How to Organize a Benefits Fair

Do you need assistance organizing an interesting and educational benefits expo for employees? You've arrived at the ideal location. In order to guarantee a successful employee benefits fair, this article describes how to plan one from the beginning, things to think about, and the event technology you should use. 

What Is an Employee Benefits Fair?

A benefits fair is a gathering that companies host to educate staff members about the many incentives that the business provides. One of the most important occasions on HR calendars, it typically takes place once a year. Employees may speak with exhibitors and go over their benefits in-depth at these events.

For instance, workers may learn about investing options for their 401(k) (for US citizens) and how to boost their contributions to maximise their employer's matching payments.  

How to Plan a Benefits Fair – 6 Essential Steps

A successful benefits expo requires a great deal of planning and preparation. Therefore, the success of your benefits fair is guaranteed if you follow these simple steps:

Step 1: Pre-plan to Identify Goals and Objectives

Clarifying your goals for the event is crucial when planning a benefits fair. Do you want to improve employee engagement and encourage a healthy workplace, or are you just trying to let staff members know about the additional benefits that have been introduced to their plans?

A well-defined plan will also enable you to analyze the event's performance, gauge how knowledgeable your staff is about their advantages, and ascertain how the event affected as a whole. 

Step 2: Determine Your Event Needs

After establishing your objectives, you may begin to consider how the event will go.

You may wish to take into account the following factors, depending on the kind of experience you want to provide at your event: 

How will employees and benefit providers communicate?

A successful event depends on workers and benefit suppliers communicating effectively. Employees and benefit providers may communicate directly with each other via real-time chat or video conversations, meeting schedulers, and other means. 

1: 1 interaction tools help with personalized support and detailed discussions, helping employees get specific answers to their questions.

Should you set up booths?

Having booths at your benefits fair might let people interact and communicate throughout the event. Each vendor should have a unique booth, either in person or virtually, with interactive features to engage staff members, movies, brochures, and comprehensive vendor information.

In particular, a virtual booth arrangement offers thorough explanations of every advantage. All workers may access important information throughout the event by providing both live and pre-recorded video presentations, which can also fit varying schedules and preferences.

The event mobile app, which enables staff to see recorded sessions they may have missed, is another tool that hosts or suppliers may use to their full potential. 

Are there frequently asked questions that can be addressed in a webinar?

Using live webinars to answer questions throughout the event is a great idea. The benefits fair experience is improved with webinars, which provide interactive sessions on a range of employee benefits-related subjects. These webinars enable lively debates and in-the-moment Q&A sessions.

To improve the experience even further, think about making digital resources like manuals and brochures available for sharing via QR code scans.

Additionally, by using this method, less printed collateral is wasted, and remote workers may download and study these information whenever it's convenient for them. 

Do you need to host one event or multiple? 

You must think about if holding one event is sufficient or whether you need to arrange more, taking into account the dynamics of your staff and the way your business runs.

Think about holding several events if your organisation has a varied staff or operates in many locations.

There are advantages to hosting many events; holding them in several places ensures that a worldwide workforce can attend.

Organising a large event with many smaller sessions is an additional option. Smaller sessions may be held digitally at various time zones to make it convenient for staff members in other areas to participate.  

Step 3: Plan the Event Specifics

There are a few essential procedures you must take while organising your employee benefits fair. Let's talk about them:

Examine the Flow of the Event

Avoid arranging live lectures and webinars at the same time by comprehending and evaluating the event's flow.

If it is impossible to prevent simultaneous presentations, make sure that recordings are accessible for download so that staff members may see them whenever it is most convenient for them.

Additionally, choose whether the event will span one day or many days, bearing in mind that extending it too much might turn off guests.

Set an Event Date

When planning the date of the event, choose a time that allows staff ample opportunity to consider their options.

To ensure maximum participation, it’s crucial to avoid scheduling the fair around company deadlines, major projects, or holidays.

Additionally, ensure that the event is scheduled well in advance of any decision-making deadlines.

Select a Venue

Make sure the platform is available on many platforms and can accommodate both live and pre-recorded sessions for a virtual benefits fair.

Choose an in-person platform that facilitates smooth mobile app content consumption if you're planning an in-person event.

Additionally, be sure that the location you choose matches both your budget and the interests of your staff.

Enable Registration Process

Finally, if necessary, provide a simple registration procedure. This may facilitate planning and participant monitoring, improving the event's overall efficiency and smoothness. 

Step 4: Designing Your Event

Make Your Event Exciting and Engaging

Planning an event? Keep it practical, but also fun and interactive. You want attendees to stay engaged and enjoy every moment. Here’s how you can make it happen:

Give It a Fresh Look

Change the design every year. Avoid using the same booth setup or old materials. A new look makes the event feel fresh, exciting, and different. Returning guests will appreciate the effort and creativity.

Personalize the Experience

Create a custom design that feels unique and special. If it's a virtual event, design an online space that looks like your office or campus. For in-person events, decorate the venue to match your company’s theme and colors. Personal touches make the space warm and welcoming for employees.

