How to reinvent corporate catering?

After months of confinement and business falling to zero or close to it, corporate catering professionals must find formulas that move away from the traditional canteen to adapt to new work and consumption habits of employees.

How to adapt its catering offer? What are the new needs of employees? What is the future for company catering? Answer with our experts!

Adapting to telecommuting

The Covid-19 pandemic has accelerated new ways of working, including the massive deployment of telecommuting in companies when the activity allows it.

Today, employees have an average of two days of telecommuting per week. The objective for companies is to reduce in this period of health crisis the number of employees in the workplace, but this practice of remote work should be maintained and become widespread in all circumstances.

A recent survey revealed, among other things, that 83 he European employees say they want to continue working remotely one or more days a week once the crisis is over.

For corporate catering professionals, therefore, it is primodial to find short-term solutions to last in the long term.

Some players have already set up novel services to offer something as flexible as work, for example:

• home meal deliveryby working with delivery operators and platforms
• takeaway meals, to be picked up at the company restaurant at the end of the day to consume the same evening, or make it your teleworker lunch the next day.

As for central kitchens, they can have new functions; they have all the assets to direct their productions not only to delivery or VAE, but also to other sectors such as mass distribution.

Note that a standardization of the conditions of telecommuting must be carried out because even at home, the employee can have all or part of his meal taken care of by his employer

Adapting the food offer

During the lockdown, company catering was missed by its guests, who realized how important it was and how comfortable it was. It was a way to avoid having to cook a meal every day or go out and get a sandwich from the nearest bakery.

Now it's up to the company canteen to offer a food offer adapted to the new expectations of diners, to continue to seduce them :

• Homemade dishes
• Local and organic products
• Vegetarian, vegan, gluten-free offer
• Cooking adapted to a snacking offer

The guests are looking for healthy food based on products fromshort circuits and organic. Eating well has become a societal trend that needs to be addressed, putting the product back at the center of the plate and focusing on quality, taste and nutrition. Collective catering does indeed have a social role to play in providing access to healthy and balanced food for all.

One thing is certain, the players who will emerge victorious from the crisis will be those who know how to react to the new needs and operating modes of their guests.