Send wellness info on Thursday or Friday morning. Here’s why.
You want to hit employees with these messages before they head out to lunch. And you want to do it on Thursday and Friday because those are the days they’re most likely to nosh at a junk food joint.
A report by Bloomberg Businessweek says weekday salad sales are the highest on Monday and Tuesday.
Translation: Workers already tend to eat healthier at the start of the workweek (most likely because they are remorseful about their weekend diet). So you want to hit them with your wellness communications when they start to fall off the health wagon.
Bloomberg spoke to four salad chains — Fresh & Co., Cafe Metro, Salad Creations and Chop’t — and each said the same thing: Salad sales spike early in the week and taper off as the weekend approaches.
Chop’t, for example, said it sells 10% more salads on Mondays than any other day, and Salad Creations said its Monday sales are about 17% to 22% higher than its Friday sales.
The burger chain Shake Shack, on the other hand, told Bloomberg its busiest day of the workweek is Friday (although Saturdays are its busiest days overall).
In addition, research from the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health found Mondays are when people are most likely to stop smoking, start diets and begin exercise regimens.
Takeaway: Employees are clearly thinking more about their health on Mondays, and that’s probably when they need the least motivation to change their habits. So the next time you’re planning to bring in a healthy lunch for employees or send health reminders, it may pay more dividends to do it just before the weekend arrives, which is when their willpower drops.
