Break room equipment should be considered a beneficial renewal in the workplace rather than a luxurious or redundant cost for a business. Creating a comfortable and spacious breakroom will help your staff have time for relaxing and refreshing, which will prepare the employees for more efficient work during the rest of the day.
According to a survey published in Forbes, 90% of the employees are of the opinion that they will be more willing to get back to work after taking a break. Therefore, providing regular breaks to the employees will improve their attitude towards the job and increase their productivity. Additionally, taking a break will alleviate the stress and tension of the employees and provide them with adequate time to relieve themselves before returning to their workstations. Furthermore, employees will have a comfortable place to grab a snack or lunch in a dedicated space. They can also follow a diversified and healthy diet with extra additions to the breakroom.
These breakroom cabinets or rooms will bring the maximum advantage when the staff is allocated a separate break room, where they can be away from the work atmosphere and customer reach. If you want to equip a break room for your staff, you will need a list of break room equipment to make the place practical, functional, and attractive for the team. We, hence, have created a list of essential break room equipment that will be best to include in your design.
Features of a Good Break Room
If you desire to present a suitable and beneficial resting and comforting breakroom in your workplace, you should;
- Equip and decorate the office breakroom with all the needed break room equipment,
- Create a spacious, no-customer and employee-only zone,
- Provide a courtesy food and beverage range to enable employees to enjoy their time here,
- Organize the layout to allow staff to gather, collaborate, relax, even take a nap, and recharge,
- Help your personnel relieve the stress and burnout of the work via TV or even with a game console.
Primary List of Good Break Room Equipment
1. Commercial Refrigeration
Commercial refrigeration can be counted as one of all employees’ vital break room equipment to enable them to keep the foods and drinks that they bring home safely in a chilled place. Thus, a good break room should also be equipped with a suitable commercial refrigeration system.
- Commercial Reach-in Refrigerators
Despite the residential counterparts with lower prices, commercial refrigeration units offer more durability and stable cooling, which will be very useful in the breakrooms that many employees use in a shorter period of time. This break room equipment will be opened frequently during lunch hours, and the door will stay open for a longer duration. However, the powerful chilling mechanism and better insulation of the commercial refrigerators will handle these conditions very well and cool the food products, drinks, or meals.
- Underounter Refrigerators
If you have a small break room, you had better opt for an ideal office break room design to maximize the space and open up the floor for all the necessary break room equipment. Undercounter refrigerators are the right choice for this type of break room with their compact structure and robust cooling systems.
2. Cooking/Warming
Despite the impossibility of installing a full kitchen in the break room because of inefficiency, some break room equipment will be handy to help your employees to prepare their snacks or meals.
- Commercial Toasters
Commercial toasters present quick and practical solutions for your employees and enable them to cook a snack by roasting bread for a tasty sandwich. This break room equipment can deliver more toasts in a shorter time, and your staff can prepare their sandwiches quick enough not to overrun the lunch or break time.
- Commercial Microwaves
Commercial microwaves can be counted as one of the essential break room equipment which should be added to the inventory of every employee lounge. Commercial microwaves enable rapid heating of the meals, and therefore, your staff can get their food ready in a shorter time. Frozen meals, French fries, or even pizzas can be quickly heated with this must-have break room equipment.
3. Break Room Equipment Furniture
The staff rooms should also have enough seating and other furniture to accommodate the staff for a relaxing break. You can add some of the following break room equipment to your break room for more comfort.
- Bar stools
The best way to create a relieving zone for your staff is to provide a familiar place for them to use. Therefore, you may opt to purchase bar stools and high bar tables to decorate your employee break room. Your staff can gather with their colleagues in a bar-like atmosphere to enjoy their time.
- Booths and Chairs
Company break rooms should be re-designed as more than a break-room, and you can give your employees a gift by re-decorating break rooms like an authentic café or restaurant. You can add booths and chairs around tables, and your staff can enjoy their meals during lunchtime thanks to the relaxed space.
- Safe Lockers
Safe lockers can be an option to add into the breakroom to spare a place for the employees to place their personal belongings, keys or even charge their phone during their time at work and the break room.
4. Snack Bar
A snack bar will be a perfect addition to any industrial break room, and it will create a quiet, cozy environment for the staff, where they can enjoy healthy snacks. You can add several break room equipment to your break room décor to form a great snack bar.
- Food Display Cases
Heated display cases are designed to preserve deli products in a closed and heated cabinet to protect them from dust and dirt as well as maintain their warmth or chill for tastier consumption. While deli display cases are refrigerated cabinets to ensure lower temperature levels for sandwiches and other deli products, the heated display cases present a suitable place to maintain the heat of the pizza or hot dogs.
