Professional development programs, training sessions, mental health seminars, team building exercises—all of these and more are likely a part of your small business’s 2024 plans for employee engagement. And one of the most effective formats for these and many other initiatives is commonly referred to as a “lunch and learn.”
Whether recurring events or standalone opportunities devoted to a specific topic, lunch-and-learn sessions have become a highly successful option chosen by businesses of all sizes around the globe. So what are the benefits to company culture and career development?
What is a lunch and learn?
A lunch and learn is exactly what the name implies—a meeting or session where employees and leadership can enjoy lunch hour while taking in information of some kind. [1] Beyond this, the format of a lunch and learn is wide open to your small business’s needs. For example, companies may bring in a keynote speaker or guest speakers to present on a specific topic, such as personal development, team building, or time management. Small-business owners may also use the format to bring an entire team or business unit together for company culture development or to share information about a new initiative, product launch, or program.
This is one of the benefits of most lunch-and-learn programs. The format is flexible, casual, and open to whatever you and your employees need to gain from a team session. Many employers and small-business owners have focused on employee engagement, personal development, new skills training, leadership skills or professional skills development, new product announcements, and so on.
While some sessions may be optional or brown-bag lunches (where employees bring their own lunch), most lunch-and-learn leaders would recommend offering a free lunch as part of the event. This not only incentivizes everyone’s attendance and participation, but also creates a feeling of positivity about the event or session (especially important since employees are giving up their traditional lunch break in order to attend).
How does a lunch and learn work?
Like any efficient meeting, you want to start your lunch and learn planning with a clear agenda. Before even sending out invitations or “save the date” messages to your staff, make sure you know what you want to present, discuss, or provide your employees with. Is this a cross-training opportunity to introduce one department to the typical projects and duties of another department? Are you looking for a generic icebreaker where you introduce new employees and foster connections with existing employees? Is this lunch and learn limited to in-person employees? If not, how will you engage and include remote employees in the event?
These are just some of the questions you might ask as you begin planning your lunch and learn. Beyond this, you’ll want to find out what your budget is for both lunch (if being provided) and external speakers or experts.
With your topic and plan in place, you’ll want to move on to finding a time that fits best with employees’ schedules. While there is never a perfect time in a workday or workweek, considering the current workload, time-sensitive projects, and general availability will help to ensure the best attendance and engagement.
Should SMBs use lunch and learns?
The potential benefits that small businesses can see from regularly hosting lunch-and-learn opportunities are both immediate and long lasting. From helping team members work together more closely to developing soft skills, improving stress management for individuals and teams, and much more, lunch and learns are a valuable tool for both organizations and employees.
How can lunch and learns help your business grow?
Lunch-and-learn events are helpful to businesses in a number of ways, and all of them can lead to improved growth and new opportunities.
First, bringing teams together in an informal setting offers employees an opportunity for face time with their coworkers and their leaders. People get an opportunity to meet and speak with individuals that they might not see in the course of a regular day. This helps improve relationships, which then leads to stronger teams.
Lunch-and-learn sessions also offer an opportunity for employees to ask questions and discuss topics that might not come up during a regular workday when other meetings and tasks get in the way.
Finally, lunch-and-learn sessions offer leadership direct insight into how employees and teams are feeling about the business, about their projects, and about ways in which the business could be doing better. This is valuable information, and it almost never comes up in the course of regular meetings or check-ins. From concerns about employee morale to current challenges and hindrances, there is remarkable insight to be gained from these types of informal sessions. And that insight is worth a lot more than the price of a few lunches.
Benefits of lunch and learns
Some of the benefits of a lunch-and-learn session were mentioned above, but there are many reasons why your small business should consider incorporating regular lunch-and-learn sessions. A few of the other benefits to your small business include:
- Improved employee development: From life skills to developing new skill sets within and across teams, a focused lunch-and-learn series offers great training and growth opportunities.
- Knocking down silos: Teams and departments are often very separated from each other, as are their job duties. Lunch-and-learn sessions offer a great chance for employees to learn about their organization and other departments, and develop better cross-departmental relationships as well.