Use Bold and Bright Colors

Don’t be afraid to add vibrant and bold colors. Eye-catching visuals make the event fun, exciting, and engaging. Colors can create energy, spark interest, and keep people focused.

Pick a Simple and Easy Platform

A user-friendly platform is key. Employees should navigate smoothly without confusion or frustration. Make sure they can quickly find sessions, important details, and event information. A well-designed interface helps them stay engaged and stress-free.

Step 5: Market the Event

Once your event is set for launch day, it’s time to promote it. Here is how you can go by with your event promotion:

Assemble Information

Begin by assembling a brief information package to help employees understand what to expect from the employee benefits fair and prepare any questions they may have.

Reach Employees via Email

To effectively reach your audience, send invitations through email.

Craft a compelling email invitation that highlights the benefits fair’s key features, including essential details such as the date, time, and how to access the event.

You can use an AI-powered email builder to create quick email campaigns and distribute them.

Use Internal Networks

You should use internal social networks to share event information on platforms like Slack channels, Microsoft Teams, or your company’s intranet.

These networks are also great for sending reminders and updates leading up to the fair.

Use Digital Signage

If your workplace has digital signage or monitors in common areas, use them to display event information and reminders.

Step 6: Analyze the Event

After the benefits fair is over, it's important to gather as much information as you can and do an analysis of the event.

To improve future events, it is vital to comprehend what worked and what didn't. To assist you optimize your results, technologies such as Effect Global provide integrated event analytics.

Here are a few methods for examining the event data: 

Collect Data

Start by gathering data on various aspects of the event, including attendee numbers, engagement levels, booth visits, session attendance, and material downloads.

Evaluate Engagement

Metrics like chat room interactions, webinar questions, onsite QR code scans for session check-ins, and poll or survey participation are good places to start when assessing attendee engagement.

High levels of engagement show that your staff found the material engaging and relevant.

Using event mobile applications, evaluate attendance rates in real time for various sessions and activities. Determine the most and least attended classes to learn more about the interests and preferences of your staff. 

Collecting Feedback

Feedback on the event must be gathered. Sending post-event questionnaires to your guests is one way to do this. Just as essential as quantitative measurements is qualitative data, so ask specific post-event survey questions about their experiences, what they found beneficial, and areas for growth.

Analyse content performance by determining which pieces of material were most downloaded or watched in order to get further information. This might assist you in determining which subjects most appealed to your staff.

Finding any technological problems that were reported during the event is also crucial. Comprehending these issues may help with troubleshooting and averting them in the future. 

Compare Event Result with Event Goals

In order to ascertain if you achieved your goals—such as raising employee engagement or benefits awareness—compare the event's results with your original plans.

Describe your results in detail, emphasising both your main achievements and your room for development. Future planning efforts will be informed by sharing this report with your planning team and other relevant parties. 

Key Factors to Consider When Organizing a Benefits Fai

A benefits fair's effectiveness and engagement depend on several things. Here is a thorough breakdown of the elements to take into account when planning an employee benefits fair to help you with this. 

Event Format 

Choose whether to hold your benefits fair in person, electronically, or as a hybrid event first. Your event budget and the location of your staff may influence your decision. A virtual benefits fair might make more sense if your personnel is located all over the world. However, you may arrange a hybrid event if you wish to bring in local staff in a real location.

In addition to helping choose the best event planner, the suitable event format is essential for determining the benefit fair topic. For instance, if you decide to have a virtual employee benefits expo, working with the appropriate event planner may meet your goals.  

For a virtual benefits fair, hosts may choose an engaging virtual space with personalised booths using event software like Effect Global.

On the other hand, take into account different location alternatives if you want to host an in-person employee benefits expo. Aside from that, you'll need to organise the booths, furnishings, and event arrangement for suitable vendor presentations.  

Event Location

Making ensuring the facility is accessible to everyone is essential when choosing a venue for your employee benefits fair.

Even while you may not have to worry about a real location for virtual events, it's still crucial to choose a platform that's straightforward for staff to use and log in to. An event management software that offers accessibility capabilities for staff members with impairments is the one you should use.

Choosing a platform with accessible features like closed captioning, multilingual support, text-to-speech, and more may encourage employee involvement and show your company cares about its workers' welfare. 

You should reserve a space in the workplace or close by for an on-site employee benefits expo. When selecting an in-person setting, choose a location that provides enough room for a range of vendors and facilitates staff networking. You will want a location with many rooms if you are organising a bigger benefits fair with several exhibitors and workshops.

Additionally, think about providing your staff with parking and lodging choices. It's crucial that your location provide facilities like rest spaces and refreshments. 

Staff and Volunteers

The process of organising a benefits fair takes a lot of work to put into action. Consequently, it is essential to have sufficient support available. To help with the planning, setup, and administration of the event, a team must be assembled. To guarantee an engaging event, the team may also come up with innovative concepts for the benefit fair. To guarantee a smooth operation, the staff and participants should be updated about their roles and the goal of the fair. 

