Corporate wellness programs aim to improve employees’ health and well-being. They focus on preventing disease and managing chronic conditions.

Improving employee health and well-being can benefit your company. Companies lose an average of $1,685 annually per employee to lost productivity due to missed work.

Hosting a health fair can help support your company’s mission of keeping employees healthier, so fewer of them become part of the statistics. Successful health fairs offer relevant information that employees want to hear. They also engage your employees with hands-on activities and interesting demonstrations.

If your next corporate event is a health fair, keep reading to discover 10 tips to make it a success.

1. Choose a Theme

A theme adds a fun touch to your health fair. It also helps you plan the decorations, activities, and other elements of the event.

General themes might include:

• Super Heroes, Super Health
• Race Into Wellness
• World Fair for Wellness
• Wellness Rocks

You can also theme it to the time of year. You might choose a Spring Into Wellness or Fall Into Wellness for a seasonal event.

You could also theme it based on a health observation for the month. February is American Heart Month, so you might focus on heart health.

2. Find Sponsors

Sponsors help offset the costs of the event, which can allow you to do more for your employees. Look for local health-related businesses to sponsor.

Try these options:

• Insurance companies
• Gyms
• Health organizations
• Dietitians
• Health food companies
• Wellness product companies
• Bike or exercise equipment shops

You don’t need lots of major sponsors. Having several smaller sponsors can be just as effective.

3. Pick the Right Venue

You can host the health fair at work if you have enough space. Consider the large available spaces within the building to determine if they can accommodate the booths and vendors.

You may need to choose an off-site location to find enough space to hold the fair. Corporate event venues offer large open spaces to accommodate lots of different activities.

They often have stages and presentation equipment that you can use as part of your event. They may have kitchen facilities for preparing food for your health fair.

4. Choose a Wide Range of Vendors

Health fairs shouldn’t only focus on physical health. Include emotional, mental, and even financial wellness to create a well-rounded event for employees.

Keep those different areas in mind when choosing your vendors. If you mostly have vendors related to physical health, research businesses in the other areas to get more variety.

Having different vendors gets the employees more interested and encourages them to stop at more booths.

5. Host Giveaways

No matter how awesome your health fair is, you’ll likely have people who don’t want to go simply because they have a negative perception. Give them a little incentive to show up with giveaways.

Ask local businesses to offer up prizes for the giveaways. Start with your sponsors and vendors, but don’t forget other businesses. Some companies may be fine with donating an item but don’t want the commitment of sponsoring or setting up a booth.

Give each person a raffle ticket to win a prize. Another option is to have a passport or card. Attendees have to get stamps at different booths on the card and turn it in for an entry into the giveaway.

6. Include Freebies

Giveaways get people excited, but not everyone can win. Include freebies at your health fair so that everyone can feel like a winner. It’s a little incentive that can help you get a big turnout.

A goodie bag for everyone who attends is a simple freebie option. Include coupons and samples from sponsors or vendors.

Encourage your vendors to have freebies available at their booths. Health food companies might offer taste testing for their products.

Line up free chair massages or similar options. Participants can get a quick massage to relax.

7. Schedule Demonstrations and Workshops

Demonstrations and workshops make the health fair interactive. They also help employees learn something rather than just wander around and collect free samples.

The activities can cover a range of topics.

For relaxation, you might have a yoga or breathing exercise demonstration. For exercise, organize a weightlifting, aerobic, or martial arts demonstration or class. To encourage healthier eating, have a healthy cooking demo.

You might also have a CPR and first aid training class as part of the health fair. Employees can get certified while they attend.

Choose demonstrations and workshops that make sense for your industry and employees. Employees who work in a high-risk industrial setting have different health concerns and needs than employees who work desk jobs.

8. Include Recognition or Challenges

Connect the health fair to continued wellness by recognizing employees at the event. If you already have an established wellness program, you might recognize the employees who participate the most.

You can also kick off a new health challenge as part of your wellness program. Reveal the details of the challenge at the health fair, along with incentives you’re offering, to get employees excited to participate.

9. Promote Your Health Fair

When you’re planning the health fair, it becomes consuming for you. But do other people know about the event?

Promoting your health fair regularly through various channels is important in having a good turnout.

Create a “save the date” announcement at least a month in advance to let employees know about the event. Give updates regularly to build excitement. You might announce a new activity or vendor you book.

Use as many internal communication methods as possible to reach the employees. Create posters and flyers to place around the office.

Send emails and other direct communications to employees. This ensures everyone gets the information delivered directly to them.

Post on any social media channels you have, especially those specifically for your employees.

You can even live stream or live Tweet from the event to encourage people to come last-minute.

10. Reflect

You survived the fair, but your work isn’t done. Reflect on the event to figure out what worked well and what didn’t. Take notes while it’s fresh, so you can remember for the next health fair you plan.

Throw a Successful Health Fair

Successful health fairs get employees excited about wellness and keep them engaged. Plan a variety of health-related activities, including demonstrations and freebies, to encourage greater participation.

If you’re planning an off-site health fair, schedule a tour of our venue today. We have multiple spaces available to fit your needs.

The post 10 Tips for Throwing an Awesome Health Fair appeared first on Midlothian Conference Center.