Employee recognition involves more than just a “pat on the back.” Although, a pat on the back is a very important aspect of recognition. It also involves showing employees that you value their contribution and professional growth. Planning and providing a Lunch and Learn gives employees a chance to grow.
What are lunch and learns? Lunch and Learn events are small training sessions, usually between 30-45 minutes long that come with free lunch. They usually occur during lunch, or break and provide valuable training or information for employees.
Lunch and Learns should be voluntary. Employees should not feel compelled to come. Because they are voluntary, Lunch and Learns usually have less formal atmosphere and can be a great opportunity for employees to grow and learn professionally.
Hosting a successful Lunch and Learn doesn’t happen accidentally. With a few steps, you can ensure that your team wants to participate and gains worthwhile information or skills.
1. Have Clear Goals of What You Want to Achieve
Although it may be tempting to try and make your lunch and learn a smorgusboarg of information and benefits, it’s counter-productive to do everything. It’s important to narrow down your goals to 1-2 main goals. Hosting a monthly Lunch and Learn with the goals of building unity and comadre looks very different than a 5 week coding Lunch and Learn.
Consider asking your employees what they are interested in learning or participating in. Use Ideas in Thanks to gather Lunch and Learn Ideas from your team. Then, send out a Survey in Polls to find out which topics are the most interesting to your teams.
2. Decide on the Frequency
Lunch and Learn events can be an occasional event, or can be something that is offered in frequent intervals. Once a month or once a quarter are often popular frequencies, unless there is a series of Lunch and Learns that happens once a week over the course of a set period of time.
Be conscientious about planning Lunch and Learn events too frequently. If you plant them too frequently, you will start to get a smaller turnout. Additionally, you may have over-achievers who feel obligated to attend, but who also perform better when they have a break and time to unwind during lunch. Polls will allow you to find out which days and frequency are preferred by your team.
Lunch and Learn events with heavier content may need to be scheduled monthly or quarterly, while team-building lunch and learns with games, yoga, art or other extracurricular lessons can be scheduled weekly. Some companies like to host casual Lunch and Learns on Fridays to kick off the weekend.
Some of your employees may need lunch for personal errands or prefer to socialize. By limiting Lunch and Learns, you can avoid learning fatigue and help keep your employees enthusiastic about them.
3. Don’t Try To Please Everyone
You will have as many opinions about your Lunch and Learn events as you have employees. Lunch and Learn events can be available for everyone, or can be focused on the needs and interests of a particular department.
After using Surveys to decide on a focus for your next Lunch and Learn, decide on the specific topic or theme. If your focus is a specific department, then consider using Quizzes to follow up with specific sub-topics or potential speakers for your event. This will tell you what specific interests the members of your team have.
This can also give you a path for future events and you will know as you’ll know which presenters are the most popular in your team.
4. Choose A Compelling Subject
Lunch and Learn events should be topics that your employees are interested in, but it doesn’t have to include everyone. Have different events to capture the various interests and training needs of your employees, rather than trying to capture everything in one event. Some employees may enjoy direct, technical information that directly applies to their job functions, while others would rather have a life-skills class, or hear entertaining anecdotes and stories about the industry.
5. Don’t Present Mandatory Training
Unless you are paying your employees for their lunch hour, and even if you are, it’s not a great idea to present mandatory training in your Lunch and Learn events. In some states, it may break employment laws. Even if employees are being paid for their time, many states require that employees be provided with a lunch break.
6. Choose a Frequency
Decide how often you want to hold a Lunch and Learn. The events shouldn’t be too frequent. Employees also need breaks to socialize, catch up on errands, or just plain relax. The frequency of your events should be determined with your employees’ needs in mind. Poll employees to find out how often they are interested in an event. Some departments may be interested in only a quarterly Lunch and Learn, while another office may be interested in more frequent events. Other employees may be interested in a weekly book club, walking group, cooking class, or other informal event.
7. Know Who Plans to Attend
Deciding who is invited to the event and who is coming are two important aspects of a Lunch and Learn. You may decide to hold an event for a specific department, like your creative technical team, but want to have an open invitation incase anyone else wants to attend. This can encourage greater community and help to eliminate departmental silos in your organization.
But, you’ll still want to know who is planning to attend. Send out what feature is best? to find out who is planning to attend. Is there a way to get a “yes” and a “maybe” Knowing how many people are likely to come will help you figure out where to hold the event and what other accommodations you need to make.
8. Plan the Food Well
Lunch and Learns are over lunch, so it’s important to plan out the food well. Employees are going to skip their usual lunch routine to attend. You don’t want them leaving hangry (hungry and angry), or feeling left out because of religious, cultural, dietary, allergies, or other eating restrictions. Too often (once is too often), an organizer will skip the extra effort it takes to plan for special needs.
But, that sends the wrong message. The strengths of your company come from the diversity of your employees and not planning for individual needs sends a message that diversity is not really appreciated. Instead, find out what dietary needs your employees have using Survey or Polls. Poll your team to find out what types of food they prefer.