Employee Preferences

Whether they would like a hybrid, virtual, or in-person setting for the employee benefits fair, employees may provide insightful feedback on the event style. Before the event starts, they may also help with venue selection and other crucial decisions. Make your job easier by being aware of and giving priority to the preferences of your employees.

There are many ways to find out what the staff would want to see at the next event. Surveys, for example, might reveal what the workers want from the benefits fair. Organising a focus group may help ensure that choices about the event are well-informed. 

Post Event Feedback

The next step after holding a successful employee benefits fair is to evaluate how well you achieved your event goals. Getting input from attendees of the event is one approach to do this. Employees and suppliers might be given questionnaires to complete in order to get their opinions and learn how to make the event better the following time.

Employee interest in whether the benefits fair should be hosted yearly or biannually may also be determined. You may make better data-driven choices for future events by collecting information about the interests and preferences of your suppliers and staff throughout the event. 

How to Choose The Right Event Technology for Your Benefits Fair

All this time, we have spoken about how you may minimise difficulty and maximise rewards by selecting the appropriate event technology. You may be wondering, however, how to choose the event technology that would work best for you. You should take into account the following elements when selecting an event platform for a successful fair benefit event. 

Provides an Interactive Venue

Choosing an event management program that offers a captivating virtual benefits fair location is essential. Personalised auditoriums/exhibit halls, vendor booths, and simple access and navigation are all essential components of an appealing venue. Customised and inclusive virtual avatars are offered by companies such as Effect Global to simulate an in-person event and guarantee that the whole event is extremely participatory and captivating.

Networking may also be improved and the event can become more involved and seamless in a physical environment by providing interactive elements like booth representation or dedicated places, as well as a mobile app for navigating the venue. 

Must Have Webinar Features

Including interesting and instructive webinar sessions is crucial to making your benefits equitable and instructional. To assist you plan effective webinar sessions, you have to choose an event management software. Effect Global, for instance, offers a number of webinar features that are intended to keep participants' attention throughout the sessions.

Effect Global makes it easy for participants to attend sessions by providing live streaming and on-demand information, including recorded webinars for later watching. The webinar sessions are quite engaging for participants thanks to additional features like live chat, polls, surveys, support for multiple speakers, and more. 

Employees may view various sections of the webinar to comprehend their advantages long after the event, so there's no need to remind them of them individually.

With the vFairs mobile app, your in-person staff may take use of the same sophisticated webinar advantages. They may watch recorded live sessions and on-demand content that they might have missed via the app.

Attendees may engage in polls and surveys via the mobile app and ask questions in real time during the webinar with the aid of interactive elements like Q&A sessions. 

Helps Connect Virtually and In-person

Remembering the value of employee networking is crucial while planning the employee benefits fair. The staff has a fantastic chance to network with the vendors at this event. For instance, employees may meet with the vendor directly in person or virtually if they have particular queries concerning their health insurance plan, such as hospitalisation or OPD coverage.

Selecting an event planner that has excellent networking capabilities guarantees that staff members may arrange one-on-one meetings with suppliers to find out about their advantages and products. With the help of networking tools like chats and a meeting planner, workers can make the most of their time and interact with exhibitors at the benefits fair more successfully. 

Offers Advanced Reporting Tools

To comprehend and enhance your benefits fair, advanced reporting and analytics are essential. Strong analytics tools from Effect Global monitor user journeys, booth visits, chat logs, and document downloads.

This thorough data gathering gives you important information that may guide future events and helps you determine the degree of interest and involvement among workers. You may determine which elements of the fair were most effective and which would need improvement by examining this data.

Additionally, Effect Global's sophisticated reporting features inside the event mobile app allow fair organisers to get hands-on real-time data during an in-person event. They may also provide comprehensive reports that display the number of attendees, attendance overall, and involvement in certain sessions.  

Grants Access Control

Last but not least, Effect Global uses single sign-on (SSO) capabilities to provide safe access to your benefits event. This feature protects sensitive data and maintains the integrity of the event by ensuring that only workers may access the virtual benefits fair.

Additionally, SSO streamlines the login procedure, facilitating workers' safe and simple participation in the event.

Effect Global assists you in creating a smooth, interesting, and successful employee benefits fair that achieves your goals and offers a worthwhile experience by providing these extensive features.

For more information on organising a successful benefits fair, see our virtual benefits guide. 

Start Planning Your Benefits Fair

Now that you have all the information you need, you can organise a benefits fair with success. You now know what to look for and how to choose the finest event planner.

But let us simplify things for you if you're still unclear.

Select Effect Global as the platform for your benefits fair. Effect Global offers complete event management software that can be used to stage a variety of events. Effect Global is the best option for planning both in-person and hybrid benefits fairs because of its excellent event management and marketing tools and AI-powered features.