Lunch Ordering Woes

Rockie

This is more of an irritating problem than anything else.

We are a large medical practice, but we don't have a formal cafeteria. Employees frequently order from outside vendors and they come to the front desk with the orders. The switchboard operator used to have them leave their money (correct change) in the envelope and she would give the money to the vendor and they would leave the food at the front desk. We had to stop this because money was stolen twice from the front desk.

Anyway....now, the vendors have to wait for the employee to come down with the money. Sometimes it can be as long as 20 minutes and the operator has to continuously call the employee to come down.

We have tried to get vendors to call as they are coming into the parking lot, but again, it's sometimes very difficult to get the employees on the phone.

I hate to completely cut employees off from ordering lunch, especially the ones that come down and wait for the vendor to arrive.

Can you see of any other appropriate way of handling something like this. It's beginning to be a problem all around.

Thanks!

TN HR

One suggestion would be to order from a service like Take-Out Taxi (or whatever the equivalent is in your locale). This way, eveyone can order what they want and they take your credit/debit card info over the phone. This will also alleviate congestion in your lobby since they will lump all the orders into one even if people ordered from different restaurants.

Gene

LindaS

Why can't the money be placed in a locked drawer, or some other locked box? The switchboard operator could be the only one (or one of the only ones) that has a key and could be placed in a drawer. Once the money was given to her it would be placed in that box until the food vendor arrived. This way the money wouldn't be sitting on the top of the desk and you wouldn't be losing productive time with EEs waiting for their food to arrive.

I agree that you don't want to stop them from being able to order food but you don't want them, or the delivery person, standing at the main desk waiting.

SMace

Why can't you make the issue between the vendor and the employee. Switchboard tells them once and if they don't come down in time the vendor has to decide if they still want to do business with them.

Hunter1

Gee, I thought you medical types got all your lunches from drug reps. x}>

LivindonSouth

The switchboard operator/receptionist is already arguably the hardest working individual in the building. She/he should not ever be assigned tasks like collecting money and paying vendors who bring food. The responsibility is between the person who ordered the delivery and the person who makes it.

If you do insist that your receptionist stay in this 'loop', you might suggest to the munchers on the second floor that they also pay for her lunch on big order days.

WT

I would like to look at a different aspect of this issue. How much company time is wasted while folks look at menus, discuss what they want, discuss whether they want to go in together for a food item, decide which vendor to use, figure who should pay what and calculate the change, and make the calls to the necessary vendors. Getting ready for lunch can be a half hour project or more. Vendors standing around waiting to be paid is just the tip of the iceberg because it is so visible. You may want to consider giving a longer, unpaid lunch period to give employees enough time to tend to these items. They are taking the time anyway.

ritamcguire

Vending machines in a break room.

It's hard to imagine a job setting where it takes 20 minutes to get to the front lobby, but the employees don't have access to good quality vending machines and or don't have access to a refridgerator and microwave so that they might bring something from home.

I agree this shouldn't be dumped on the receptionist.

mbeam

Have you considered having food vendors come on-site? We have done this and it cut down considerably on food orders from outside vendors. We have about 330 associates working here and have outside vendors lining up for the chance to participate. Currently, we have 4 different ones that we utilize.

There is no charge to us as an employer outside of the time for the payroll associate to add up the direct charges as payroll deduction is an option. We enlarged our lunchroom to accomodate for this when we designed our building. The lunchroom also doubles as the spot for all company meetings. It's a huge perk and a great timesaver for everyone.

When people do order in from the outside, they need to have the envelope with the money to the reception team at least 10 minutes prior to expected arrival of the food.

Rockie

Thanks for all the tips guys!

We have tried all the above and more. We have vending machines and break rooms on every floor. We have brought vendors in, but if the food is not plentiful and relatively cheap, the employees won't support it.

Food is apparently a sacred cow in our organization and I believe our employees come to work with their first priority planning what they will have for lunch, while chowing down on their fast food breakfast they stopped for on the way in.

That being said, the receptionist agreed if they brought down a sealed envelope with their name and the name of the vendor on it,(with the correct change in it) that she would hand the envelope to the vendor. The vendor will leave the food in a small room off the reception area and the employee is responsible for coming down to get their lunch. The receptionist will not call them to come get lunch any longer. If there is no money to pay for a lunch that is ordered, then the vendor will be instructed to take it back.

I'm just sorry I had to spend so much time on this drivel yesterday, but I got tired of the operator being abused!

Whatever

Some of our ees stop off and order and pay for their lunch on the way into work.