You can place one of this break room equipment into your break room kitchen and stock it with the delicious selection of pizzas, sandwiches, and delis. Your staff will surely enjoy one of these snacks during their breaks.
- Refrigerated Condiment Chiller
Condiment dispensers are perfect break room equipment to present fruit, salads, or ice in a self-serving refrigerated counter. These units provide separate pans where fruit slices, ice, salads, chopped or diced veggies can be placed. Your personnel can find a variety of fruits or veggies within their reach all the time and can turn back to their job after a refreshing snack.
5. Beverage Center
A beverage station in a workplace is the fundamental source of relaxing and refreshing thanks to the cold and diverse beverages available to the employees. These sections can be enhanced with various break room equipment such as hot and cold beverage dispensers or merchandisers.
Coffee and tea are like the gasoline of all employees. Therefore, providing a coffee station with the right break room equipment to enable all employees to have coffee freely at any time of the day will be an outstanding contribution to staff productivity.
- Coffee Maker/Brewer/Machine
One of the essential break room equipment is coffee makers/brewers that will prepare fresh coffee all the time during your work time. These break room appliances can be found in a wide range, from the coffee brewers for decanters to the versatile espresso machines that can serve various coffee types.
- Tea/Coffee/Iced Tea Dispenser
Another break room equipment that can be added as a part of coffee is tea-coffee-iced tea dispensers. These tea, coffee, iced tea dispensers can accelerate the coffee service on the condition that there are more people to be served at a time.
- Mobile Condiment Carts
You will realize that there will be many different things that should be placed at the coffee bars of the break rooms. Therefore, it is better to keep them organized both to facilitate use and shorten the service time. Mobile condiment carts are perfect break room equipment to manage disposable cups, straws, fruit herbal tea packets, sugar packets, and teaspoons.
- Water Dispensers
Water is a crucial need of our bodies, and therefore it is necessary to place water dispensers all around the working area and office. Your staff can easily reach the water with this break room equipment. These water dispensers can provide both hot and cold water.
- Ice Dispenser
In addition to water dispensers, you should definitely place an ice maker and supply ice for the beverages for refreshing drinks because an ice machine is not a luxury; it’s a need.
- Water Filtration Systems
Installing a water filtration system in your breakroom will present your staff with clean and sanitized water, which can also be used for coffee brewing and drinking.
- Beverage Merchandiser
A beverage station can be an attraction point for the staff with the best commercial merchandisers. This break room equipment will retain coke, soda, water bottles, and cans cold until they are served to the team. In addition, these beverage merchandisers are of sleek designs with illuminated interior cabinets and back-lit top displays. Besides, this break room equipment has glass doors to enable the server or the staff to see what they want, reducing energy consumption.
- Commercial Juicers
Another exclusive piece of break room equipment is commercial juicers. It will provide a rapid and durable machine to serve fresh fruit juice to your valuable employees during their breaks. These units quickly prepare the juice, and therefore, it will not postpone workers’ return to the job.
6. Break Room Equipment Supplies
If you do not carefully watch the condition of the office break room and re-fill the emptied breakroom supplies, the intended goals will most probably fail. Therefore, you should keep the necessary supplies at hand all the time and present these stuff as neatly organized and easily accessible with the following break room equipment.
7. Dinnerware Disposals
- Flatware Holder
Keeping the necessary flatware for your staff is also required to let them have their meals and snacks. Hence, you can place a flatware holder on the serving counter in your break room kitchen. Additionally, a napkin dispenser will offer an easy-reach and easy-to-use cleaning unit when installed in the commercial break room.
- Beverage Service Supplies
Beverage service supplies provide fast service and ease the life to your staff. Your employees can fill the cups easily with beverage dispensers that offer mobility in a small area. You can also install cup dispensers, cup & lid organizers, straw dispensers, and lid dispensers near your service counter so that your staff can take the necessary cups and straws during their lunch break.
8. Cleaning and Sanitation
Cleaning and sanitation are vital for every food serving floor, principally because of preventing cross-contamination and hygiene. Thus, you should keep all the cleaning products within easy access and keep them filled all the time. Remarkably, the disinfectants, soap, and detergents are must-have break room supplies to be closely watched and supplied to maintain healthy use in these break rooms.
Furthermore, trash cans are vital break room equipment, and there should be enough trash cans around the break room to prevent the mess in the cabinet. Staff should quickly reach cans to throw their trash, facilitating the room’s tidying.
Conclusion
All in all, break rooms should not be viewed as a cost or spending for the business owners as they are critical to the rising performance and enthusiasm of the employees. Commercial break rooms are not only a place for having snacks or beverages but also a gathering and connecting spot for the employees, which will contribute to the collaboration among the team. Additionally, creating a break room juice bar or café with the right break room equipment will boost the morale of the staff and improve their creativity and productivity.
