The Friday conundrum: how hybrid working has changed workplace dining

While caterers report that working patterns are continuing to evolve, clear patterns are emerging and Mondays and Fridays are showing a distinct drop off compared to the middle of the week.

Zoë Watts, business development director at Bennett Hay, confirmed that the fall is particularly acute on a Friday when occupancy can be as low as 30% compared to 60% on a Monday and 80% Tuesday to Thursday. Francois Gautreaux, UK managing director of BM, reported similar findings with a 50% fall in diners seen on Fridays compared to the middle of the week.

"We have some clients who have said that, until numbers increase, everything is free all week long"

However, while customer numbers may have fallen, other metrics are on an upward curve. Ryan Holmes, culinary director B&I for Compass Group UK and Ireland, said: "While Fridays are quieter, we are seeing an increase in uptake and spend on our food offer across the other working days, as people see lunch in the office as a treat in place of what they have at home."

Watts agreed: "When I go to our cafés they are buzzing throughout the day and people are spending longer in them. We are also seeing more large groups of staff having lunch together around the communal tables."

Blue Mondays

The ONS reported that 84% of people who worked from home during the pandemic did not plan to return to the office full time. While a seismic shift back to pre-pandemic habits seems out of the question, employers are looking to their F&B providers to help entice employees to spread their days in the workplace across the week to avoid ghost town offices on a Monday and Friday.

Gautreaux said: "We have some clients who have said that, until numbers increase, everything is free all week long. They're seeing catering as an additional benefit and recognise that people aren't coming in just to do admin – it's normally something more engaging involving teamwork, collaborative projects or their more creative side, where they want to do something special with colleagues."

Watts said the focus was "creating an experience" that will appeal to employees and influence their decision on which days to spend in the office. Work with internal comms teams has increased and special food offerings, pop-ups and restaurant takeovers are being used to enhance internal activities, such as workshops and roadshows.

She added: "Now our clients often add a social element to make more of an experience on a Friday. It might be a social activity or a health and wellbeing programme, and they will bring in speakers with us supporting them by providing a food offer aligned to that message.

"The activities we do aren't all new but previously we'd show evidence of their success through sales data. Now, while that's still important, what is just as important is the level of engagement."

Random snacks of kindness

For Gautreaux the suppressed demand on a Friday offers the chance to provide something extra. He said: "We often do what we call ‘random snacks of kindness', so if it's a cold Friday in winter with a third of customers in the building, we'll go round with a trolley and give out a free hot chocolate and a cupcake or something like that. It creates a bit of a buzz and makes people feel appreciated for being in.

"If you give something away every day it gets taken for granted, but if it's unexpected you suddenly see on social media that an ice-cream truck turned up and everyone got a free ice-cream. These things don't cost a lot but they make people think ‘oh wow, that sounds lovely'."

However, while special events can spark interest and increase numbers, caterers say they are realistic about the potential to change behavioural patterns.

Gautreaux added: "People aren't going to make the commute just to get a free cup of coffee. If we've got a pop-up chef or we're doing a fantastic, themed event that can generate interest, but does it hugely change the benefit of a Friday at home? It's got to be a huge bells and whistles event and it's not going to work every week."

An evolving situation poses multiple conundrums for caterers, most pertinently managing stock and staffing levels. Gautreaux said: "We have a pretty decent ordering system based on real-time sales data, so we can plan that pretty effectively, but staffing is harder."

Both Bennett Hay and BM are exploring ways to manage staffing levels, including moving their own teams on to flexible working patterns that allow some employees to condense their working week across four days.

Watts added: "For those doing a compressed week, they're coming in and doing a 10-hour day Monday to Thursday and we will rota that so it's not always the same staff."

Additionally, Bennet Hay has adapted its offer and service style at some sites on a Friday, moving to a table service model and cooking food to order rather than risking the waste that could result from a buffet-style option.

At BM, team members are also being diverted to other sites or a central production kitchen on a Friday, as well as being encouraged to take advantage of a company scheme that allows them to volunteer for a charity and still get paid.

Gautreaux added: "We don't want to downsize teams permanently because we don't know if Fridays will recover, so in the interim we're looking for interesting ways to use the team in more flexible ways. Sometimes we'll do the same offering on the peak days, but on a Monday we'll get the team doing added- value things around baking or prep to enhance the Tuesday to Thursday offerings."

What is clear though is that the situation is still evolving and caterers will have to as well. Gautreaux added: "We're having to be flexible and the common thing we keep telling clients is that there really isn't a new normal – it's constantly changing and nobody is really sure how effective this will be long term. We find clients will often change tack when they feel something is not working and we have to constantly try different things and be prepared to fail with some of them."