Enabling healthy food choices in the workplace: the canteen operators’ perspective

Post-Secondary Food Service Manager Perspectives on Fruit and Vegetable Nudging Strategies: Qualitative Study

BACKGROUND

Changing the choice architecture in post-secondary food service contexts to "nudge" customers to choose more fruits and vegetables (FV) shows promise in intervention studies to date. If such approaches are to become more widely adopted, they must be feasible and acceptable to food service managers. Among possible early adopters, managers of food services in post-secondary education institutions may have unique insights on implementation of such approaches, as they have dual mandates to support student health and maintain profitability.

OBJECTIVE

The goal of this exploratory study was to examine current knowledge, practice, facilitators, and barriers to uptake of nudge strategies promoting FV in a sample of post-secondary food service managers.

METHODS

A qualitative telephone interview study was undertaken with food service managers across Canada (n = 10 institutions), recruited from a national professional organization. One or more representatives from each institution completed the interview. Interviews were audio-recorded, transcribed, and underwent framework descriptive and interpretative content analysis in NVivo (QSR International). Münscher's Taxonomy of Choice Architecture and the Ottawa Model for Research Use guided development and analysis.

RESULTS

Managers from 9 universities and 1 technical college participated. Local context, governance, and resources varied widely. Eight of 10 institutions used some form of FV nudging as part of their marketing and health promotion, most commonly to reduce the effort associated with choosing FV. Nudging strategies aimed at increasing the range and composition of FV offerings, providing a social reference (opinion leaders) for choosing FV, and changing consequences with loyalty cards were also common. Other nudging strategies were used infrequently. Cost, operational ease of implementation, and students' privacy and choices were critical issues in adoption.

CONCLUSIONS

The results can inform development and testing of locally adapted nudge interventions. It is critical that managers be involved from the outset of any planned academic implementation study.

A three-year longitudinal study on the use of pre-ordering in a university canteen

Meal pre-planning is considered a cost-effective behavioral strategy that can improve eating habits, reduce food waste and benefit food operators. This work aimed to offer new insights on the use of meal pre-ordering systems, in particular with regard to younger generations' booking habits and their evolution over time. Our data included observations from 946 students who visited a university canteen over the course of three years. We tried to address questions that were not previously explored in a real setting, namely we analyzed how widespread the use of pre-ordering can be, how much in advance and for how many days users plan their meals, whether there exists a compensation effect for those who order in advance and if increased familiarity with this booking system influences its adoption over time. We found that the adoption of pre-ordering was highest among graduate female students (odds ratio 1.67, p <0.001), who also planned their lunches further in advance and for more consecutive days compared to their peers. Our data also suggested that pre-ordering may increase the amount of uncollected orders, a potential source of collateral waste previously not identified in the literature. Although the generalizability of our findings is limited by the unique characteristics of the setting, the results obtained provide novel cues upon which future literature may build.

Towards a HR Framework for Developing a Health-Promoting Performance Culture at Work: A Norwegian Health Care Management Case Study

The Norwegian Institute of Public Health (NIPH) states that Norway faces several major health challenges. Sick leave is at 6% and costs employers approximately EUR 1.75 billion annually. The NIPH proposes, with the support of the Public Health Act and the national strategy HealthCare21, that preventive measures should be developed to address negative lifestyle factors in order to decrease the number of new cases in the related disease groups (e.g., stroke, high blood pressure, type 2 diabetes, osteoporosis, obesity). The purpose of this article is to answer why and how organisations should develop a health-promoting performance culture and to provide a conceptual model displaying the importance of this type of culture for organisational performance. To boost the national health standard as a consequence of employee physical activity at work, I suggest additional occupational safety and health (OSH) directives. Based on cross-disciplinary theorizing, I propose a definition of a health-promoting performance culture. This kind of culture consists of dimensions such as health objectives, shared health values, supportive health environment, goal-oriented and value-based behaviour of leaders and employees, and a winning mindset. In addition, the article underscores the importance of related individual HR drivers like fun at work, engagement, physical and mental health for increasing organisational performance. The company cases used in this paper, Schibsted, Gjensidige, Findus and Wilhelmsen, and findings from five in-depth interviews, indicate that health-promoting activities are the result of either an HR strategy or individuals’ initiative and voluntariness among the companies’ sports enthusiasts. The case of Findus exemplifies an ongoing development toward a health-promoting performance culture and the importance of leaders’ participation. The findings support several elements of the conceptual model showing the relations between a health-promoting performance culture, individual HR drivers and organisational performance. A framework for developing a health-promoting performance culture in practice is presented.

The workplace meal: a migrant workers' perspective

Purpose

Employees eat at least one meal per day in the workplace on a regular basis, carrying implications for their physical and emotional well-being. For migrants, this can be challenging, owing to food culture differences. This study explores migrant workers’ perceptions of the food eaten in the hospitality workplace.

Design/methodology/approach

Eleven in-depth, face-to-face, semi-structured interviews were carried out with migrant workers in three- and four-star hotels in the southwest of England.

Findings

The findings show that the food eaten in the workplace is perceived as unhealthy and fattening and therefore unappealing. This partly informs a decision to eat home country food away from work.

Research limitations/implications

Further research is needed across many more organisations to investigate whether this would actually have the positive impact on employee well-being (migrant or home national) and employer reputation.

Practical implications

Providing additional “off-menu” meals for migrant employees is recognised. However, staff turnover within the hotel environment may mean that dishes acceptable to one nationality may not be acceptable to another. Alternatively, it may be that attention to such details and the provision of a food offering that is seen as fit for purpose by staff may reduce turnover and demonstrate “care” on the part of the employer. An annual staff survey could be conducted to gauge employee opinion.

Social implications

This study helps to show the significance of food for migrant well-being. It highlights that in increasingly globalised workplaces, food provision is important for both emotional and physical health. The study's findings have relevance to other multicultural workplaces where the food provided to staff may have consequences for employee well-being.

Originality/value

Little research has focused on the link between the food consumed in the hospitality workplace and migrant worker well-being. This study therefore makes an important contribution to knowledge by exploring feelings about the food eaten at work from the perspective of migrant workers themselves.

A Mobile Phone App for the Provision of Personalized Food-Based Information in an Eating-Out Situation: Development and Initial Evaluation

Background

Increasing pressure from governments, public health bodies, and consumers is driving a need for increased food-based information provision in eating-out situations. Meals eaten outside the home are known to be less healthy than meals eaten at home, and consumers can complain of poor information on the health impact and allergen content of meals eaten out.

Objective

This paper aimed to describe the development and early assessment of a mobile phone app that allows the provision of accurate personalized food-based information while considering individual characteristics (allergies, diet type, and preferences) to enable informed consumer choice when eating out.

Methods

An app was designed and developed to address these requirements using an agile approach. The developed app was then evaluated at 8 public engagement events using the System Usability Scale (SUS) questionnaire and qualitative feedback.

Results

Consideration of the literature and consultation with consumers revealed a need for information provision for consumers in the eating-out situation, including the ability to limit the information provided to that which was personally relevant or interesting. The app was designed to provide information to consumers on the dishes available in a workplace canteen and to allow consumers the freedom to personalize the app and choose the information that they received. Evaluation using the SUS questionnaire revealed positive responses to the app from a range of potential users, and qualitative comments demonstrated broad interest in its use.

Conclusions

This paper details the successful development and early assessment of a novel mobile phone app designed to provide food-based information in an eating-out situation in a personalized manner.