How Crafty Uses Crafty: How We Activated Employee Voting at HQ

The first test of any new Crafty Platform feature is simple: We test it out ourselves.

Just like you, we believe in the power of a great office pantry program. We also know how challenging it can be to actually run one. Balancing budgets, keeping employees happy, and making constant decisions about what to bring in next is not as simple as it sounds. That is exactly why we put new features into our own offices first. If it does not make that job easier for us, it is not ready for you.

So when a feature is ready to be tested, our first call is to Halle Hutchinson. She is both an Executive Assistant and our HQ office manager, which means the pantry is just one part of a much larger role. Before Employee Voting, she was already getting constant input. Slack messages, quick conversations in the kitchen, comments after deliveries. None of it was the issue. The challenge was that it all lived in different places, which made it harder to step back, see the full picture, and make decisions with confidence.

What's Employee Voting

In case you have been heads down and missed it and somehow avoided our emails, blog posts, and LinkedIn updates (impressive, honestly), Employee Voting is exactly what it sounds like.

It gives your team a simple way to vote on what they want in the pantry.

Instead of collecting requests across Slack messages, surveys, and hallway conversations, everything happens in one place. Employees can:

• Browse products
• Heart what they like
• Downvote what they do not
• All that data flows into the Crafty Platform for workplace teams to make decisions

Activating Employee Voting at Crafty HQ

Halle was the very first workplace leader to test out Employee Voting. Like anything new in the office, it was on her to figure out how to roll it out in a way that people would actually engage with.

She kept it simple and focused on making it visible, easy, and a little bit fun. Here's what she did:

• Set an empty basket on the snack shelf with a sign that said "This could be your snack" with a QR code linking directly to voting
• Shared the voting link in Slack so it was easy to access throughout the day
• Added “I Voted” stickers to create visibility and spark conversations across the office

“People were really campaigning for their votes," said Halle. "They were sharing the link, talking about what they wanted, and checking where things stood in real time.”

Turning Votes Into Decisions

Once the votes started rolling in, Halle was able to see them directly inside the Crafty Platform without having to search through endless Slack threads or try to remember a conversation from three weeks ago.

In that first month, she went straight to the top of the list and brought in the three highest-voted items:

• Chocolate-covered pretzels (campaigned for by Emma Waterman, Crafty's Director of Client Experience) 
• Tiny Tate’s Cookies
• Strawberry Lemon Poppi

From there, she refined her approach. Rather than continuing to bring in multiple items at once, she shifted to introducing one new item at a time. It made it easier to manage rotation, keep the pantry balanced, and actually see how each product performed once it was in the space.

At that point, the process became part of her regular workflow. She could check what was trending, decide what to test next, and add it to upcoming orders without second-guessing the decision.

“I decided to go for three items to really drive engagement that first month," said Halle. "Moving forward, I can scale it back depending on what makes sense.”

Halle’s Advice for Success

For Halle, success came down to a few things:

• Put the signage where decisions are taking place, and that's inside the pantry
• Don't forget to share the link in Slack or whatever messaging platform, so it is easy to access anytime
• Reminders keep voting top-of-mind, especially as votes reset each month
• Announce what employee picks made it onto the shelves so they know their votes count

“I sent a message when the top-voted items hit the shelves," said Halle. "People were really excited to see what they picked showed up.”

How This Changed Halle’s Day-to-Day

For Halle, the biggest impact was how much simpler everything became.

Before Employee Voting, keeping up with requests meant digging through Slack, remembering conversations, and piecing together feedback over time.

Now, everything is in one place, so she can quickly see what people like and dislike alongside consumption data to make the best possible decision on what to bring in next.

And over time, it gave her something even more valuable. Time back in her day.

“This has just saved me so much time," says Halle. "For those of you who manage your offices, you know that any time back is a gift.”

Crafty Runs on Crafty

At Crafty, Employee Voting took something that was already happening and turned it into a systematic process that was easier to manage and could drive smarter decisions.

For Halle, that meant less time chasing input and more confidence in what she is bringing into the pantry. For the team, it meant seeing their feedback show up on the shelves in a way that feels real.

That is exactly why we test every feature on ourselves first. If it does not make running a pantry program easier, faster, and more effective in our own offices, it is not ready for yours.