When it comes to employee benefits, many companies engage with their workforce through an annual health fair to improve their physical, mental, and emotional health. However, the pandemic has sparked a transition to remote work and an estimated 30% of the workforce will continue to work from home post-COVID — impacting how employers can educate their employees about health benefits and important well-being tips when they aren’t all at the office.
Want to wow your employees with an amazing virtual or hybrid health fair? Whether your employees are fully remote or split between the office and home, here are five steps to get you started:
1) Choosing Your Virtual Health Fair Theme
Before you start working out the details, be sure to choose a theme for your virtual health fair. Choosing a theme adds a unique touch to your event, as well as helping you select decorations, create activities, and market your event to employees. For a hybrid or virtual health fair, consider choosing a theme inviting to both in-person and virtual employees:
- Select virtual elements that work well as in-person decorations (e.g. fonts and colors that can be used on landing pages or on banners)
- Mail printed collateral to employees who are working remotely
You can also incorporate health observances depending on the time of year:
- National Health Education Week in October
- Healthy Vision Month in May
- Family Health and Fitness Day in June
- Children’s Eye Health and Safety Month in August
- “Wear Red” Day in February
2) Planning Out Your Virtual Health Fair Details
This may seem like a no-brainer, but we cannot emphasize the importance of adequate planning. After all, it’s crucial to the success of your virtual or hybrid health fair. Some questions you should ask your planning team include:
- Where are you holding the in-person portion of the event?
- Will employees be attending in-person, virtually via Zoom or Microsoft Teams, or both?
- Are you incentivizing attendance?
- Have you created a schedule?
- How are you presenting information, and who will moderate?
Don’t worry about trying to reinvent the wheel. Download a free copy of our Health Fair Exhibitor Prep Checklist to make sure your health fair exceeds expectations.
3) Choose Your Virtual Event Vendors
It’s important to select vendors and sponsors that improve the physical, mental, and emotional health of your employees. Having a variety of vendors can also boost employee interest in your health fair. Choose vendors that offer your employees the greatest experience and support the goal and mission of the event.
Because virtual and hybrid events require a bit more creativity, think outside of the box when it comes to vendors. That means looking to local businesses near your company and surrounding neighborhoods that can provide a fun experience for your workforce. Consider local gyms for workout classes, family restaurants for cooking classes, or art studios for creative explorations.
If your business is based in Massachusetts, Rhode Island, or New Hampshire, 2020 On-site can be your vendor for vision care. When you schedule us for your event, our eye care team arrives in our mobile vision clinics to provide comprehensive eye exams for your employees at no cost to you! Plus, our patients rave about how we make eyecare fun for the whole family (that’s right — children 8 and older are welcome aboard too!).
Our mobile vision clinic on-site at Cognex for a company visit.
Interested in bringing us to your company? Complete this form and we’ll be in touch!
4) Don’t Forget the Free Stuff
Offering incentives is a great way to help build participation and motivation. Consider finding prizes or giveaways that relate to the theme of your health fair. Additionally, see if your vendors and sponsors can offer any swag items to your employees. Drive interest in your event for in-person employees by holding a contest or challenge beforehand.
To reach your virtual employees, you can offer to pay for lunch delivered to their homes via Grubhub or Uber Eats, or offer discounts on vendor and sponsor services online. Incentivizing your health fair will encourage participation in your employees, whether in-person or virtually.
Recommended Reading: 13 Tips for Throwing an Awesome In-Person Health Fair
5) Promote Your Event
Of course, your health fair’s success is largely measured by the number of attendees. Promoting your event is a key way to have as many engaged, enthusiastic employees attend. Once you have your health fair details complete, announce your event by sending out a save the date. Regularly update your employees to build excitement on your company’s social media profiles.
You should also inquire with your sponsors and vendors about any marketing collateral they can provide to help you hype up the event. When you book a 2020 On-site company visit, we provide all of the marketing materials and assist your team with promotion.
An example of our marketing promotions for residential building client One Greenway.
Still not sure how to reach your employees? Here are a few more ideas:
- Tent cards in employee areas and break rooms
- Digital content in emails/meetings and posters on bulletin boards
- Creative messaging on your company’s intranet
- Work with employee “ambassadors” to promote your event
- Regular announcements in your company’s messaging system like Slack or Teams
- Frequent social media posts on your company’s profiles
Throwing a Great Virtual Health Fair
Health fairs not only get employees engaged with your company, but they are also a great way to bring awareness to health benefits and their well-being. Have you considered bringing mobile vision care to your office or next event? When you schedule a visit with 2020 On-site, we handle booking appointments and providing safe, efficient care to your employees. In fact, that’s why 98% of employees think better of their employer for bringing 2020 On-site to their office.
See how we can help your employees or download our HR two-pager today!