LinkedIn News recently reported on Gallup data showing that $1.9 Trillion is lost every year to employees that are not engaged in their work. This, they believe, is tied to the trend of “Coffee Badging” - a term that describes employees coming into the office just to have coffee with coworkers and then going home. Such behavior is attributed to Return To Office (RTO) mandates that employers are increasingly enforcing.
Predictably, most people look at Coffee Badging as a sign of a major problem. That is, employees are responding to RTO demands by doing the bare minimum to meet the obligation. They badge in and out so the system shows them as being in the office, but the implication is that what they are doing while there - meeting with co-workers - is not the intended function. They are, I guess, supposed to be on their computers doing computer stuff, and by choosing to do social activities they are quietly shirking their real responsibilities.
I disagree with this wholeheartedly. Coffee badging is an incredibly promising trend and employers should jump on it. Here’s why:
Close Friendships at Work Yield Better Outcomes
Research shows that having close friends at work improves employee satisfaction, productivity, engagement and loyalty. Engaging, in-person, is a necessary predicate for a strong interpersonal friendship. If employees are given an opportunity to do this, and they take it, this is a sign they are seeking stronger connections with their co-workers. This should be rewarded and encouraged as a good use of time, given the potential rewards.
Using the Friend Forward principles that I’ve developed, I encourage employers with a coffee badging trend to lean in. Make that time even more constructive and enjoyable for the development of authentic relationships. Add games and activities, and make sure those who are regular office denizens have the encouragement to spend some social time with colleagues every day.
The power of the coffee klatch has been well understood and documented at companies like Google, who invested heavily in a coffee program that has important cultural benefits. Throughout history, important friendships, decisions and insights have been gleaned over coffee. Elevating it to this level is a net positive in every organization.
Networking is a Great Use of In-Person Time
If your employees primarily work using their computers and in meetings, the argument for pushing them to work in the office is fairly weak. This is part of the reason that employees have been resisting RTO mandates. Beyond the stereotype of wanting to work in pajamas and pick their kids up from school at 3pm, most high value employees rightfully believe they are more productive working remotely. And even if research is mixed on actual productivity boosts from remote work, if individuals believe it, this is going to be their mental model when you demand a change.
There are only a few things that cannot be done well remotely, and networking is one of the most salient and obvious. If you lean into coffee badging and networking as a concept for in-office work, you may be able to persuade more employees to engage. Obviously, this kind of networking needs to be fun, not too stressful and clearly valuable for both the employee and the company. But if you want to sell RTO with logic, networking with co-workers, supervisors and industry peers is a fantastic justification for RTO.
People Love a Free Meal
People love free food and free stuff, even when they can afford it. I believe that coffee badging also reflects a tentative effort by employees to re-engage with perks they like, namely: free food and drinks.
Silicon valley initially adopted free food and drinks in the workplace by copying the Israeli tech work model, where such subsidies were standard operating procedure in the 80s and 90s. When Google burst onto the scene, it was the first major US tech company to fully embrace these perks, turning what had been subsidized lunches (at Cisco, HP, Apple and other tech giants) into a completely free, gourmet culinary program. Most companies eventually followed, realizing that F&B perks had the benefit of keeping employees happier for longer, and that cheap investments in snacks and drinks promoted outsized gains in productivity. Eventually, they became table stakes, and companies extended the Google model throughout the country.
This is a great time to revisit your F&B strategies and leverage them as a lure to get people to RTO. The key difference this time will be to make them more social. There’s a reason that coffee badging is connected to coffee instead of lunch - employees are using them as social/networking opportunities. Can we lean in on F&B and make it more conducive to socializing and Friend Building? An idea is to bring back the long lunch meeting and encourage regular office goers to block longer lunch times for more social interaction with hybrid/remote colleagues.
Incentives Rather than Punishment
Behavioral science shows that the best way to change behavior is to lean heavily on incentives with a side order of punishments. As companies have struggled to figure out how to achieve their RTO goals, coffee badging provides an amazing opportunity. Employees are clearly telling you what they want as an incentive to come back (social time, tasty food, flexible choices), so this is a phenomenal platform on which to build. Let’s restructure our RTO demands to be Friend Forward, e.g. here are the fringe benefits you’ll receive from returning to office: more connections and mentorship, better relationships, some tasty food, flexibility and encouragement. This is a great place to start.
In Conclusion
If we want to make a dent in that $1.9 Trillion lost to employee disengagement, the right way to start is by making our organizations more Friend Forward. Friendships in the workplace provide several key benefits that go beyond just productivity. Lower turnover, increased satisfaction, and potentially even better decision-making.
Coffee badging gives us a great starting point to understand what might bring our teams back into the office with a positive spin. They are clearly choosing to socialize - and that’s not a negative cheat at all. Let’s lean in on this trend and take it for what it is: progress in our return to office.
Why "Coffee Badging" is Secretly Awesome for Employee Return to Office Mandates