Why You Should Host A Virtual Benefits Fair For Your Employees

Offering a virtual benefits fair for your employees has several pros, aside from being cost-effective. We’re outlining several great reasons your company should host a virtual benefits fair.

Outlining the many reasons for hosting a virtual benefits fair

why you should host a virtual benefits fair for your employees

When choosing a job, the benefits package is a large factor for many employees. Even current employees consider their benefits as a pro — or perhaps even a con — if they are ever questioning a job change. But, many employees may not even know the details of their current benefits package.

To resolve this, many companies make it a point to host a benefits fair for their employees. Many employees may feel they don’t have the time to educate themselves on the benefits, or which benefits to choose. On the flipside, several employers may not have the resources or understand how to educate their employees on the benefits they’re offering.

An initial approach to employee education is often printed materials: brochures, packets, and handouts. These could be provided within the office or even at a benefits fair with booths and representatives from different companies involved in the provided benefits.

But what about presenting this information in a place your employees feel most at home? Online.

Hosting a virtual benefits fair online for your employees has several benefits, including:

  • Being able to reach and inform all employees, no matter their geographic location

Believe it or not, many companies spend thousands putting human resource managers on planes all over the world to meet with employees in-person. A virtual setup means saving all of that money, while still having everyone in the same room.

  • Allows employees to take complete ownership of their benefits package

In a virtual benefits fair, employees can visit the booths or watch the presentations that they need and only those. They can download certain information and refer back to it whenever they need it.

  • Allows employees to get educated from the comfort of their home or office

Hosting a virtual benefits fair puts people in multiple situations where they feel comfortable — in an online environment, accessing information from wherever they work. This allows employees to better absorb the provided information.

  • Gets employees engaged in a new way

A virtual benefits fair is new and exciting, and getting employees engaged may give them an entirely new outlook on wellness.

  • Allows employees to get answers straight from representatives’ mouths

No more playing a game of telephone with important information on health insurance. At a virtual benefits fair, employees can ask the questions they need answers for and they can get direct answers from insurance representatives.

  • Eliminates fixed costs associated with benefits, such as printing

Virtual benefits fairs are cost-effective in many ways, from travel, printing, venue rental, etc.

  • Allows employers to get immediate feedback

Employers can get statistics on what booths employees visited the most, or what presentation had the most attendance, and this information can help guide future communications.

  • Allows employees to involve their partner and/or family

Because employees can access the fair and any accompanying information from anywhere, it means they can include the people in their lives (whom will likely be affected by the benefits) that matter.

  • Employees will see (and feel) that their health and wellness is important to their employer

Virtual benefits fairs tend to show employees just how much they mean to their employer, and that’s likely one of the top reasons to host one!

 

A virtual benefits fair is cost-effective, global, engaging, informative, and it boosts employee morale, among many other things.

One big pro for hosting a virtual benefits fair is that it helps employees feel connected and gives them access to the information they need at any time.

At 6Connex, our platform allows companies to host virtual benefits fairs that look a lot like an in-person benefits fair, complete with booths, presentations, and even an auditorium. Don’t worry, we’re not leaving it up to you to figure it all out, that’s what we’re here for!

Creating a comfortable, engaging environment is vital for a successful virtual event, but how? We’ve put together eight ways you can create an interactive virtual event that will get attendees excited and engaged.

How to Create an Engaging Virtual Environment

Virtual environments are great for saving time and money, while having a broader reach. But the goal for creating a successful virtual environment is to make it engaging for attendees.

The more engagement and interaction you’re able to create, the more your attendees will listen to what’s being presented, retain the information provided, and enjoy the environment you’ve created!

But how? We’ve got eight ways you can make any virtual environment engaging for visitors.

1. Invest in Reliable Technology

Finding the right platform to host your event is a top priority. Look for a platform that is able to accommodate the event’s needs, including all of the event elements you’re looking for and the number of potential attendees. If the platform has a good team behind it, they’ll also be able to help you build an engaging environment.

