Organize a meal to bring your teams together : our complete guide

The organisation of a company meal is fundamental to the success of this internal event, which is appreciated by employees.

But organising a company meal can be a tedious task: between special diets and "I can’t, I’m washing my hair", you can quickly come a cropper. As a result, some companies are reluctant to engage in a process that they believe to be a lost cause.

However, these internal events are crucial for keeping the company culture alive and creating cohesion between employees.

In this article, we explain the advantages of organising a meal to bring your teams together. We also give you some tips on how to make your Pancake Day a success – and how to ensure that your meal is lively and popular.

#1 - The company meal: an opportunity to forge bonds and encourage engagement

First of all, the collective meal is a key element in reducing turnover, one of the greatest scourges in modern companies.

You are therefore condemned to perpetual and time-consuming recruitment… To seduce the employee and reduce their desire to run away, you need a strong and lively company culture. 

If on arrival, the newly recruited person hears their colleagues talking about the legendary Christmas meal, they will feel that the management is present, attentive and cultivates a positive working atmosphere.  

In addition, these internal events break down barriers and forge bonds:  at a company meal, the formal and hierarchical framework is removed and employees can exchange ideas more easily.

By multiplying points of contact, employees and management get to know each other… This is essential for building trust: 95% of people trust someone they know, compared to 41% who trust someone they are meeting for the first time – yes, it makes sense.

It is also a sign of recognition! Offering the Christmas meal to your employees is a way of showing them that you are grateful for their year-long commitment. This is useful, when 7 out of 10 employees suffer from a lack of recognition! (according to Deloitte and Cadremploi).

#2 - From Pancake Day to Christmas dinner: guaranteed cohesion!

During the year, there are many opportunities to organise a meal to bring your teams together.

To give you some inspiration, here are some ideas that will put greedy smiles on the faces of your employees and whet their appetite for engagement!

• A slice of King cake in the afternoon, queens and kings for the whole week! 
• A pancake breakfast to motivate your team early in the morning with Pancake Day!
• From chocolate on desks to real treasure hunts, there are plenty of ways to celebrate Easter with your employees! 
• St. Patrick’s Day: a meal in good Irish spirits, the perfect setting for karaoke and singing along?
• Despite the good weather, some people can’t take a holiday: so how about a barbecue by Gérard from accounts to take their mind off things?
• Halloween: a fancy-dress meal and the best pumpkin competition, to enchant the company! 
• As the cold of winter attacks everyone’s moods and energy, there is nothing like warming your cockles with a good raclette!
• Christmas: an opportunity to thank employees for their year-long investment with a big meal together, and to organise Secret Santa gifts!

#3 - The key ingredients for organising a unifying company meal

1) Get employees involved in organising the company meal

The best way to ensure that employees are engaged and responsive is to involve them in the organisation. Firstly : conduct surveys to find out which dates and times are most suitable! Find out how to do it easily in our dedicated article.

What if for Halloween, you entrust the decorations to some of your employees who are fans of creative hobbies? Moved by this confidence, they will give 200%: they will want to impress and please their colleagues. You can also let motivated employees cook!

This will have an impact on the rest of the year!

Employees who feel their voices carry weight feel 4.6 times more empowered and inclined to give their best.

Hay Group

2) Communicate effectively internally about the event

When you organise a company meal, make sure you follow up with your employees several times according to a set schedule. Otherwise, some people will miss the information or forget that they had French lessons! You can also opt for the Steeple solution, which combines the physical with the digital and will help to create a link around your events!

3) Management present at the internal meal

Organising a meal to bring your teams together involves the presence of the management. Indeed, these internal events can be a way of making strong commitments. For example, you can commit to redistributing uneaten food to charities or reselling the decorations to help a cause.

Promoting a strong corporate culture is an essential criterion in the daily involvement of the employee, as they feel a sense of belonging to this culture and are proud of it.

Hay Group Retention study

#4 - Organize a meal to bring your teams together: now it’s up to you!

Whether or not you have a Gatsby’s talent for parties, organizing meals with colleagues will be welcomed and will play a key role in the daily atmosphere of your company and its attractiveness. The more sincere they are, the more employees will commit to making them memorable moments and powerful shared memories, and believe in your corporate culture!