lively and chirping:
- This is the one place where employees let their guard down and unwind. It is also the hotbed of gossips. To understand the sentiments of employees in a much better manner, HR can strike a conversation here or try to pick up the latest gossips. It is very important for the management to know as what their employees feel and whether they happy with the work environment. Here, the HR should maintain a neutral outlook making sure that they do not turn the pantry into a powerhouse of office politics or grapevine.
- Often, the management fails to pay attention to this quintessential office space and is stacked up with other stuff. In fact, the management and HR should make sure that special attention is given to the pantry area. Making it more vibrant, spacious, comfy and welcoming. Ensure that your pantry doesn’t reflect an igloo.
- Maintaining hygiene in and around pantry and watercooler is of paramount importance. You would not want your employees to fall sick regularly due to a poorly maintained pantry and contaminated watercooler. Office admin and HR ought to ensure that water filters, refrigerators and other pantry utensils are cleaned on a regular basis. The management shouldn’t overlook even the minutest of complaint pertaining to pantry and watercooler.
- HR should also motivate senior management and employees to get their coffee on their own. This helps in increasing the engagement between the management and employees thus, paving way for an open office environment.
Long story short, providing your employees with a clean pantry and watercooler would help the staff leave the pantry with a fresh mind-set thus, helping them to be more productive back at work whilst promoting a healthier workforce. Healthy employees maintain and spread a positive mind-set, show up in time and take fewer leaves. Watercooler talks promote the staff to get up and move around, so why not keep it hygienic and clean.
Got something interesting to add to this story? Let us know and we will be glad to publish it. We know how challenging it is to work as an HR and thus, aim to make the job easier for HR people with our cloud based HR software, Pocket HRMS. Write to us at sales@pockethrms.com for a free demo and consultation.
