12 Ideas For Virtual Health Fair Success

One effective way for an organization to improve employee well-being is to provide an opportunity for employees to learn about available benefits and interact with a variety of wellness experts in a single location or occasion. These events, often referred to as health fairs, have traditionally been held in physical spaces like a company’s headquarters. Unfortunately, these events are not made easily available to employees who cannot attend the event. This problem became more pronounced when all employees became remote during the pandemic. Thankfully, it is possible to deliver each of the services that would have been available in an on-site health fair accessible virtually.

This post details the reasons for hosting a virtual health fair so that your organization can make an informed decision on the format of its next health fair. Additionally, it contains tips and tricks for running a successful virtual health fair so that your company will be well prepared to go virtual if it so elects.

Reasons To Host A Virtual Health Fair

There is an array of motivations to choose to go virtual with your next health fair. The top three reasons are:

1. A large portion of your workforce works from home
   With a vast majority of the workforce working from home or returning to the office environment on a 3-2-2 schedule, offering a virtual health fair allows everyone to participate from wherever they may be located.
2. You have more than one office location
   Hosting multiple on-site health fairs requires a significant investment of time, money, and energy! A virtual health fair is an opportunity to provide all employees with more events, more services, and better prizes at a lesser price point. As a result, companies with more than one office location can decrease their monetary and energic expenditures and increase their return-on-investment by hosting a single virtual health fair instead.
3. Event Variety
   When streaming, event providers can be anywhere in the world. This means that the variety of services available to you are endless.

Read more on the benefits of going virtual here.

12 Ideas To Make Your Virtual Health Fair Successful

Once you’ve determined that a virtual health fair is the way to go, use the 12 ideas below to make your fair successful.

1. Event Logistics
   There are many options when it comes to delivering the content provided during your virtual health fair. You can either organize this internally using tools that your organization already has access to such as Zoom, Slack, or Teams, or you can partner with an organization that will take care of these logistics.
2. Benefits Providers
   Traditionally, on-site health fairs offer employees a chance to meet with your company’s benefits providers face-to-face and learn more about their services. Virtually, you can give your employees the same experience by having each provider create a webinar and offer one-on-one meeting opportunities with employees.
3. Physical Fitness
   Virtual Health Fairs are perfect platforms for working in fitness activities. Think outside the box and consider classes such as tai chi, self-defense, and kickboxing.
4. Educational Webinars
   Teach employees how to stay healthy with educational wellness webinars. When adding these events, remember that wellness extends beyond physical health. It also includes mental health, financial well-being, intellectual health, and more.
5. Mindfulness Activities
   Mental health has been gaining a lot of traction in the work environment, especially over the last year. While there are a variety of meditation apps out there to choose from, a live meditation class will create a shared experience between participants. Beyond meditation, there are plenty of other activities that promote mindfulness. In your next virtual health fair, try a mindful journaling class, knitting, or calligraphy!
6. Self-Care
   Employees are both physically and mentally exhausted after 2021 and have limited “me” time with everyone in the household being home 24 hours a day. Use your virtual health fair to give your employees some time to relax. Self-massage, self-reflexology, and yoga nidra are all perfect virtual relaxation events.
7. Work From Home Ergonomic Consults
   Individual ergonomic consults can help employees adjust their work from home set ups to help them avoid the aches and pains of improper ergonomics.
8. Health Coaching
   Health coaching programs are designed to guide and motivate employees to become advocates for their own health. Coaches help participants make positive behavior changes and engage in healthy lifestyle habits, such as exercise and stress management.
9. Food
   Food brings people together. Whether your workforce is distributed globally or in just one office location, a cultural cooking class is a sure-fire way to help your employees create stronger bonds and cultivate a deeply rooted sense of community.
10. Drink
    Health fairs should be fun! This element may seem lost virtually, but it doesn’t have to be. When planning your event, go beyond the traditional events and book a few services just for fun! Try offering wine tasting, mixology, and mocktail making classes!
11. Company Themed Events
    Don’t forget that you want the corporate brand to shine during this event. The best way to do this is to create fun events around the company brand. Consider hosting a custom themed trivia night on historical and current event questions about the company and its employees or a journaling class on the company’s mission statement to reinforce your organization’s history, culture, and purpose.
12. Attendance and Engagement
    Traditional on-site health fairs offer raffles and stamped passports that serve as proof of the events employees attended. Now, health fair passports are outdated. Consider replacing them with tech-forward solutions that reward employees to participate in health fair events. Think about providing your employees the chance to win giveaways and wellness points by passing virtual quizzes on the information presented in your events. Also, be sure to offer a live chat or online helpdesks, which can mitigate attendees’ social anxiety and encourage questions that otherwise would not have been asked.

Looking for even more tips on how to hold a successful virtual health fair? Read more here.