6Connex Virtual Benefits Fairs

Virtual Benefits Fairs The New Solution for Open Enrollment

Table of Contents 1.

Introduction

2.

What is a Virtual Benefits Fair?

3.

Why Are Employers Going Virtual?

4.

Top Advantages of Virtual Benefits Fairs

5.

6.

2

|

X

Offer a Convenient Option for Presenters and Attendees

X

Engage Your Audience With Interactive Content

X

Enhance Event Security

X

Scale with Ease

X

Save Costs Across the Board

Top Features to Look for in a Virtual Platform X

Accessible Interface

X

Advanced User Permissions

X

Fully Manage Support

X

Comprehensive Platform Toolkit

X

Detailed Reporting

Conclusion

Virtual Benefits Fairs: The New Solution to Open Enrollment

Companies spend $111.7 billion on business travel every year. This is an average of $1,286 per work trip.1

Benefits fairs and similar events are a necessary part of your Human Resources operations. But many employers are finding that the traditional approach — flying HR representatives to various locations to present new benefits programs every year — is a hefty internal investment.

Applicable information often varies from state to state and country to country, and reps must effectively (and repeatedly) communicate relevant options to each region they serve. Not only is this approach old-fashioned and repetitive, but it can also be very costly and time-consuming.

In an ideal world, a benefits fair would: X

Serve all employees at the same time, regardless of location or availability

X

Give employees the chance to explore their benefits plan with family members at home or from a remote location

X

Avoid the cost of sending benefits specialists to various office locations to explain employees’ options

With a virtual benefits fair, employers can do all this and much more.

3

|

Virtual Benefits Fairs: The New Solution to Open Enrollment

What is a virtual benefits fair?

A virtual benefits fair allows you to educate your employees through an interactive online platform. It helps you reach more employees faster and cuts down on internal HR expenses, while delivering a more convenient, engaging attendee experience.

By going virtual, you can create a centralized, automated resource for your entire organization to access from anywhere, on any device, and at any time.

Employees (and their family members) can: X

Visit virtual booths and securely access information at their leisure

X

Ask HR experts or provider representatives any questions they have

X

Receive timely responses in a dynamic, on-demand setting

Using a virtual benefits fair to facilitate open enrollment can help you build employee loyalty and appreciation. You’ll also be able to enhance productivity and reduce costs in your organization by leveraging a cloud-based environment.

Why are employers going virtual?

Open enrollment can be a confusing time for employees and employers alike, especially with today’s remote working environments and complex health care programs.

The open enrollment period usually begins around November 1 and lasts for several weeks. During this time, employers are allowed to change the health, vision, dental, and disability insurance plans they offer as well as other benefits like 401(k) plans and flex spending accounts. Employees must elect insurance coverage through their employer or a government-funded program.

4

Contrarily, virtual benefits fairs make updates efficient, affordable, and convenient for employees and presenters alike.

What are the advantages of going virtual?

Industries and companies of all shapes and sizes can benefit from setting up a virtual benefits fair. The only requirement is having employees!

The virtual environment will allow your employees to take ownership of their health care and other benefits choices by having convenient access to all the information they need from their office or in the comfort of their own homes.

In turn, you’ll save on annual travel expenses, venue rentals, and overtime for your HR teams.

Here are a few ways virtual benefits fairs make life easier on both sides of the aisle:

1. Offer a Convenient Option for Presenters and Attendees

Employers need to communicate updates clearly, while also giving employees an opportunity to ask the right questions — and receive clear answers — so they can make the best decisions for themselves and their families.

Traditional benefits fairs require careful planning and scheduling. Plus, employees only have a limited amount of time to process information and make a decision about their benefits.

Traditional benefits updates mean huddling together in a crowded conference room, mailing out thick stacks of paperwork, or sending the HR team on a long business trip to share in-person with every employee.

In a virtual setting, your employees have more time and flexibility to review plan updates how and when they prefer. That way, they’ll be able to make quicker, more educated decisions, and you can eliminate numerous labor hours.

|

Virtual Benefits Fairs: The New Solution to Open Enrollment

Advantages of Going Virtual

Additionally, your virtual fair won’t be limited to the open enrollment period.

You can create an always-on environment that’s available anytime to support changes in circumstances (“qualifying events”), such as an employee relocating to another state for work.

2. Engage Your Audience With Interactive Content

1 Offer a Convenient Option for Presenters and Attendees

2 Engage Your Audience With Interactive Content

3 Enhance Event Security

4 Scale With Ease

5 Save Costs Across the Board

When content is presented in an engaging way, people naturally want to consume more of it. While in-person events are often led by generic slideshows or long, monotone presentations, virtual benefit fairs help you engage attendees in new ways.

In a virtual environment, you can offer various types of resources like videos, documents, links, live chat, and webcasting features. Plus, benefits providers and company benefits specialists can be on hand for live days to kick off the environment.

During the live event, schedule presentations and keynotes, and staff booths to represent each type of insurance offered. You should also set up a customer support booth or contact line as well in case attendees have questions, concerns, or technical issues.

