For many offices around the world, the ever-reliable kettle remains the cornerstone of the workplace kitchenette.
Despite the multitude of coffee machines and fancy hot drinks dispensers now on the market, many companies have not felt the need to evolve past the humble kettle, which has always handled the daily tea and coffee rounds with aplomb.
But while some might consider the office drinks machine an expensive luxury, the seemingly cheap and easy kettle could, in fact, be hurting your business in other areas.
You might not believe it yet, but there is a case to be heard for the bean-to-cup coffee machine, which could potentially have a far cheaper cost per year than the standard office kettle.
Not only that – but making the switch from the kettle to a coffee machine could also save bags of time for your staff, keeping them happy and increasing your company’s work output!
We explain why…
Time saver
For those still using the lowly office kettle for their teas and coffees, the drinks round can seriously eat away on your working day.
A study by T6 revealed that the average adult spends 24 minutes a day fetching and drinking hot drinks, costing their employer £400 a year in lost man-hours.
They estimated that over a lifetime, going on the drinks run accounts for nearly 190 days of lost productivity.
These stats are only going to get worse in offices without a coffee machine.
Even if your office has a top-of-the-range kettle, the average boil lasts around 2.5 minutes and can produce just 6 cups for that time.
That means that an office of 24 people would need 10 minutes per coffee round, every time.
Given the recommended extraction time for a bean-to-cup coffee machine is between 20-25 seconds, you could probably make 8 coffees before an office kettle’s even finished boiling.
The Kettle Tax?!
Never heard of the so-called ‘kettle tax’? Allow us to educate you.
A study by Switch My Business revealed that using a kettle will cost you around 30p per boil and that the average employee does so a whopping 759 times a year!
Shockingly, this means just one employee averages £227.70 per year in ‘kettle tax’.
That office of 24 is going to have some energy bill…
Comparatively, a bean to cup machine only uses 1.5p worth of energy per seven espressos according to a study by Which.
This makes the bean to cup an energy saver worth splashing out on.
Cutting back on coffee shop trips
While many of your workers might be taking too long to brew up a batch, younger workers are probably spending even longer on time-consuming trips to coffee shops.
T6’s research revealed that workers under 30 typically did their coffee rounds by nipping off to the nearest Costa or Starbucks, which depending on your office location, could likely be a time-wasting exercise.
While coffee shop trips are becoming a cultural commonplace these days, perhaps your staff wouldn’t feel the need to make the journey if you could offer them barista-quality coffee at work.
Dreaded drinks rounds
A recent study of 2,000 adults revealed that half avoided making a tea or coffee at work for fear they’d have to make one for a colleague as well.
It’s fair to say then that most employees find the drinks round a yawn-inducing chore and would be more than happy for any feature that made it quicker.
A bean to cup machine would allow them to make a batch of coffees in no-time, as well as act as a fail-safe against those with a habit of under-milking your brew!
Costly coffee makers
While a bean to cup machine can often have a large up-front cost, in the long run, they stand to save you hundreds of pounds when compared to other options.
The coffee pod machine has become incredibly popular over the last few years, but while faster, cleaner and easier to use than most other forms of machine, it’s convenience comes at a huge price.
Buying stocks of coffee pods for your office adds up to astronomical fees over time, and while an average bean to cup machine will cost you 12p per cup, a pod machine could be anywhere between 30-50p per cup.
Simply put, an office of 40 people drinking one coffee a day could cost you between £60 and £100 per week.
A bean to cup would be a mere £24.
Filtered coffee machines are still probably the cheapest option at 10p per cup, but they cannot provide the same barista-level coffee of the bean to cup.
At just 2p more per coffee, the bean to cup still provides the purest coffee, for the lowest overall price.
Taking care of customers
If your place of work is always full of visitors and guests, offering them a hot drink should always be your first port of call for making them feel welcome.
But offering a potential client a plastic cup of cheap nasty coffee is a sure-fire way to give them a terrible first impression of you and your company.
A bean to cup machine can help your office appear professional and classy to the outsider because having a quality drinks machine isn’t just about keeping you and your employees happy!