This article by Venturi’s Table looks at how encouraging staff to get involved in cooking can boost their performance and from where I stand, their health and wellness. Imagine your team learning in a safe and supportive environment how to prepare food in a hurry, what good for them nutritionally and how to eat well every day. What impact would a vibrant and energy filled workforce have on your business? On site cooking classes is one way to do this.

When you think about team building events, cookery might not be the first activity that springs to mind. However, corporate cookery classes can be an excellent way to boost team morale and improve your business.

Firstly, let’s look at the problems that poor teamwork can cause. Issues include:

• High staff turnover
• De-motivated staff
• Poor performance
• Reduced profits
• Reduced creativity

How Can Corporate Cookery Classes Help?

When they are taking a cookery class, teams must work together to create an enjoyable meal from scratch – after all, they will be eating it at the end. They will need to play to individuals’ strengths, communicate well and help others.

Doing a task such as a cookery class is a great way for staff members to get to know each other. In many businesses it’s quite possible that some people never actually meet face to face, or at least not regularly. Focusing on a specific activity allows even shy people to get involved and open up.

Cookery and Creativity

Corporate cookery classes have also been credited with helping to unleash employee creativity. This is especially true in creative industries such as advertising, marketing or design.

With the constant pressure to come up with one brilliant idea after another, media companies are cottoning on to the fact that creativity can be stifled by the environment of the office and boardroom or tired brainstorming practices. Companies are realising they must create the right atmosphere for ideas and ‘place’ is the new buzz word.

Research suggests that we have our best ideas when we are at our most relaxed, sometimes not are even thinking and normally nowhere near the office. Inspiration at work can easily be suffocated by characterless desks, computers and powerpoint presentations. A corporate cookery class can help release the flow of ideas by relaxing people and opening them up to the creative process. The hands-on cooking and delicious smells also serve to distract from work issues, allowing people to then return to it with fresh eyes.

Because cookery team building events are sensory, hands-on and invigoratingly non-stuffy, they are the perfect way to get staff feeling more creative again.

We can help your office get healthy by organising fun, interactive and educational cooking classes on site. Contact us to find out more about how simple food information can transform the health and wellness of your staff.