The way to an employee’s heart - through his stomach?

Would free food make you work harder? Google think that it would, and so do many other employers. Is it true that Google have a rule that no employee should ever be more than 150 feet from a food outlet in the office? There is the story in this article, of an employee in California who practically moved into the office, sleeping in his car just outside and living on the perks and extras available in the building, which he managed to do for a full 60 weeks.

Entrepreneur.com suggests offering staff a free continental breakfast once or twice a week, to keep morale up, and some media firms go so far as to set up a bar with free wine, beer and cocktails in the office on Friday afternoons. It makes a lot of sense; it has long been recognised that some of the most useful conversations in the office take place around the coffee machine or water cooler, rather than around the board room table. Which part of Maslow's hierarchy of needs is this appealing to? Perhaps the social needs, and building self esteem? Certainly the social aspects of sharing orange juice and croissants in the morning, or a quick drink on a Friday afternoon, should help workers to feel more committed to each other and to the employer - if they are given something for free, they are likely to feel that they should give some extra effort or loyalty in return.

There is also a reference to Herzberg here. Pamela Yeow, senior lecturer in management at the University of Kent, talks about the effect of giving tea or coffee at the start of meetings, which encourages people to arrive at the meeting on time: "It works for some time, but actually to motivate people in the longer term they need to feel they actually want to do their job." She recommends instead giving treats like free department outings and meals occasionally, when there has been a particularly good set of sales figures or contracts signed: "It shows you realise people are working hard and you want to reward them."

So much for the extra perks at major financial and media firms. There are also firms which, as part of their cost-cutting, are reducing the free perks they offer, cancelling Christmas parties and removing coffee machines. This can be a really dangerous thing to do; once staff have got used to receiving those benefits, the demotivation which is caused by removing them can be quite out of proportion with the costs that are saved.