8 ways to help your employees eat healthier at work

People often eat the food that’s nearby—especially if they have a quick lunch break and a full schedule. Make it a priority to provide a variety of healthy food options in your workplace. This could include adding fresh fruits, vegetables, nuts, and other nutritious snacks to your breakroom. While at it, you may consider reducing or removing unhealthy snack options from your office.

Additionally, if your company decides to offer food delivery or food vouchers as a benefit through Uber Eats, you open up a world of opportunities for employees to order healthy lunch options from local vendors.

In Atomic Habits, James Clear references an initiative at Massachusetts General Hospital, where Dr. Anne Thorndike and her team conducted a 6-month study to improve the eating habits of hospital staff and visitors.

They rearranged the hospital cafeteria to make water more accessible. By adding water to all drink locations and placing baskets of bottled water next to food stations, they successfully increased water sales by 25.8% while decreasing soda sales by 11.4%.

To help improve hydration at work, follow the lead of Mass General.

Palates and diets are as diverse as the people on your team. Meeting your team's different needs is a huge part of encouraging healthy eating habits at work.

Offer an array of foods that respect various preferences, allergies, intolerances, religions, and cultural diets. Add gluten-free goodies, dairy-free foods, halal options, and vegetarian or vegan fare.

Uber for Business makes catering to everyone’s dietary needs easy. With our meal program, you can create a monthly meal budget. Then your employees can use that budget to order any food from the Uber Eats platform.

It’s challenging for anyone to make healthier diet choices without access to nutritional information. Offer nutritional details to empower your team to make informed eating choices.

This information, whether accessible online or alongside your food selection, is a game changer. It lets employees understand exactly what they’re consuming, so they can track food, make informed decisions, and meet their health goals.

Remember the Aflac study that said 61% of its employees made healthier choices because of their organization’s workplace wellness program? For your own wellness program, the sky’s the limit when it comes to how much health guidance you can offer your employees.

Beyond providing healthy meals and snacks, you can also create wellness workshops, host seminars, and offer consultations with registered dietitians or nutritionists.

The best part? Case studies show that performance increases when companies care for their employees. Take Next Jump, which invests heavily in the wellness of its workforce by providing nutritious food options, incentivizing physical activity, and offering guidance with mental health. After launching these programs, NextJump experienced an increase in annual sales growth, from 30% to 120%.

Would you rather spend your hard-earned cash for a mediocre snack at a vending machine or reach for a healthy snack your office is giving you for free?

Probably the latter.

You may consider adding this as a new company benefit: a fully stocked breakroom with healthy options. It gives you the option to distribute free nutritious snacks throughout your business and to store unhealthy snacks in out-of-the-way locations.

Offering fresh fruit, vegetables, nuts, high-protein snacks, teas, and sparkling waters is a good start.

One of the best ways to encourage healthy habits in the office is to make it a team effort. Cultivate a workplace culture that values health and well-being. Your HR team can spearhead initiatives to provide wholesome snacks, offer vouchers for delivery from local healthy vendors, and grow your wellness programs.

Additionally, encourage open communication about health-related topics around the office and support employees striving to make healthier choices.

If your office space allows, set up a small garden where employees can grow fruits, vegetables, and herbs. This hands-on approach brings fresh, organic produce right into your office space. And it serves as a practical lesson in nutrition and sustainable living to boot.

A community garden also fosters teamwork and a sense of collective achievement. Employees from different departments can share gardening tips, care for the plants, and harvest the produce together.