- Enhanced teamwork and productivity: Lunch-and-learn events are also an opportunity to re-energize teams and departments, address concerns, and ultimately strengthen team morale.
- Stronger company culture: A shared culture of learning and sharing benefits everyone, and offering informative lunch-and-learn sessions about important topics creates a culture of openness, sharing, and collaboration.
Whether your business is fully in-person or a hybrid organization, lunch-and-learn sessions offer tremendous benefits for companies and teams. [2]
Strategies for making the most of lunch and learns
In addition to having a planned topic or discussion point and considering the schedule and time constraints, there are a few other things to keep in mind as you seek to host impactful lunch-and-learn sessions. These include when lunch and learns make the most sense to have, as well as some key “must dos” and “don’t dos.”
When to use them and when not to use them
Figuring out when lunch and learns make sense and when they don’t can be a little tricky, but there are some general guidelines you can follow to help you decide if they are the right choice.
For instance, hosting a training event for a new product, service, or technology is a great use for a lunch-and-learn program, but only if you can fit the material and a Q&A session into the allotted time. However, if you know that the topic will take longer than an hour, a lunch and learn might not be the right choice.
Another example would be on the topic of diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI). If you are looking to introduce a company policy and background information on the business’s commitment to DEI, a lunch and learn might be a good option. However, if you need to host a training session about DEI issues or a discussion of further organizational needs, this may require a longer session as well as follow-up sessions and breakout groups.
These are just a couple of recommendations, but they give you an idea of how to decide if a lunch-and-learn training event makes the most sense for your needs.
Dos and don’ts to hosting a lunch-and-learn session
In terms of best practices, we’ve broken down some advice into “dos” and “don’ts” for your lunch-and-learn planning.
- Do stay on schedule: Lunch is typically only an hour, so make sure that your planned topic and any further discussion can fit within the hour. Be sure to leave time for questions.
- Do stay on topic: While fruitful conversation is the goal of any lunch and learn, be sure to direct that conversation toward the chosen topic in order to keep to the time and make the most of the session.
- Do summarize the session and provide takeaways: Avoid the “in one ear and out the other” fate of many meetings by providing additional material, activities, or opportunity for discussion following the session.
Some of the key “don’ts” include:
- Don’t shy away from tough topics: Direct conversation and dialogues are key to addressing or preventing issues, as well as key to ensuring that everyone has a chance to be heard. So don’t be afraid to broach sensitive or difficult topics in a lunch and learn.
- Don’t neglect remote workers: If your small business is a hybrid model, or if you have remote team employees in different locations, be sure that you take this into consideration as you make your plan and arrange your event. And if your whole team is remote, you can still host a great lunch-and-learn virtual event.
- Don’t stop with just one: If the conversation is going well and there’s more to cover, make sure that you create space and opportunity for the conversation to continue. And make sure that you are also planning for future lunch and learns to cover additional topics as they arise.
Lunch-and-learn topic ideas
There are countless options for lunch and learn ideas, but some of the best topics to get you started include: [3]
- Task management tools
- Organization tips
- Public speaking skills
- Team building trivia
- Wellness in the workplace
- Workplace communication
- Mindfulness at work
- Work-life balance tips and tactics
- Career advancement and professional development
- Educational resources for employees and families
- The importance of branding
- The latest social media marketing
- Making the most of employee benefits
These are just a few of the hundreds of options, but they offer some ideas to get you started as you map out your lunch-and-learn plan for 2024.
Make 2024 a year of learning
As you can see, lunch and learns can provide a number of benefits to small businesses. And one of the best parts is that any topic can be considered for lunch-and-learn sessions. The key is simply providing valuable information (and lunch) for employees in a supportive, informal, and informative setting.
When it comes to discovering your small business’s needs and the topics that would most benefit your organization, you don’t have to go it alone. From human resources topics to the latest developments in digital marketing, there are countless experts and partners at UpCity. Why is this important? Because not only can they provide services in those areas, they can also serve as guest speakers and provide valuable training during your lunch-and-learn events. They can also help you brainstorm topics and subjects for a series of lunch-and-learn sessions, and they will gladly discuss your company’s specific needs in order to facilitate the most valuable discussions and sessions.
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