Late-Night Work: Does Your Company Offer Food and Transport Reimbursement?

We are an IT company and want to introduce the Food Reimbursement policy for employees who are working beyond their regular working hours at night. We also want to initiate a policy for local transport reimbursement.

I want to know whether others in the industry have adopted such policies?

Food Reimbursement Practices in IT Companies

This is a well-known practice in most IT companies. It's up to the companies how they manage it.

In my previous company, employees were provided with evening snacks (with an upper limit per day per employee), and this was managed by the admin department. The housekeeping staff would come and take orders from the employees, and they placed an order in the cafeteria accordingly. This monthly expense was borne by the company, so there was no need for employees to claim it in this scenario.

Alternative Practice: Claiming Expenses

Another practice is that employees can order on their own and claim the expense later with bills. The same applies to transport.

Fixing an Upper Limit for Reimbursement

It's better to fix an upper limit and reimburse instead of arranging. You should have a detailed note on eligibility criteria for snacks.

Transport Arrangements

As far as transport is concerned, I suggest fixing the timings and instructing the Admin/security to organize. For example, if the office hours end by 6 PM, then organize a vehicle at 8 PM and one more at 10:30 PM. Those employees who continue till 8 PM are eligible for snacks, and those staying until 10:00 PM can have dinner and leave by 10:30 PM. Failing which, every employee goes on their own. If it is beyond 10:30 PM, then it is the Head of Department's (HOD) responsibility to approve and clear to avoid high financial implications.

Food Reimbursement Policy Considerations

In order to frame a food reimbursement policy, you need to answer the following questions:

1. Whether the overtime work is to be performed by individual staff members or entire teams?
- If the overtime work involves a team, then leave it to the concerned Department Head to approve all those expenses. Department Heads will try to justify those expenses in a meaningful way and try to avoid excessive spending on food and refreshments during a normal assignment.

2. What is the frequency of such overtime work and how long will it extend beyond your regular working hours?
- If it is very rare, it's better to ask staff to have dinner/refreshments and get it reimbursed with the approval of their HOD. You need to decide whether bills need to be submitted.
- If overtime is very common, as per the business needs, Admin/HR shall assess the workforce requirement and make it available in the pantry.

3. Since you belong to the IT sector, where most of you could have the option of "Work From Home," why do you require your staff to stay at the office for overtime work?

Local Transport Reimbursement Policy

Regarding the local transport reimbursement policy, try to arrange an available cab (if one is provided during regular work hours) to pick up the workforce and drop them in a common area where they can easily access their preferred mode of travel, which shall be reimbursed by them.

Thanks for your response.

In the industry, what is usually the upper limit provided to employees for food (dinner) and transport reimbursement?