When planning the food, don’t fall back on just the traditional pizza. Cater to your team’s preferences by going healthier, not forgetting dessert, or choosing cultural favorites. Food is an important aspect to lunch and if you want attendees to give up their lunch hour, make sure the food is not an afterthought.
9. Accommodate for Special Needs
Failing to account for the needs of your staff is a sure way to make sure attendees are uncomfortable, distracted, never come back, or worse, leave in the middle of the presentation. Some of your staff may have been on their feet for hours and need a rest, while others may have spent the day in their chairs and need to move around.
Choose a venue that’s easy to get to and has plenty of sitting and standing space. It should have good acoustics. Many people struggle to differentiate sounds and a noisy location will make it harder for them to understand a speaker above other distractions. Ensure that views aren’t being blocked by pillars, poor lighting, and other obstacles.
Beyond that, make sure that any other needs of your employees are being met so that everyone can have a comfortable and pleasant experience.
10. Remember Remote Workers
Too often, remote workers are left out of special events. Make sure that you give remote workers an opportunity to gain the valuable training and information being shared in your Lunch and Learn. You can do this by recording the lunch and learn or by video conferencing.
Make sure that you have someone dedicated to the technology portion specifically for remote workers. That person can manage tech assistance to workers who have trouble getting in, can make sure the camera and speakers are working, and ask questions given by remote workers.
If your event is a team-building event, exercise, or other interactive event, make sure you have monitors set up so your remote team can be seen and heard as well by the rest of the group. This can strengthen the overall cohesion of your team.
11. Schedule A Captivating Speaker or Presenter
Scheduling an interesting speaker is key to a successful lunch and learn. There is nothing worse than a mono-toned speaker reading from a slide. That will make employees feel resentment and like they wasted their time.
Instead, book a speaker that will hold everyone’s attention and provide valuable information. Pull from your pool of talented employees. This can be a chance to develop employees and help to build the team.
Plan ahead by meeting with the speaker and working through the time constraints, technical, and other assistance they may need. When time is limited, technical and other logistical issues can easily derail a great presentation.
12. Triple Check Technology
Technology has a tendency to act up just when it’s needed most. Make sure that your equipment is working and that you have a back up plan if something goes wrong. That will probably mean an extra mic, monitor, or speakers. Make sure all codes to the router and other systems are known and shared with those involved.
When deployed right, technology is hardly noticeable anymore, but it has the power to completely ruin an event.
13. Promote, Promote, Promote
Once your speaker, time, and location are in place, make sure to actively promote your lunch and learn. And, don’t stop with a few simple emails. Pre-record a few short videos with your speaker to entice employees to attend. Announce the event. Send out Polls and Surveys around employee preferences and who’s coming. Put up fliers and get the conversation going on social media and in the Thanks platform.
14. Make it Fun
Ensure your event is something employees will want to repeat. Include games, activities, and fun food. Include music, have ice breaker games, or mix it up. Offer a lunch and learn that incorporates employees goals such as a learning goal, fitness goal, or other goals into the lunch and learn. As you do multiple Lunch and Learn events, rotate the focus and atmosphere of the events.
15. Give Takeaways
People like to have something to takeaways with them. Give out a useful item that can remind employees of the topic. Offer door prizes to early employees. Have a raffle with a bigger prize for attendees. If your Lunch and Learn is a book signing with a local author, give employees the book ahead of time, or a second book by the same author at the event.
Handouts with useful information can also be helpful. This provides employees a quick reference for the most important information that they can refer back to.
16. Interactive
Make your Lunch and Learn events interactive. Have games, activities, and prizes. Use Quizzes and Polls to get the audience to participate. The more your audience participates, the more they are likely to remember and to return!
17. Record It
Consider recording your event for those whose schedules don’t allow them to come, or who are too far to travel to the event. That way, everyone who’s interested can learn and grow with the rest of the team. You may even consider making the video available for everyone to watch later, although there can be some down side in participation if employees think they can just watch it later and not go to the event.
18. Encourage Diversity Conversations
Lunch and Learn events are a perfect venue to have diversity conversations. It’s a great time for smaller groups to meet and discuss changes within the organization. Open discussions will allow for employees to give input and ideas on how the culture can be more inclusive.
Because these events are more informal, employees often feel more comfortable sharing than they would in a formal meeting setting.
19. Follow Up Poll
Use Polls or Survey to get a gauge on how your employees feel the event went and what they would have liked to see done differently. Did they like the food? Was the presentation too long? (Ideally, it should have left them wanting more info.) Were they comfortable? Would they want to attend again? What follow-up topics do they want to see at future events? Gathering feedback immediately after the event can help you to plan and improve future events.
20. Continue the Buzz
Continue the conversation after the event through the Thanks platform. Invite employees to give input and answer quizzes (for points of course). A few days after the event, send out any followup information that can remind employees of a key learning point in the presentation.
Conclusion
Involving employees and allowing them to choose the topics and activities in a Lunch and Learn allows them to grow individually. It also communicates that their opinions and interests are valued. Plus, giving employees choices is a subtle, but important aspect of employee recognition and engagement