Communications Corner: The secret ingredients for a successful lunch-n-learn

Lunch-n-learns are great for providing employees with important information.
 
Here is how a lunch-n-learn works: Have or bring in someone to talk about or demonstrate a certain topic over the lunch hour when employees are eating their mid-day meals. You would typically hold a lunch-n-learn in a large break room or conference room.
 
Tips for a successful lunch-n-learn:

• Promote the event: Make an announcement at least a week in advance. Put up posters in employee gathering areas and send out an email (if your employees have work email addresses). You may want to include an RSVP feature so you have an idea of how many people to expect.
• Be mindful of time: Leave enough time for employees to take care of personal business such as to use the rest room and/or place a personal call if needed. Shoot for a presentation that uses about half of the employees’ lunch break.
• Have handouts: Provide printed materials that include points from the presentation and contact information and/or website addresses for additional resources.
• Consider providing food: You don’t necessarily have to include the lunch itself, but you may want to provide drinks, fruit, or a dessert.
• Be consistent: Consider holding lunch-n-learns on a regular basis, such as monthly or once a quarter. After the first few, you may notice that attendance is increasing as word gets out about the events.
• Ask for ideas: Encourage employees to submit ideas on topics that they would like to see covered in future lunch-n-learns. This way you can provide employees with what they want (which is always more effective than guessing), and employees will likely feel like leadership is listening and cares about what employees think and want.