Modern office: Will work for food and exercise NetApp employees Fiona Keating and Todd Beck enjoy a free breakfast at the company's Brisbane office. THE days of workers being crammed into tiny cubicles and ending up with hunched backs and bad attitudes are coming to an end, as companies clamour to pamper their employees. More employers are seeing the monetary and morale-boosting benefits of taking care of their 'human capital' to ensure people are working at their maximum and their best talent doesn't go elsewhere. By ensuring employees are better fed, healthier and more socialised and exercised, we are witnessing the evolution of the modern office. Free food Just as families who play together, stay together, so employees who eat together, work together. Companies are feeding staff on a semi-regular basis in an effort to improve morale. Australia-wide tech company NetApp said offering a full breakfast menu once a month helps them start the day in an upbeat mood. "By hosting a regular breakfast at team meetings, employees are given the opportunity to get to know each other on a more personal level, leaving work conversations aside," NetApp spokesman Todd Beck said. It also eases employees into the week. Flexi time and job sharing Whether there is 38 or 16 hours in the working week, more organisations are letting people do those hours when it suits them - rather than demanding bums on seats between 9am and 5pm. This has been driven by technology but also by recent federal law changes giving parents with kids under six the right to ask their boss for flexible working arrangements. Impact HR Consulting principal Therese Ravell said flexible work arrangements are becoming more popular. "A lot of full-time employment is being replaced by part-time employment and part of the reason for that is that it offers cover for when people go on leave," she said. It started as a way for mums to juggle time, but it is also common for athletes and entrepreneurial types who want to enjoy other parts of their lives. Telecommuting Mobile technology and longer commuting times have allowed many employees to work from home or out of the office. Research from flexible workplace provider Regus Australia estimates 35 per cent spend half their working week outside their main office and many of these employees rely on coffee shops as a key 'third place' for work. Coffee shops have become so prevalent as second offices that some people can't concentrate without cafe noise. Earlier this year Coffitivity.com created an app which replicates the ambient noise of a cafe so people's creativity isn't stifled by silence. Recruitment company Hays director Tim James said working from home is not frowned upon like it used to be. "In the longer term, companies are realising that offer these arrangements usually means the employees are going to be more loyal," he said. It allows people to spend more time with their families and work hours that suit them. Employee wellness programs Boxing classes, rock-climbing walls in the office, office bikes and even an office dog that needs to be walked every lunchtime: wellness programs come in all shapes and sizes. Corporate Olympics events and yoga classes have been around for years, but companies are starting to get smarter with how they spend their cash. Impact HR Consulting principal Therese Ravell said the best programs look at the needs of their staff first. "An IT group, for example, has recently started a healthy cooking program where they have a chef come in every month to teach them new ways of cooking healthy food - and then they all get the chance to enjoy the food," she said. It is giving them life skills and also creating that community factor when they come together and eat. Standing desks Fatter employees with higher cholesterol and blood pressure levels are generally less productive, and companies know it. The solution? Get primitive. "Historically when we were cavemen we had to sit down to take a break, but now we sit all day and have to stand up to take a break," Southern Cross University exercise physiologist Dr Bill Sukala said We're going to see a continued trend upward of people adopting standing workstations. In an eight-hour day if someone stands for four of those eight hours, over the course of a year the amount of energy they burn is equivalent to about 30kg of body fat.