A caffeinated team is a happy team and everyone from your admin assistant to your lead web developer would recognise it. So if you’re supplying your office with quality coffee, chances are you’re going to get a team that’s eager to take on whatever tasks the day throws at them – without wasting time to nip out for a flat white. Science has got our back on this too: comparing the effects of coffee to a power nap, the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine found employees remember and focus better under the influence of caffeine. A shot of Joe keeps you on the go.
Of course, it doesn’t take a genius to work out that giving your team great coffee can be a great morale boost. But beyond the coffee itself, the culture of coffee breaks can also be beneficial to your business. Again, this is something that’s been picked up on by everyone from academics at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) to the Swedish – more on the latter later. An MIT study showed a link between productivity and strong social groups, which also suggests stepping out for a brew together can bring a team closer.
While many Brits see the office kitchen as a great place for workers to put their heads together, with coffee organically fuelling chat, we still seem to be a little behind our trendy Scandinavian neighbours. The Swedish notion fika is a standard implementation in workplaces, which refers to a time to drink coffee and chat together – maybe accompanied by a slice of cake or a pastry. This doesn’t necessarily mean designated downtime, though. This is about taking a moment to connect as colleagues, pause your production and reframe your thinking. The more wholesome sibling of the uninhibited and unmeasured business banter that makes a clumsy appearance at afterwork drinks, fika may be just what your company needs to get ideas flowing again. And with great coffee giving you an excuse to take time away from the desk, you’ll be working as a team better than ever before.
So you’ve already got a happy team that works well and works together? Perfect. But how can good office coffee help you keep them, well, at work? Beyond being utterly delicious and helping concentration and memory, coffee also has a number of reported health benefits. Recent studies by the likes of the JAMA Internal Medicine journal and findings presented at the European Cardiac Society Congress suggest coffee drinkers live longer and face less risk of death. And as well as heightened well-being, encouraging staff to become coffee fanatics may also indirectly contribute to a stronger workforce, given 137 million working days were lost to illness and injury in 2016. Anything that keeps your company fighting fit has got to be a win.
Office coffee could just be one way to keep your team motivated, collaborating and healthy – so it’s well worth taking seriously. 
