Every fall, the same thing happens in organizations across the country with a fiscal year that matches the calendar year: Open Enrollment (OE) dominates. Benefits teams get buried in health plan comparisons, deadline reminders, and questions about deductibles.

But despite all the hard work HR teams put into communicating benefits, getting all employees (not just the ones who tend to  pay attention and ask questions) to actually read and act on OE materials is challenging. All-staff emails go unread, informational sessions are often poorly attended, and as a result, every year a significant portion of employees miss critical signup deadlines. Even worse, some miss out on the actual benefits they are entitled to.

So the question becomes, how do you get a higher percentage of your population to engage? The honest answer is that simply asking and emailing isn’t enough to move the needle. What actually works is creating an experience people want to show up for. That's the goal of the SoHookd virtual wellness fair.

Virtual Wellness Fairs at a glance: A half-day event that does the heavy lifting for HR

Here's what that experience looks like: a professionally hosted, half-day virtual event with wellness programming on popular topics, motivating incentives offered for participating, and perhaps most important, dedicated time to ask the HR team any and every question that comes up around OE. All of this is planned by the SoHookd team with input from HR and then run through the SoHookd platform. The entire experience is designed and timed to sit alongside OE rather than compete with it.

To ensure they’re engaging experiences, our virtual wellness fairs are jam-packed with activity and options, including:

• A live educational wellness session on a topic of your choosing (e.g., preventative health) to kick things off
• 3 x 30 min on-demand wellness sessions of your choosing that employees can catch any time during the event
• 5 x 30-minute sessions with your company’s top benefits vendors (and yes, we do the outreach and logistical planning for these sessions too!)
• $750 in SoHookd Incentives Marketplace credits, distributed as attendee participation rewards
• Optional add-ons to further drive participation, like additional credits to the SoHookd Incentives Marketplace so all participants can earn a reward or wellness gift boxes shipped to select attendees

As with our other products, the fair has transparent, flat-fee pricing ($4,000 inclusive of end-to-end management, support during the actual event, and post-event activity). A typical fair runs like this: a kickoff, a live wellness webinar, then a stretch of hours where employees can “drop by” a virtual HR and benefits help desk, browse on-demand wellness content, and access custom resources at their own pace, closing out with a wrap-up and key takeaways.

Setup and timing: The SoHookd team supports logistics

The fair dashboard and all fair content remains accessible for 1–2 months after the event, timed to run alongside the typical OE window. Keep in mind, however, that the fair setup takes some lead time. Account for about 2 weeks to get the structure and programming built, vendors coordinated, and the dashboard populated. All aspects are customized to our organization.

Other ways SoHookd supports Open Enrollment

Even with our team handling event coordination and vendor outreach, a half-day fair isn't the right fit for every organization. If that's the case, there are two other ways our wellness solutions can support OE:

Wellness incentives: The first way we support this season is through the SoHookd Marketplace. Instead of just asking employees to review OE materials, you can use Marketplace credits to reward the specific behaviors you want: opening email, attending an informational session, and completing enrollments before the deadlines. And you can do it all with wellness-themed rewards that also reinforce healthy behaviors.

Wellness programming. The second option is rolling out a wellness webinar during the fall that’s built around a topic employees are genuinely interested in. Choose from +250 live and on-demand sessions. Once you have a large group’s attention through this session, you can use it as an opportunity to emphasize OE deadlines, share where to go with benefits questions, provide tips on navigating the healthcare system and getting the most out of medical appointments, and finally, what happens if employees miss OE signup windows.

Getting started with the SoHookd team

If you're an HR or benefits leader already working with SoHookd, this is your sign to reach out to your SoHookd contact and reserve your OE window before spots fill up.

If you're a consultant or health plan partner, this is a ready-made option to bring into your OE conversations right now, a way to help your clients stand out to their employees during the busiest, most benefits-saturated weeks of the year.