Lunch and Learn sessions are becoming an innovative way to combine employee education with social interaction and dining. These sessions bring together the goodness of food, collaboration, creative thinking, and knowledge sharing. But what exactly are Lunch and Learn sessions, and how can you make them work for your organization?
Worry not, as we’ll take a look at the event, its meaning, and its benefits, followed by how to start it and enhance the experience.
A lunch and learn is an informal training or knowledge-sharing session conducted during lunch hours. It blends professional development and casual dining, allowing employees to gather and discuss new ideas and skills. The discussion over these lunches also allows employees to gain insights into the latest industry trends.
Unlike formal training, these sessions are voluntary and flexible, making them an attractive option for both employees and employers. They can be conducted in-person, virtually, or in a hybrid format.
Lunch and learn sessions are beyond conventional learning as they contribute to workplace culture, engagement, and productivity. To better understand the importance of lunch and learn sessions, let’s take a look at the following pointers:
Employees are highly likely to thrive if they’re provided opportunities for personal and professional growth. Lunch and learn sessions foster a culture of continuous learning without adding extra hours to their day. Since it is an informal get-together, employees can feel free to discuss their ideas and share them with their peers or higher-ups.
Lunch and learn sessions are highly interactive. They encourage employees to actively participate and contribute. This enables employee engagement which eventually boosts employee morale and fosters detailed brainstorming sessions. Remember, an engaged employee is more likely to be loyal to the organization and its objectives than a satisfied one.
By bringing employees from different departments together, lunch and learn sessions encourage networking. Cross-functional teamwork is one of the biggest highlights of any project. With lunch and learn sessions, you can enable positive collaboration and team building, covering bigger objectives in less time.
As the name suggests, lunch and learn sessions are held during lunch hours. This negates the possibility of scheduling separate training sessions for employees. This saves the company time and money that could otherwise be spent on additional training sessions.
Lunch and learn sessions are beneficial to employees on a personal level as well. That’s because these sessions bring together people from different walks of life and aid them in solving complex problems in less time. Not only does this boost employee efficiency, but it also teaches them how to work under stressful situations without breaking down.
Every company has its share of good and bad days; however, an engaged employee will be able to navigate through the bad days with relative ease. These sessions do just that; prepare the employee to handle tough situations.
You can utilize these sessions to train your workforce on new and upcoming products, their purposes and target audiences. It is quite common in big organizations for employees to not know about new or in development products. That’s because product marketing is often targeted towards the public and rightfully so. The issue arises when internal marketing through newsletters and notifications doesn’t happen, leaving other departments who didn’t work on the products in the dark.
Conducting a short lunch and learn session eliminates this issue as it allows you to introduce your employees to the product and its inner workings at the same time as other departments. If you’re unable to add multiple departments to a single session, you can always plan out more sessions in a short span.
Now that we’ve understood what the sessions are all about, including their benefits. Let’s take a look at how you can plan a successful one. Planning is crucial for any and all tasks, the same goes for lunch and learn sessions. Here’s how you can plan a successful one:
The first step towards conducting a successful lunch and learn session is to understand its objectives. Before going ahead with the participants’ list and other tasks, ask yourself a simple but crucial question. What do you want to achieve via this session?
Is it to upskill your team, introduce a new tool, or simply establish better team bonding? Make a list of all the probable answers that come to your mind and rank them based on your organization’s priorities and objectives.
Do not get stuck thinking of all the possible ideas you can cover during a lunch and learn session. Choose topics that are relevant and engaging and provide value to your employees and the organization. Consider conducting a quick survey to understand your employees’ interests. Take a look at this list of popular ideas for a fruitful session:
A format here refers to the mode of information sharing and discussion. In other words, it defines the ways in which you can teach your employees new skills. Whether it is conducting a workshop, inviting guest speakers, analyzing case studies, or having interactive discussions, you can help employees learn in various ways.
It all boils down to the format that fits with the company’s objectives and your preference as an employer. You should also consider the company’s finances while conducting such a session. Making it too extravagant might distract the employees from learning, and making it dirt cheap may decrease employee morale and the will to learn more. Find a balance that enables learning while being a fun experience at the same time.
The typical lunch and learn activity happens on campus. However, it requires a separate space with ample room for dining and learning. You’ll have to be mindful of the following logistical pointers:
Once you’ve conducted your first lunch and learn session, ask the participants for their feedback. You can distribute a form with a number of questions and a marking scale. Go for the 1-10 scale, with 1 being a bad experience and 10 being the best. Ask questions such as “Did you find the session helpful?” “Were we able to understand your concerns the right way?” “Was the instructor clear with their instructions?” And “What topic would you like us to cover in the next session?”
Gathering feedback is crucial as it’ll give you insights into how your employees see your way of handling issues.
Remember, there’s no point in hosting a lunch and learn session if your lunch offerings are full of fast food items and unreliable delivery systems.
Serving healthy, and tasty meals aids you in preparing a dedicated team and motivated team. Believe it or not, employees often decide to go ahead with a company that serves food during lunch breaks.
In fact, serving lunch on office premises also helps in boosting employee attendance at the workplace. Employees following the remote or hybrid working model can begin working from the office if offered wholesome meals.
If you’re looking for a dining solution that serves quick, healthy, and tasty meals with easy and fast checkouts, then you need to look no further than the lechef smart fridge and mobile app.
lechef offers a smart dining experience that comprises the best of technology and healthy dining habits. With the lechef smart fridge and mobile app, you can:
Boost employee engagement and morale through tasty, healthy, and affordable meals with lechef today.
Over the years, lunch and learn sessions have gained popularity due to their short duration, simple nature, and cost-effectiveness. By all means, a lunch and learn session does not completely remove employee training, as these sessions are short and based on simple topics. You can cover a lot of ground with different teams within a few months, solving problems and introducing your team to new concepts. These sessions also act as good brainstorming sessions, promoting cross-functional collaborations. We hope that our blog has shed light on the importance of lunch and learn sessions, showcasing the reasons why you should begin planning one.
