Google has always been associated with innovation and creativity– but how does the company ensure that their employees are continuing to uphold their reputation? In effort to safeguard employees’ imagination, Google has subtly hacked their cafeteria to promote good nutrition, because healthiness leads to happiness, and happiness leads to innovation.
I am skeptic, however. How can Google crush your lunchtime fantasies of mouthwatering, succulent steaks and crispy, deep-fried potatoes?
Obviously, Google can’t stand in the way of your cravings. However, instead of just offering the option of healthy meals, Google has gone the extra mile and implemented several cues that have deterred employees from reaching for the conventional, high-calorie burgers. Some of these cues include storing candy in opaque, obscuring bins, and the coincidental central location of the salad bar.
In spite of the initiative reducing employee calorie intake by 9%, critics have voiced that the company’s intentions are to craft their employees to look like “magazine models” (Barry), to advance their company’s image. Fact or fiction, I believe that this initiative is one of Google’s points of differentiation: unlike other companies struggling to cut fixed costs, Google has promoted innovation while simultaneously reducing employee health care costs. Pure genius.
Further Reading:
http://jezebel.com/5897832/heres-how-google-treats-its-employees-like-grazing-animals
http://www.fastcodesign.com/1669355/6-ways-that-google-hacks-its-cafeterias-to-make-employees-eat-healthier
