Breaking bread with colleagues not only improves social harmony at work, but according to a new study it also boosts productivity.
Plenty of companies invest big money to provide their employees with upscale workplace eateries or at least catered meals. But are those companies getting a good return on their investment? According to the Cornell University study, the answer is yes.
In research that could have implications for organizations looking to enhance team performance, the team found that firefighter platoons who eat meals together have better group job performance compared with firefighter teams who dine solo.
Eating together is a more intimate act than looking over an Excel spreadsheet together. That intimacy spills back over into work, said author Kevin Kniffin, adding "From an evolutionary anthropology perspective, eating together has a long, primal tradition as a kind of social glue. That seems to continue in today's workplaces."
Given the findings, organizations would do better to consider their expenditures on cafeterias as investments in employee performance, Kniffin said.
The study appears in the Human Performance.