Big Data meets Cup of Joe

Most companies have coffee/beverage service nowadays. At Pinnacol the debate has long raged about what the best coffee is. Most of our employees profess that they want Starbucks but whenever we do periodic blind taste tests of different vendors it's never been Starbucks that has won. Currently we offer Seattle French Roast in our coffee machines as that's the one that's been rated tops by our employees in recent coffee battles. Of course its not sufficient to just serve plain coffee any more and these fancy machines serve up everything from Cappuchino, Latte, and Mocha selections to Chocolate, Vanilla, Milk, and flavor shots. How anyone gets any work done with all of these choices is beyond me.

I was in one of the break rooms today and saw Jose, one of our Facilities team members, installing a new machine. As if we didn't have enough choices already the new machine now offers them in sugar-free. Jose also does the honors every morning by making fresh-brewed iced tea in machines similar to what you'll find at Subway sandwich restaurants. Here too plain old iced tea is not sufficient - on any given day he'll concoct Honey Mint, Passion Fruit, and Mango as well as traditional iced tea. Being the ever-inquiring type that I am I asked Jose if these machines keep track of the servings and if so which flavors were most popular. Not only do these machines do that but Jose also had the inside scoop on which of our four floors drinks the most and least coffee. According to Jose there is considerable variance between the floors but I didn't get into trying to analyze why that might be (do our executives partake of more coffee than the rest of us, do our underwriters need more caffeine than our claims representatives?). Jose gets weekly reports on all of this so from a "big-data" perspective he's got it covered.

When we interview candidates we always offer them coffee, tea, or water. Most candidates choose only water but perhaps after reading this we'll get more requests to try some of the other offerings. I have a feeling those that have been asking for water haven't known what they've been missing!

By the way, if you've ever been curious about where the term cup of Joe came from you might be curious to click here.