In 2013 a study was carried out by Strong Vend to see what effect coffee drinking had on the workforce. The workforce, that was the subject of the study, was Cyber Duck, a digital agency. Surveys were sent out so that those participating could disclose any changes in behaviour. The main highlight of the research was that productivity rose by 19% when drinking coffee, so coffee proved an important factor in the output of this agency.
Study
The study involved monitoring people at the agency over a week drinking coffee and a week of no coffee. The results were split by the roles people performed in the agency between the designers, developers, marketers and new business.
In addition to productivity the following observations were made of the workforce as a whole.
- Workers were 18% more motivated when they drank coffee
- Mood was 15% more positive in the week that drinking coffee was allowed
- Concentration with coffee was better by 6%
- Performance was 16% better in the coffee drinking week
Overall people also commentated that they were 27% more anxious without coffee than when they were drinking coffee.
So there you have it. Maybe the office coffee machine is more important to a business than just a meeting place to gossip. It could just be as important to the output and motivation of a workforce than we ever considered before.