Human resource and wellness professionals have difficult jobs - improve employee health AND be able to document success. With so many tests, numbers and equations that you can use to determine the health of employees, it can be daunting.

More employers are encouraging employees to quit smoking with incentives (or penalties!) According to the Society for Human Resource Management’s (SHRM’s) 2018 Employee Benefits survey report, 16% of employers provide a discount on health insurance premiums to people who do not use tobacco products, 10% offer a discount for participating in a program to quit smoking and 18% impose a smoking surcharge.

Given the often high-valued health care discounts, many employers are turning to nicotine testing to discourage dishonesty and ensure incentives are appropriately distributed. 

As a HR or health promotion professional, you probably have been hearing a lot about biometric screenings. But you may be wondering how biometric screenings can really help your company and wellness program. By measuring your employees’ cholesterol and glucose levels, body mass index and blood pressure, onsite screenings provide information you and your employees need to understand health risks. Plus, you gain insights that health risk appraisals or claims data alone can’t provide.

An effective way to measure the health of an employee population is to screen individuals for common health risks such as obesity, heart disease, stroke and diabetes. But when is the best time of the year to offer on-site biometric screenings?

Have you ever thought about how important a strong foundation is for your worksite wellness program?

It's like building a house without a solid base — you can put up walls and a roof, but without that foundation, it won't stand strong for long.

Creating a strong foundation is really vital for a successful worksite wellness program. Just like a house needs a solid base, your wellness program also needs some key essentials to thrive. Let’s explore how you can create a strong foundation for a wellness program that really lasts.

Biometric screenings are often one of the first steps in any corporate wellness program. They provide objective data that can be tracked over time and used to deliver more timely and personalized health interventions. And, the higher the participation rate, the more accurate the overall assessment of the employees' health status.

Preventative maintenance is important to keep things such as home appliances, cars and tools in good working order. But what about the most important asset of all – health?

For many employees, preventive health care is completely disconnected from their daily routines. In fact, only about 1 in 5 Americans gets a general physical check-up each year. So given how much time employees spend at work, it’s only natural to bring wellness to them. Health screenings provide employees with a “snap shot” of their current health status and enable employers to objectively measure the well-being of their workforce.

Advantages of offering on-site health screenings:

- Convenient to attend
- Removes barriers and gives everyone access
- Creates a healthy work environment
- Builds awareness
- Employees feel that the company cares about them

Let us help you design, deliver, and evaluate your biometric health screening program.