We have over fourteen years employee health fair experience in multiple companies throughout the country. In this post, we combine our experiences in these events with our project planning and business process expertise to help you plan a successful health fair for your employees.
Leadership Supports Employee Health Fair
Gaining support from company executives and management will increase the success of the employee health fair. Run the date of the event past them prior to finalizing the date to identify any potential conflicts. Request meetings are kept to a minimum on that date. For work environments where it is difficult for employees to leave their workstations, ask leadership for creative ways to ensure proper coverage and still allow employees to participate.
Employee Health Fair Committee
Extend the health fair planning and advocacy responsibilities beyond the human resources team. This approach not only helps spread the responsibility and manage tasks it also fosters different ideas, needs and view points of the various departments within the organization. Regardless of the size of the organization identify and recruit potential health fair committee members to help.
How To Recruit Employee Health Fair Committee Members
Take into consideration your organizations structure and culture to decide how to build your health fair committee. Some approaches may include representatives from various departments, work shifts, site locations, levels within the company, and ensure there’s a good balance of male and female representation. With these approaches in mind, begin to reach out to those you think are a good fit for the committee. Approach leadership within the organization and request they assign a committee member from their respective departments. Consider employees looking for stretch assignments and/or more visibility and networking opportunities. If available, consider employees previously vocal about their recommendations and ideas for future employee health fairs.
Responsibility of the Employee Health Fair Committee Members
Schedule regular meetings with the entire health fair committee. In addition to advocating and promoting the event to their colleagues, distribute other tasks among the committee members. Give responsibility to each committee member to find and invite a vendor to participate in the event. Identify members with the skill set to help write communications, create flyers, etc. They are the liaison with key leaders within the organization to keep them updated and supporting the event. On the day of the health fair, members can assist with the information table, vendor set-up, traffic flow, run various activities, etc.
Determine the atmosphere of the event – music playing, raffles and prizes displayed, event theme, etc.
Develop Your Health Fair Project Plan
Keep the team on track with a health fair project plan. Share this plan during health fair planning meetings to develop a plan, identify new tasks, and keep the team on track. We have a FREE Health Fair Planning Checklist to help you get started:
Vendors To Invite To Employee Health Fair
Fun activities and educational vendors will draw employees to your company health fair.
Chair Massage Therapists
The number one reason companies call us to provide chair massage for their health fair is to help get employees excited about the health fair and attend the event. Chair massage is a great fit because it is well received by employees, is health oriented, and provides a reward to the employees. We provide national chair massage services and we’d love to help you with your event. Some examples of areas we provide chair massage are Atlanta Chair Massage, Chicago Chair Massage, New York Chair Massage, Houston Chair Massage, Detroit Chair Massage, and All Other Chair Massage Service Areas.
Meditation Instructor
Have a small private area set-up and allow employees to participate in short meditation sessions throughout the day. The sessions can be a combination of meditation and/or learning about the different meditation methods and benefits of meditation.
Fitness or Yoga Instructor
Fitness or yoga instructors can provide mini versions of the classes they teach. They can answer questions about fitness goals and exercise plans. Demonstrations of stretches employees can do in their work space is also popular and helpful.
Nutritionist/Chef
Educate employees on healthy eating and nutrition with a demonstration of healthy food and recipes. Provide employees with simple tips on how they can eat healthier. Examples of simple dietary changes employees can make for a healthier diet.
Health Screenings
- Glucose testing
- BMI
- Cholesterol testing
- Blood pressure check
Fire Department
Fire departments can offer safety education tips at their table.
Local Associations or Hospital
Check with local associations and hospitals on their availability to send an educator on their topic – American Heart Association, women’s health and men’s health, etc.
Benefits Suppliers
Include representatives from each of the company’s benefits suppliers to provide the opportunity for employees to learn more about the benefits available. This is also a good time for employees to ask the representatives questions they have on their benefit plans.
Home Health Care Company
Many employees are handling aging parent issues. A home health care company can educate your employees on these issues and the types of services available to help. Your local Area Agency on Aging may be able to assist as well.
Fun Activities Employee Health Fair
Team Sports
Inspire some healthy competition and exercise by creating teams and participate in some games such as softball or volleyball.
Game System
Set-up a station with game systems with health and fitness games such as bowling, tennis, dance, etc. Ask a couple of the employee health committee members to manage the station and assist employees with the games. Consider setting up mini-competitions with the employees to encourage participation and increase the fun.
Raffle Prizes For Attending Employee Health Fair
Offer a raffle for prizes for employees attending the employee health fair. Prizes can include extra vacation days, company promotional items, gift certificate for restaurants in the area, gift certificates for services in the area, etc.
