Ideas & Themes for Corporate Health & Wellness Fairs for Employees
Corporate health fairs can be an excellent way for employers to offer insightful information on available health services for employees and their families. These events educate your staff and empower them to take control of their health while also providing screening services such as blood pressure checks.
By learning healthier habits, employees can become more productive and focused, leading to higher job satisfaction and retention rates. Below, we’ll detail exactly how corporate health fairs can benefit your employee population and drive healthcare cost savings.
What is a Corporate Health Fair?
A health and wellness fair engages employees through sponsored events that address your corporate health and fitness benefit plans. These fun, engaging events may also provide nutrition guidelines and educational fitness demonstrations. Moreover, third-party vendors offer health risk assessments and biometric screenings to promote positive lifestyle changes. Depending on the scope of your health fair, employees may even discuss financial wellness with vendors.
Employees are encouraged to ask questions, sample healthy meals, and gather resources to promote healthier habits. In turn, employee health fairs may lead to improved health among employees and lower healthcare-related expenses in the long run for your organization.
Virtual Health Fairs: An Alternative to In-Person Events
As the COVID-19 pandemic taught us, it’s not always possible to host in-person events. Virtual events are an excellent alternative to hosting an in-person corporate health fair for your employees.
Here are some tips for hosting a virtual health fair:
- Choose an easy-to-use platform
- Schedule videos and interesting webinars
- Provide prizes that can be redeemed online
- Include virtual vendor booths
- Offer interactive Q&A sessions
In-Person Corporate Health Fairs: A How-to-Host Guide
When it’s safe to gather in larger groups, you’ll find that planning a health and wellness fair takes some effort, but it’s worth it for your company’s wellbeing. You’ll need to choose a theme, contact sponsors, and market the event.
Below is a helpful guide detailing some common hosting responsibilities and health fair ideas for employees to make your event more successful.
Select a Central Theme
Get creative with employee health fair themes, and use your theme to generate activities and decoration ideas. You could send a survey to employees for ideas that resonate with them or just center the theme around a seasonal or monthly event. For instance, you could focus a September corporate wellness fair on healthy eating to increase awareness about high cholesterol dangers during National Cholesterol Education Month.
Secure Sponsors
Sponsors, such as health-related organizations and local nonprofits, can help cut costs when planning a health fair for companies. Sponsors may include local health organizations, insurance companies, gyms, health food companies, wellness product companies, and exercise equipment stores.
Reflect Health Concerns Through Vendors
Corporate health fairs should promote physical, mental, emotional, and financial health to make the event engaging and beneficial for your employees. When choosing vendors, keeping your intentions at the forefront ensures employees can make well-informed lifestyle decisions moving forward.
Consider Venue Size
Determine how much space you need to host your event. Your venue size will dictate your health fair ideas throughout the event planning process. If you’re looking to save money, you may be able to host an onsite pop-up event. If you have the space to house vendors and their booths, consider this option instead of booking an outside venue. However, you may need to choose a large venue to incorporate the use of a stage, presentation equipment, dining facilities, and numerous vendors. Overall, the venue you choose will depend on your organization’s size, the number of participating employees, and your company’s budget.
Plan Interactive Activities
Educational demonstrations and workshops are the foundation of corporate health fairs. Otherwise, the event may appear lackluster as employees engage in small talk and wander between booths, taking free samples or information packets.
Common corporate health fair ideas include cooking demonstrations, first aid training, or group exercises, like yoga. When you’re planning the activities, it’s best to keep in mind specific industry concerns and population needs.
Market the Health Fair
Promote the event by reaching out to employees via a save the date email. You’ll also want to post posters and flyers around your workplace and send out the event information on social media channels like LinkedIn. Each employee should receive direct communication about the event, including a request to respond to the invite. This way, you’ll be able to estimate a headcount and ensure everyone has access to event information. As you promote your health fair with regularly-scheduled updates, you’ll build more excitement among your employees.
Offer Incentives
Ask sponsors and local businesses if they are willing to provide giveaway prizes to market their services. You can then give raffle tickets so a lucky employee can win a prize.
You could also offer a simple goodie bag with office equipment, coupons, or samples from vendors or sponsors. While giveaways are fun, free items make everyone feel like a winner. And, if your employees know they’ll get some goodies, they may be more likely to show up.
Further, you could offer incentives in the form of demonstrations. On your event flyer, promote activities like a free chair massage or food samples after a cooking demonstration.
Send a Post-Event Survey
Ask participants for feedback to make future health fairs more engaging, cost-friendly, and productive. You should also reflect with peers to determine which components worked well and which need to be improved.
After the event, you’ll want to continue the momentum by sharing photos of the event and highlighting outcomes with your staff.
Benefits of a Corporate Health Fair
Health fairs focus on preventing disease, managing chronic conditions, and enhancing overall wellbeing. When employees take control of their health, they also improve their focus, productivity levels, and attitude. Moreover, they’ll miss less work due to health concerns, reducing company expenses associated with low productivity.
Health fairs can offer health screenings and vaccinations and provide employees with the opportunity to enroll for healthcare benefits. You can also use this time to answer complicated insurance or medical questions in a low-pressure setting.
Corporate Health Fair Costs and FAQs
Sponsors can help offset expenses of hosting an event like this and you should seek them out as soon as you start planning. Your sponsors will help determine the activities you can incorporate into your event. They can also offer giveaways and freebies to make the event more fun and leave tangible impressions on your attendees.
To make the event run more smoothly, many health fair companies offer coordination services and pop-up event planning at affordable rates.
Schedule Time to Talk With Eden Health
A corporate health fair is a great time to introduce new additional benefits to your employees. Contact an Eden Health team member to learn more about our 24/7 virtual care platform, conveniently located medical offices, and pop-up offerings at your office.
