If your company is seeking a way to begin or continue to generate excitement around health and wellness, and Health Fair is a great way to do it. There are several benefits to initiating a Health Fair although planning can be somewhat involved. Getting health and wellness vendors involved can help to curb the expense of providing the fair. The return on this investment of time will be well worth it.

Corporate health fairs are an effective way to provide valuable health information and screening services to large numbers of employees and their families in a convenient “one-stop shop” format. It is also an excellent way to involve health vendors from the local community in the health and wellness of your staff. Health fairs can serve as a conduit to more involved health initiatives for your company. It is a great introduction to corporate wellness initiatives because it doesn’t single out any one employee. It invites the employees into a group setting to test the waters of their corporation getting involved with their health and wellness. Health Fairs also generate fun and excitement around being well with the vendors often doing demonstrations, providing giveaways, initiating games and other fun means of attracting the attention of your employees.

Health fairs also help to keep the message of wellness prevalent in your company. If you have already started wellness initiatives, adding a health fair to the mix will inject a boost into the already planned activities. Because people are up, active, and speaking to different experts in the field it breaks the monotony of other status quo activities. It also exposes them to a variety of people from whom they can gather valuable information. There are various times of year that a health fair would be effective. Having a health fair before open enrollment often generates excitement about getting enrolled and provides a different forum to distribute information.

Aimed at keeping employees and their families healthy, employee health fairs are an excellent opportunity for employers to do the following:

• Increase health awareness by providing health screenings, activities, materials, demonstrations and information
• Increase awareness of local, state and national health services and resources
• Motivate participants to make positive health behavior changes
• Provide immunizations for children and adults
• Teach self-care practices
• Identify topics and participants for future educational health programs

Finally when planning a heath fair, it’s important to begin the process 6-12 months prior to the actual date of the event. This will give your chosen vendors enough time to provide speakers and any other materials necessary for the event. Also choosing a theme makes for a more festive environment while providing guidelines for the vendors and other participants. All and all, health fairs are an excellent way to distribute important health and wellness information while creating a buzz about being healthy!