Serve Lunch or Snacks
Offering lunch or snacks
Communicating Employee Health Fair
A strong communication plan is critical to ensure a great turn out for your employee health fair. Begin communications for the date of the event at least thirty to sixty days in advance. Determine the best communications methods for your company.
Calendar Invite
For those employees regularly working off their calendars, a meeting invite might be the most effective. This avoids confusion and depending upon employees to remember the date and time. When scheduling meetings, it’s also serves as a reminder to avoid scheduling meetings during that time.
Email Campaign
Consider an email campaign to build excitement for the event. Send out emails with the agenda for the day, vendors participating, activities, raffles, presentations, etc. Emails containing a focus on a specific vendor or activity employees can expect to see at the event. Emails provides more depth on what to expect, raises awareness and keeps the event top of mind.
Intranet
If your company has an intranet site, develop a page dedicated to the employee health fair and add content similar to the email content.
Health Fair Committee Advocates
Encourage your employee health fair committee members to share information about the health fair with their colleagues during meetings, during conversations, etc.
Flyers
Post flyers throughout the building and at all sites promoting the event.
Space Planning For Employee Health Fair
Begin planning your space to hold the event well in advance to ensure enough space is available, rooms are reserved, and to develop a clear picture of the vendors and activities you have room for.
Where To Hold The Employee Health Fair
Companies hold employee health fairs in many locations and often use a combination of spaces inside and outside of the office building. Cafeterias, conference rooms, and offices are popular choices. They’re easily accessible and visible to the employees. Employees will stop and visit the health fair when walking by from a meeting or on their way to lunch. Warehouse, garages, and gymnasium spaces are also popular in manufacturing or school environments. When weather is more reliable, many companies choose to set-up tents and hold the event outside. Outdoor events often include BBQ’s, outdoor games and have a more relaxed feel.
During a large employee health fair event, we suggest you keep all activities in open and visible areas as much as possible. It’s a lot for employees to take in and they might miss some things. Consider having employee health fair committee members directing traffic throughout the day to the various locations of the vendors and activities.
Vendor Set-up Needs
Ask each vendor their set-up requirements to provide the best experience for your employees. Don’t assume every vendor just needs an eight foot table. For example, our chair massage therapists each need a minimum of a 4×4 area plus a small table for supplies.
Activity Set-up Needs
Consider the activities available for the day. How much space is needed for each activity? How will the traffic flow in the space? Where will employees line up to wait their turn to participate? These are just a few questions to think about when setting up the activity spaces.
Additional Set-up Needs
Other items to consider having available the day of the event include signs to clearly communicate to employees where the vendors and activities are located, chairs, power strips, tape, scissors, rubber bands, tie downs, table cloths, garbage cans, paper towels, cleaning products, staplers, stapler removers, pen, note pad, etc.
Managing Employee Health Fair Event
After weeks of planning, the event day is finally here. It’s going to be a fun and great event. Remember to enjoy the day yourself, too.
Cell Phone Numbers Provided To Vendors
This is probably the most often over looked detail of the event. All the planners and employee health fair committee members are away from their desks assisting with the health fair set-up. Vendors need to easily reach organizers the day of the event with questions, directions, etc. Please provide a couple cell phone numbers and have your cell phones with you for these emergencies.
Employee Health Fair Committee Members
The employee health fair committee members are critical on the day of the event. Initially, they will help ensure vendors are set-up and ready to go. Have a couple committee members dedicated to greeting vendors as they arrive at the main door, ensure they have no issues checking in, and to help navigate them to the event location. After that, some will work shifts at some of the activity stations, prizes and raffle stations, help with traffic flow and other miscellaneous needs that come up during the day of the event.
Their main role for the day is event cheerleader. They can round up their teams and encourage them to join them at the health fair. Employees love to attend in groups and experience the event together. They can talk up some of the fun activities and get others excited about the event. Your employees are looking forward to the event and might be waiting for the encouragement and permission to attend and enjoy the day.
Employee Health Fair Clean Up
After the event, have a team of volunteers ready to help with clean up. With enough people, this can go quickly and easily. Have large garbage cans available. Fold-up all tables and put away chairs. Some organizations have conference room set-up teams to manage this for you. Collect extra materials and information from each vendor to display in shared areas for the employees to continue to encourage what they’ve learned the day of the event or for employees who were unable to attend. Give vendors a survey to complete prior to leaving for feedback on the event and recommendations for future events. If known, communicate the date of the next event.
Employee Health Fair Post Activities
Immediately collect information from employees and leadership on the event. Send a survey to the employees over email or have employees complete the survey at the event. Meet with the employee health fair committee and gather their feedback as well. Ask the team to collect feedback from their leadership as well. Identify what worked well, areas for improvement and new ideas for the next event. Plant the seeds for next steps for the next event and secure the committee members to help for next year.