august 13, 2010 shrm poll: healthy food and drinks in the workplace

August 13, 2010

SHRM Poll: Healthy Food and Drinks in the Workplace

Healthy Food and Drink in the Workplace| ©SHRM 2010 2

Does your organization have a formal or informal practice and/or policy in place that promotes healthy food and drinks for work-related functions where food is served, in on-site vending machines, in the company cafeteria, etc.?

Note: n = 578. Excludes respondents who answered "not sure/not applicable” (3%).

Yes; 40%

No; 60%

Healthy Food and Drink in the Workplace| ©SHRM 2010

Does your organization have a formal or informal practice and/or policy in place that promotes healthy food and drinks for work-related functions where food is served, in on-site vending machines, in the company cafeteria, etc.?

• Formal or informal practice and/or policy promoting healthy food and drinks (by staff size): Larger organizations (those with 2,500 or more employees) were more likely than organizations with fewer than 500 employees to report having a formal and/or informal practice and/or policy promoting healthy food and drinks in the workplace.

• Formal or informal practice and/or policy promoting healthy food and drinks (by region): Organizations in the Midwest (49%) were more likely than organizations in the West (29%) to have a formal or informal practice and/or policy promoting healthy food and drinks in the workplace.

• Formal or informal practice and/or policy promoting healthy food and drinks (by operations location): Organizations with multinational operations (59%) were more likely than organizations with U.S.-only operations (33%) to have a formal or informal practice and/or policy promoting healthy food and drinks in the workplace.

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Comparison by Organization Staff Size, Region and Operations Location

Smaller Organizations Larger Organizations Differences Based on Organization Staff Size

•1 to 99 employees (28%)•100 to 499 employees (36%)

•2,500 to 24,999 employees (49%)•25,000 or more employees (65%)

Larger organizations > smaller organizations


How have employees at your organization responded to your organization’s efforts to promote healthy food and drinks for work-related functions where food is served, in on-site vending machines, in the company cafeteria, etc.?

Note: n = 207. Asked only of HR professionals whose organizations have formal or informal policies promoting healthy food and drinks in the workplace. Excludes respondents who answered "not sure” (6%). Percentages do not total 100% due to rounding.

24%

73%

2%

Very favorably Favorably Unfavorably Very unfavorably


Does your organization take any of the following steps to help promote healthy food and drinks in the workplace?

Note: Excludes respondents who answered “not sure/not applicable” and “other” response category.

Ban all outside food/beverage that employees bring to the workplace to share with co-workers for meetings, parties, events, etc. (n = 550)

Restrict the kind of food/beverages that employees can bring to the workplace to share with co-workers for meetings, parties, events, etc. (e.g., no high-calorie foods, sweets)

(n = 549)

Provide point-of-purchase nutritional content (e.g., calories, fat content) on cafeteria menus (n = 319)

Offer healthier vending machine options (e.g., less caloric, no trans fat) (n = 489)

Offer healthier food/beverage options in cafeteria (e.g., less caloric, no trans fat, more vegetables, fruits) (n = 326)

Offer healthier food/beverage options at company meetings, parties, events, etc. (e.g., less caloric, no trans fat, more vegetables, fruits) (n = 538)

0% 10% 20% 30% 40% 50% 60% 70% 80% 90% 100%

100%

99%

73%

48%

42%

36%

1%

27%

52%

58%

64%Yes No



• Provide point-of-purchase nutritional content on cafeteria menus (by staff size): Larger organizations (those with more than 2,500 employees) were more likely than organizations with fewer than 2,500 employees to report providing point-of-purchase nutritional content on cafeteria menus.

• Offer healthier food/beverage options in the cafeteria (by staff size): Larger organizations (those with 500 or more employees) were more likely than organizations with fewer than 500 employees to report offering healthier food/beverage options in the cafeteria.