3. Enhance Event Security As more organizations move documents, events, and other sensitive information online, security remains a top concern. Benefit details are often confidential, and your employees will want the peace of mind that any questions they ask or personal information they divulge during an event won’t run the risk of a security breach.

With the right platform in hand, your virtual benefits fair will pass the most stringent enterprise IT review. Prioritize robust security features and add-on capabilities, and communicate these efforts to your employees. In general, your event should include: X

Domain/email safelists

X

Secure cookie handling

X

Domain/email blocklists

X

Secure content via HTTPS

X

Password-required sessions

X

Single sign-on (SSO)

X

Custom SAML integration

X

Elevated password complexity and lockout

4. Scale With Ease Since the fair is hosted in the cloud, its platform capacity is virtually unlimited. The live event can host thousands of concurrent attendees and an unlimited number of on-demand attendees.

5

|

Virtual Benefits Fairs: The New Solution to Open Enrollment

Rather than planning separate events for each office or department, you’ll be able to host all elements of your benefits fairs in a single virtual location. This makes it easy to get new employees up to speed on share organization-wide updates without a heavy event planning investment.

in your virtual environment to deliver personalized views.

Send broadcast messages out to your entire audience or a targeted list via email.

Fully Managed Support

5. Save Costs Across the Board Significantly cut costs by skipping cross-country tours for benefits specialists and allowing them to spend their time on their daily responsibilities in the office.

Along with savings on major travel expenses, you’ll save on the little details that drive up the price tag for in-person events, like hospitality, venue rentals, catering, and more.

Top Features to Look for in a Virtual Platform Accessible Interface Distributing lengthy and complex information packets by mail is cumbersome, costly, and inefficient. A virtual environment helps you meet your employees where they live today — online — via their device of choice.

Shop for a platform that boasts more than an impressive backend or simple setup. Be sure employees can access and participate in the virtual fair from anywhere, using any device with an internet connection (including both Android and iOS devices). No downloads, plugins, or deep technical knowledge required.

Advanced User Permissions As mentioned above, benefits often vary by geography, which means you’ll need a way to filter benefit information based on an employee’s location, or even their employment details.

Permission-based access features allow you to decide who sees what. Different views can accommodate offerings by geography, taking the guesswork out of available options in different states or countries.

Choose the appropriate audience for each piece of content

6

|

Implementing an effective virtual environment requires a mix of technical platform capabilities and reliable vendor support. Your platform partner should offer more than just the product itself; they should walk with you from the initial setup tasks, all the way through your first event launch.

Look for a vendor that offers comprehensive support for all aspects of your virtual environment, including: X

An assigned project manager for program implementation

X

A detailed project plan, status meetings, and a shared project workspace

X

Managed milestones, client tasks, and deliverables

X

Best practices and recommendations for success

X

Live day attendee support

X

End-to-end support for webcasts, including training and live monitoring

Comprehensive Platform Toolkit The right-fit virtual environment should be all-inclusive.

It should enable you to build and manage all aspects of your virtual environment with a full suite of administrative tools.

Shop for a vendor that offers a range of engaging add-ons features designed to improve the attendee experience and set your employees up for success, like: X

FAQ repository

X

Downloadable documents and infographics

X

Links to existing assets or forms

X

Webcasting, group forums, and private chat features

X

Built-in language translation features

Virtual Benefits Fairs: The New Solution to Open Enrollment

Detailed Reporting Reporting allows your organization to see, in real-time, who has and hasn’t logged into the virtual fair. You can also view who has started and finished making changes. Send reminders through the platform to anyone who needs to finish completing a form by a specific time.

A comprehensive platform will include tools to help you track, calculate, and measure the ROI of your program through dozens of reports via a single dashboard. These reports will help you gain insight into user behavior and learn content preferences to see what’s working best.

By analyzing your reports, you can develop a better picture of your audience over time to improve your virtual environment for the future.

Conclusion Rethink your benefits strategy for the next open enrollment period by offering your team an engaging and immersive online experience.

Utilizing a virtual benefits fair for corporate communication will allow everyone to better understand their options and selections. It will also differentiate your business and brand as modern and forward-thinking.

6Connex can help you build custom virtual events powered by our robust environment and enablement features. To learn more about our virtual event and environment software platforms, contact us today.

Sources: [1] Travel Pulse - REPORT: Companies Spend $111.7 Billion Annually on Business Travel

7

|

Virtual Benefits Fairs: The New Solution to Open Enrollment

About 6Connex Virtual Event Solutions Our Digital Experience 6Connex is the leading provider of virtual and hybrid event solutions. Our secure, cloud-based platform expands audience reach and drives in-depth content engagement for marketing, sales, recruitment, training, and HR communities to make for successful online events around the world. Our product portfolio includes virtual environments, learning management, and webinars. Demand more from your virtual and hybrid event solution. Request a virtual event demo with 6Connex, or contact our event software experts for more information. www.6Connex.com Have Questions?

Please call 1.800.395.4702 or email us at sales@6connex.com.

8