A lunch and learn is a departure from your typical workday meeting. Unlike meetings that tend to adhere to known formats, lunch and learns are decidedly non-standard events with varying topics, presenters, and structures.

Lunch and learns are a place to share fun, interesting, or otherwise relevant knowledge in a casual and apprehension-free environment. Attendees walk away feeling upbeat, inspired, and more-closely connected with their peers.

In a remote, hybrid, or flexible working environment, lunch and learns take on an additional dimension. They can serve as a virtual venue to foster community and connection, while exposing geographically distributed employees to other parts of the organization.

Let’s take a look at the key benefits of a lunch and learn series and dive into how to make your programming a success.

What’s a lunch and learn?

A lunch and learn is a series of recurring internal meetings that center on the personal experience or expertise of an individual presenter. The goal is to connect employees and share knowledge.

A lunch and learn series may have both tangible and intangible benefits for an organization when it comes to employee engagement, knowledge sharing, and sense of community.

3 benefits of a lunch and learn

Improved cross functional work culture

It’s no surprise that employees can feel isolated from the larger organization, especially in scenarios of remote work. A lunch and learn offers a window into the presenter’s corner of the organization, and can make attendees feel more connected to the organization as a whole.

It also brings employees across the organization together, increasing exposure, cross-pollination, and the likelihood that those individuals collaborate in the future.

Accelerated knowledge sharing

To a surprising degree, employees within an organization often discover solutions, insights, or tools that make them more productive. For example, one employee may discover a more efficient way to manage an existing process that others are unaware of. A lunch and learn is a perfect opportunity for an employee to share unique knowledge that can benefit a wider audience.

Similarly, a team might develop a new tool, feature, or process, but other employees might not be privy to the knowledge or lack onboarding. A lunch and learn can take the form of a deep dive or tutorial to bring everyone up to speed.

Opportunity to support professional development

Resilient organizations understand the value of skilling up or reskilling their workforce. A lunch and learn is a safe, friendly, and inclusive environment for professional development. 

Additionally, presenters have an opportunity to hone in their presentation skills and expand their depth of knowledge. The process of preparing and delivering content invariably makes the presenter understand the content more holistically. After all, one of the best ways to learn and retain something is to teach it.

9 tips to make your lunch and learns successful

Attract diverse presenters

Subtly encourage employees with domain expertise to host a lunch and learn. Make it clear the purpose is to create a fun and friendly environment to share a passion or personal journey of discovery.

Some may jump at the opportunity and volunteer, while others may need a push to get in front of an audience. Both the former and the latter are equally qualified. For shyer presenters, consider providing helpful tips on preparing a presentation to share their ideas.

To encourage employees, try building out incentives. Establish a practice of promoting upcoming lunch and learns internally via Slack, email, or other communication channels. Mention upcoming lunch and learns in company-wide town halls. Internal visibility may say skeptical presenters.

Schedule conscientiously

Ideally, schedule lunch and learns on days that don’t already have large recurring meetings. If possible, try to schedule the event at points during the day where it makes sense to relax – ideally, around lunch. If your organization has no common lunch time due to spanning multiple time zones, consider scheduling the event towards the end of the work day.

Keep in mind it may take some experimentation to find the time that works best for your organization. It’s okay to respond to feedback and tweak scheduling accordingly, especially early on when the program is getting off the ground.

Promote the event

Be sure to promote your lunch and learns in shared channels via slack, email, or other internal communications tools. Announce upcoming events at the next town hall or all hands meeting. Consider creating a sizzle reel or video teaser to get potential participants excited about the event.

Sidestep over prescriptiveness

Try to avoid getting bogged down in rigid templates or strict guidelines. Lunch and learns aren’t required to be perfectly on brand or templated. 

Allow the presenter the freedom to prepare and present material in a way that works best for them. Provide help or resources when needed and support your presenter so they have confidence to shine.

Mind remote attendees

Given the rising trend in remote work, it may benefit organizations to prioritize the remote attendee experience. Employees can’t be expected to converge in a single meeting room — the common medium an organization typically interacts is video. 

Luckily, tools exist to facilitate effortless remote meetings while also optimizing for audience engagement. Encourage presenters to leverage features that promote interactivity like polls, live chats, and Q&A.

Provide lunch

While attendees can bring their own lunch, providing food and snacks adds to the fun. By sponsoring lunch during your lunch and learn you’ll be sure to get employees excited and increase attendance.

For in-person attendees, consider ordering catering from a local favorite lunch spot. For remote employees, proffer gift card codes for a meal delivery app like DoorDash or Grubhub. Alternatively, allow employees to expense a lunch of their choosing.

Encourage post-event resource sharing

A great lunch and learn will inspire attendees to seek more detailed specifics on the topic presented. Feed this curiosity by encouraging presenters to conclude their presentations with details on resources to follow up and learn more. 

Consider creating an internal chat channel on the lunch and learn topic so attendees can discuss and ask followup questions. Also consider using a hashtag for the lunch and learn, so employees can easily find relevant messages on internal channels.

Supercharge the momentum

Springboard off the good vibes to establish a pipeline of future presenters. If an attendee sees both the presenter and the audience having fun and learning, they may be swayed to present in the future. 

Sustain the momentum by creating quick, snappy blurbs about the event’s success via email, social media, or other internal communication channels. Share links to session recordings to allow for asynchronous viewing post-event.

Make it fun

Lunch and learns should be a joy for your presenters and participants. Don’t forget to cheer on your presenters, encourage engagement and questions from the audience, and keep it all lighthearted. 

To help measure success, consider surveying your presenters and participants after the event. Gather feedback on what went well, what to improved, and the likelihood they’ll come for the next event. This can help optimize your lunch and learn strategy.

Launch your next lunch and learn

The presenters are what makes lunch and learns great! Set your presenters up for success with the right tools to share their knowledge and reflect on their personal journey. Leverage virtual events to bring your global team together whether they’re converging in the office or logging in from across the world.

Lean into creativity when designing the right lunch and learn format and don’t be afraid to experiment with different ways to keep your event interesting.

Create your next lunch and learn