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Comparison by Organization Staff Size


•1 to 99 employees (10%)•100 to 499 employees (17%)•500 to 2,499 employees (30%)

•2,500 to 24,999 employees (33%)•25,000 or more employees (63%)



•1 to 99 employees (29%)•100 to 499 employees (48%)

•500 to 2,499 employees (61%)•2,500 to 24,999 employees (74%)•25,000 or more employees (80%)




Differences Based on Organization Sector

Differences Based on Organization’s Operations Location

Offer healthier vending machine optionsMultinational operations (65%) > U.S.-

based only organizations (47%)

Provide point-of-purchase nutritional content on cafeteria menus Publicly owned for-profits (42%) > privately owned for-profits (21%),

government agencies (4%)

Multinational operations (40%) > U.S.-based only organizations (21%)

Offer healthier food/beverage options in the cafeteriaPrivately owned for-profits (86%) >

publicly owned for-profits (70%) Multinational operations (74%) > U.S.-

based only organizations (51%)

Comparison by Organizational Demographics

Note: A blank cell indicates that there were no significant differences in this category.


Do you agree that it is HR’s responsibility to regulate the type of food/beverages provided in the workplace in order to encourage employees to consume healthy food and drinks at work?

3%

33%

48%

15%

Strongly agree Agree Disagree Strongly disagree

Note: n = 570. Percentages do not total 100% due to rounding.


Do you agree that it is HR’s responsibility to regulate the type of food/beverages provided in the workplace in order to encourage employees to consume healthy food and drinks at work?

Differences Based on Organization’s Region

Differences Based on Organization’s Operations Location

Average agreement that it is HR’s responsibility to regulate the type of food/beverages provided in the workplace

Southeast > Northeast, WestMultinational operations > U.S. based only

organizations

Comparison of Average Agreement by Organizational Demographics


Demographics: Organization Industry

IndustryManufacturing—other 15%

Health care, social assistance (e.g., nursing homes, EAP providers) 14%

Services—professional, scientific, technical, legal, engineering 11%

Financial services (e.g., banking) 9%

Educational services/education 7%

Retail/wholesale trade 5%

Government/public administration—federal, state/local, tribal 5%

Insurance 4%

Other services (e.g., nonprofit, church/religious organizations) 4%

Consulting 3%

Transportation, warehousing (e.g., distribution) 3%

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Demographics: Organization Industry (continued)

IndustryConstruction, mining, oil and gas 2%

High-tech 2%

Manufacturing—auto/auto-related 2%

Services—accommodation, food and drinking places 2%

Utilities 2%

Arts, entertainment, recreation 1%

Association—professional/trade 1%

Biotech 1%

Publishing, broadcasting, other media 1%

Real estate, rental, leasing 1%

Telecommunications 1%

Pharmaceutical 0%

Other 6%

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Demographics: Organization Sector

12

Note: n = 527. Excludes “other” organization sectors.

Publicly owned for-profit

Privately owned for-profit

Nonprofit Government0%

10%

20%

30%

40%

50%

60%

21%

48%

22%

8%


Demographics: Organization Staff Size

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Note: n = 498

1 to 99 em-ployees

100 to 499 employees

500 to 2,499 employees

2,500 to 24,999 employees

25,000 or more employees

0%

10%

20%

30%

40%

23%

32%

19% 19%

7%


Demographics: Region

14

Note: n = 536

Northeast Southeast Midwest West0%

10%

20%

30%

40%

16%

26%

35%

23%


Demographics: Other

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Note: n = 572

U.S.-based operations 72%

Multinational operations 28%

Single-unit company: Companies in which the location and the company are one and the same.

31%

Multi-unit company: Companies that have more than one location.

69%

Multi-unit headquarters determines HR policies and practices

43%

Each work location determines HR policies and practices

5%

A combination of both the work location and the multi-unit headquarters determine HR policies and practices

52%

Is the organization a single-unit company or a multi-unit company?

Are HR policies and practices determined by the multi-unit corporate headquarters, by each work location or both?

Does the organization have U.S.-based operations (business units) only or does it operate multinationally?

Note: n = 571

Note: n = 400

• 15% of organizations indicated that employees at their work location were unionized.

Note: n = 547


SHRM Poll: Healthy Food and Drinks in the Workplace

• Response rate = 23%• Sample comprised of 598 randomly selected HR professionals.• Margin of error is +/- 4. • Survey fielded July 15 – July 21, 2010.

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Methodology

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august 13, 2010 shrm poll: healthy food and drinks in the workplace

Documents

workplacehealthy food

workplace shrm

organizations efforts

informal policies

organization staff size1

company cafeteria

cafeteria menus

shrm poll