Cafeteria management companies are a hot topic in the current business world. But do you know how they work? If you’re considering a cafeteria management company for your in-house food service, there are a few things you should know.

What Is a Cafeteria Management Company?

A corporate cafeteria is a place where the company’s employees can get lunch without leaving their workplace. Each meal might be paid for by the company, by the employee, or a combination of the two. Corporate cafeterias can also serve entire buildings containing multiple businesses.

If you think about the cafeterias you ate at while in school or summer camp, you have the right idea (though you are less likely to find chicken nuggets on corporate dining menus).

Office cafeterias have some benefits. As an employer, you get to provide a perk that your employees will appreciate, whether it’s a company subsidized cafeteria or employees pay full price.

Some companies run their cafeterias completely in-house, but it’s more economical) to hire a cafeteria management company.

What Cafeteria Management Companies Do

To put it simply, cafeteria management companies handle everything related to your cafeteria. They order food, plan menus, prepare food every day, and handle the cleanup. They might help you with getting your cafeteria set up, too, if you don’t have one yet. Below are ways in which cafeteria management companies cut costs and offer satisfaction to employers.

Ordering Food

Corporate cafeteria vendors have relationships with national food distributors. And because they order for facilities all over the country, they can negotiate discounts on much of the food they order.

That is good for your employees and you because it saves you both money. The better deal the management companies get on their food, the less they have to mark it up to make a profit.

Planning Menus

Based on the ingredients they can order; corporate cafeteria management companies plan the menus for each cafeteria. It might be fried chicken one day, Thai salads the next, and salmon patties after that.

Corporate cafeteria menus can vary widely, both in the kinds of food and in the variety they present.

That variety, however, is often one of the counts against these kinds of corporate dining facilities. Because of those national-level discounts, chefs get the same ingredients regularly. So they’ll rotate through the same dishes every three or four weeks. And even if they’re eating great food, employees get bored with having the same thing regularly.

Having access to such a wide range of foods also increases productivity in an employee cafeteria because there’s less downtime as people wait for their turn in line – no one wants to take valuable break time just waiting on lunch.

Preparing Food

Every day, the chef running your cafeteria will oversee the preparation of the day’s food. In almost every case, this will be a lunch—but depending on your contract, they might serve breakfast, coffee, or snacks, too.

This is one of the biggest reasons why corporate cafeteria management companies are so helpful: they prepare all the food. Employees get freshly made meals every day that they go to the cafeteria.

Since the cafeteria management company takes care of inventory management and purchasing supplies, businesses save money over hiring additional staff members for this task alone. They don’t need to spend hours researching prices since they already do so for you at great rates. With fewer payroll expenses due to not requiring extra workers, it’s a win-win situation for any corporate cafeteria. 

Serving Food

Once the food is prepared, cafeteria employees serve it to members of your company. This can happen in a few different ways. There might be serving stations, like in the cafeteria you remember from school, for example.

But some of these businesses opt for a self-checkout model to save money. Others might offer boxed lunches that are easy to grab and bring to a meeting or back to an employee’s desk.

Serving food means that no one will be wasting time waiting in line or picking up fast food on their way to work because they’ll already have a hot, nutritious meal ready for them when it’s lunchtime.

Cleanup

Once the lunch rush is over, cafeteria employees clean up the dishes and put away the rest of the food.

This is an overlooked aspect of corporate cafeteria management—the fact that you and your employees don’t need to clean up after eating lunch is a huge timesaver.

Food and Cafeteria Quality

Many management companies have relationships with specialty chefs who will create less expensive, high-quality grass-fed beef instead of corn-fed. This is great for your budget as well as healthy eating initiatives in an employee cafeteria.

They don’t cut corners when providing their clients with outstanding services; there is no need to worry about getting low-quality food from them either. With their strong ties and partnerships within the industry, they can provide you with the highest quality products at affordable prices.

Cafeteria management focuses on providing excellent customer service, which means they’ll do their best to meet your needs and make sure you’re happy. This can help improve employee morale and productivity in a company.

Food Delivery Options and Convenience

They can help with everything from taking inventory and ordering supplies to staff the restaurants for peak hours. This takes a lot of pressure off business owners or managers who may be strapped for time – you don’t have to worry about these responsibilities.

With a cafeteria management company, there is no need to hire additional staff members. Their employees are well-versed in food delivery; this means fewer payroll expenses and taxes and benefits, making doing your hiring very expensive. Using a cafeteria management company also saves money over hiring a caterer to do the job for you.

Using an in-house cafeteria management company also makes ordering supplies easier by taking care of all aspects from inventory management to pricing out large orders; this means fewer expenses since you don’t have to purchase additional equipment or spend hours researching prices yourself. With their wide range of knowledge about what products are best for the company, you can be sure that you’re getting what’s best at a great price.

Conclusion

Cafeteria management companies are experts in controlling efficient food service. This means that they will always have new ideas on how to improve your employee cafeteria.

These companies help with the day-to-day operations of an employee cafeteria, from setting up menus and purchasing food to managing inventory and providing staffing. Use a cafeteria management company for a better corporate dining experience and provide employees with a wide selection of food options while saving on your company’s cafeteria expenses.