Last updated at 15:40, Tuesday, 17 July 2012

FREE tea and coffee facilities for employees cost Barrow businesses £242.67 per year, per employee, a study has revealed.

In frugal times, businesses are increasingly looking for ways to streamline their processes in a bid to save on costs. This drive towards increased efficiency can often come at a cost to employees, with staff pay and facilities being in the firing line.

However, whereas cancelling the staff socials and the Christmas party may save a lump sum, having on-going staff facilities available to employees is a harder figure to quantify, with their benefits more difficult to define.

Research into the office-based brewing habits of over 120 tea and coffee drinkers found that the average time taken to make a cup of tea or coffee in the workplace was two minutes and one second, costing employers in Barrow 51 pence per cup made, compared to 69 pence in London and the national average of 59 pence.

The size of the business also plays a key role in the cost of this staff provision. Businesses in Barrow with nine employees or fewer will pay around £203.12 per employee, consuming an average of two cups of tea or coffee each working day for a year, whereas businesses with 200 employees will see the average cost rise to £255.67.

However, the research suggests that the time taken away from the desk is not wasted time, with 72% of those involved in the study engaging in conversation with fellow employees, and of those, 69% had work related conversations.

Commenting on the findings, Organizational Psychologists Helen Hughes and Mark Robinson, from Leeds University Business School, suggest that despite the financial impact, the wider benefits of tea breaks may substantially outweigh their costs.

“Tea breaks provide an opportunity to chat with colleagues, strengthening the social ties that bind people to their organisations. By helping people feel that they belong in an organisation, they can therefore help reduce staff turnover.”

“Furthermore tea breaks provide some respite from mentally and physically demanding work, reducing stress levels and increasing concentration and motivation when people resume work.

People tend to solve problems at work by talking to the people that are in their network, and very often these are the people in their work team or who they sit near. A tea break may be one of the few opportunities that people have to network, by chatting to, or bumping into, colleagues who are not in these circles. Chats of this kind can also be a great opportunity to share knowledge and news about work-related issues, thereby improving performance and efficiency.”

For more information, visit the Leeds University Business School Great British Brew Break page.

The average costs per cup of tea or coffee depending on the size of the organisation can be found in the following table, as can the cost per year, per employee to a business. (Barrow)

*One employee drinking two cups of tea or coffee per day, for 48 working weeks (52, minus 4 weeks of annual leave)

Calculations used to generate figures.

PhC + (ASps x ATT) = TCPB

PhC = Physical cost of making a brew

ASpc = Average Salary per second

ATT = Average Time Spent making a brew

TCPB = Total Cost Per Brew

First published at 12:36, Tuesday, 17 July 2012
Published by http://www.nwemail.co.uk