2. Seek Energetic Speakers, Presenters

If your event plans to have presentations, webinars, or speakers, make sure you choose people that will captivate your audience. Any presenter, webinar facilitator, or speaker is going to be the main focus for your visitors, and this can make or break your event.

If it’s a person you’ve never watched present before, see if they have presentations online you can access to make sure they’re a fit.

3. Schedule a date and time for your virtual benefits fair

Take great care in the marketing for your virtual event so you can drum up excitement. Traditional and digital marketing efforts do apply, but you may also consider giving registrants a sneak peek of event elements. Perhaps you’ll provide an agenda or a preview video of the featured speaker to get attendees really excited about the event.

4. Create a Comfortable Environment

It’s important to remember that virtual environments are still new for some people, so keep that in mind when you’re designing it. You don’t want people to feel lost or overwhelmed by the environment so much they don’t receive the information you’re putting out there! Make it as a familiar and as easy-to-use as possible.

5. Decide on Live vs. Pre-Recorded Webinars

If possible, go for the live presentation or webinar. Live presenters are more engaging for an audience and they can gauge the room and adjust accordingly. However, if you have to go with a pre-recorded session, make sure the speaker is energetic and exciting to watch.

6. Prepare for Technical Difficulties

Of course, technical difficulties aren’t likely to occur, but it’s better to be prepared, just in case. This goes back to tip number one, when you’re choosing your platform. Choose a platform that has great customer service that can help you at any time, especially during the event.

7. Leverage Interesting & Relevant Content

Avoid building a virtual environment only to talk at your attendees with a plain presentation. Make sure to plan engaging events, discussions, and activities. If possible, encorporate video, downloadable collateral, and live chat sessions. Allow areas where participants can talk to each other, too.

8. Ask Attendees to Provide Feedback

Once the virtual event is over, follow-up and ask attendees to provide honest feedback so you can improve for your next virtual event. Depending on the platform you’re using, you can also look at the data from your event to see where participants spent the most time and how they interacted.

Interested in seeing a demo? Contact us today!

You can choose from so many different types of virtual environments, making any of them look as life-like as possible. But there are five elements you must have in your virtual environment to insure it’s a successful one.

There are so many different ways you can approach a virtual environment, from all of the visual elements to downloadable collateral. But there are certain elements you should include in your virtual environment in order for it to be successful. We’ve picked the top five elements you should include in your next virtual environment.

1. Showcase great content

No matter what you’re using your virtual environment for – a career fair, a summit, a training – you must show off great content. This content can be in the form of a presentation, a webinar, or even useful downloads such as recent company press releases or stock information.

2. Use effective storytelling in any presentations

If you’re planning on putting any sort of presentation in your virtual environment, utilize effective storytelling to get your message across. Storytelling is often used in marketing and can work very well to get a message across, and also speak to pain points to get qualified leads. With practice (before the event), you can perfect your storytelling capabilities to engage your audience and retain the information you’re presenting.

3. Provide interactive activities

Just as with an in-person event, you have to work to make sure people are finding ways to interact in a virtual environment. It’s easy for participants to get distracted and wander away from their devices, so you’ve got to keep them on-point! Using presentations, live video, live chat, and networking opportunities will keep participants engaged in your virtual environment.

4. Incorporate social media

If you used social media to promote your virtual event, you should continue to incorporate social media into your environment. Encourage participants to use the event hashtag to promote it while they’re participating. Depending on the virtual platform you choose to use, you’ll be able to integrate social media channels into the event so participants are further distracted.

5. Include live video wherever possible

If possible, do include live video into your virtual environment in some form. If you’re planning to have a webinar or presentation, go for a live one instead of pre-recorded (but use pre-recorded video over nothing at all). No matter the capacity, a live presenter is always more engaging than one that’s pre-recorded. Your virtual event team can assist you with any questions or hesitations you have about including live video.

Interested in planning and creating a virtual event? Contact our team today!