When Planned associates were polled back in August, a majority chose in-person Town Hall events as the in-person event they’ve missed the most.
These events, conducted quarterly, have always served the purpose of updating the entire team on Planned’s newest initiatives, sales numbers, financials and human resources announcements. In addition, getting the team together to bond, catch up, participate in social purpose and team building activities has always helped boost morale.
With the pandemic hitting the country this past March, quarterly Town Hall events had to move onto the Zoom platform and be conducted in a virtual setting. While presenting the latest updates via PowerPoint is made easy with today’s video-sharing technology, being able to bond and see each other in-person could be challenging.
For the Q3 Fall Town Hall event, Planned made it imperative that the team-building activities of past Q3 events not be missed. The Employee Engagement Council (EEC) met in early August to map out a team building activity that would be engaging as well as educational for the team. Thus, a virtual trivia game show was decided on.
The event started at 3PM Eastern on September 15th, 2020 and featured a robust PowerPoint presentation highlighted by new hire welcomes, promotions, human resources announcements, financials, priority management recommendations, sales goals and marketing initiatives future and past.
The EEC announced a push for participation from the corporate team in the Employee Relief Fund. The push will begin on October 1st with a goal of 50% overall participation into the Relief Fund. Should an associate want to contribute, they can reach our to Suzanne Jacobson in HR at sjacobson@plannedcompanies.com
Updates on the programs available to associates at Planned, including CIGNA’s health benefits and Employee Assistance Program were also presented, as well as updates on the fantastic retention numbers from the company Living Our Core & Employee Referral Programs.
The final hour of the event, from 4PM-5PM Est. encompassed the team-building virtual trivia game show. A virtual host was on hand to drive the event, which was broken into two twenty-minute games. The first being “pop trivia” and the second being “Planned trivia.” The first ten winners of each game were awarded a prize.
Feedback from the Q3 Virtual Town Hall & Game show has been overwhelmingly positive.
“The Planned family loves to gather for a good time. Sadly, that hasn’t been possible for many months now. The September Town Hall, featuring virtual trivia game shows was a great morale boost. The host was lively and engaging and the friendly competition afforded a chance to win bragging rights and some great prizes. A fun way to virtually gather until we can get together in person.” – Suzanne Jacobson, HR Business Partner