5 Reasons You Should Offer Biometric Screenings

It's never been more important to stay on top of your health and take care of your well-being. That's why this month, we're sharing the importance of biometric screenings and the impact they can have on you and your organization's health and wellness.

Biometric screenings capture key health data to identify people at risk for health issues, like diabetes, high cholesterol, and high blood pressure. When you administer screenings, participants become aware of their numbers and knowledge is power. With the knowledge, they may work to improve their health or health risk, ultimately lowering healthcare costs and increasing productivity at work.

There are many benefits to biometric screenings — but first, let's cover the basics of what a biometric screening is.

What are Biometric Screenings?

A biometric screening is a baseline health analysis. It gives participants a look into their physical health by measuring height, weight, body mass index (BMI), blood pressure, blood cholesterol levels, and blood glucose. These measurements can be taken at your work site and used as part of a workplace health assessment to benchmark and evaluate changes in employee health status overtime.

Here are five reasons you should consider offering biometric screenings at your workplace.

1. A Chance to Know Your Numbers

The first step is knowing where you're at. Understanding your basic bloodwork levels like total cholesterol, HDL (good cholesterol), LDL (bad cholesterol), triglycerides, and glucose is a great place to start. Add in body mass index (BMI) and blood pressure, and your employees will have baseline knowledge of their overall health. 

2. Quick and Easy

There are a lot of reasons why people don't take advantage of preventative health-care visits. They don't have a primary care physician; they don't want to use their vacation time to go to the doctor, or they may be afraid of what they will learn if they go.

Offering biometric screenings at work is a fast and simple process, and it gives your employees an opportunity to learn their numbers in a convenient and confidential way. Offering screenings also shows your employees that your organization truly cares about their health and well-being.

3. Individual Consultation and Coaching

Knowing your numbers is one thing, but understanding what they mean how they impact your health is another. As part of the biometric screening, a wellness coach will review the numbers with participants and explain the healthy ranges and what each number means. This often leads to a conversation about simple lifestyle changes that people can make to improve their numbers and ultimately, their overall health.

If an employee is found to be at risk, they are encouraged to follow up with their primary care provider for further care. This screening process may save both the employee and the company money by identifying health risks before it's too late.

4. You Can Learn the Baseline Health of Your Organization

Biometric screenings are an excellent way to get an understanding of the overall health of your company. This baseline sets the stage for development of a wellness solution that will have impact and measurability.

With a positive wellness culture in place, a healthier workforce will begin to develop over time, which in turn boosts productivity; reduces sick time; speeds up the recovery process from injuries; improves morale; and ultimately gives you a much more profitable company.

5. It Shows Your Employees You Care

Biometric screenings are just one of the many ways to incorporate wellness into your company culture. It's one step to providing a robust solution that shows a caring attitude to each and every one of your employees.

If an employee feels cared for by their employer, the benefits the employer will see are nearly endless. Employees will stay with the company longer, excel in customer service, and be your voice in bringing in the best talent when you have a position open. It's a win-win.

At OnSite Wellness, we offer in-depth personalized health analyses with our biometric screenings. These fast, easy to understand, and informative screenings are a valuable check-in for all employees.

We're also one of the few companies that offer paperless HIPAA-compliant screenings that show year-after-year results, leading to successful coaching conversations that follow each screening.

Our biometric screenings include:

— Body Mass Index, waist circumference, and blood pressure

— Fasting lipid panel and glucose screening via finger prick (total cholesterol, LDL, HDL, triglycerides, and cholesterol ratio; blood glucose)

— Immediate face-to-face coaching to review and explain screening results

— Follow-up protocol from a health professional for all-high risk participants

— Dedicated event coordinator for every screening event

— Educational materials and screening results are confidentially provided at events

— Biometric aggregate reporting for your company's health-risk analysis

— Optional tracking options are available, including Nicotine Usage Verification, EEOC Spouse Notification, and more!

At OnSite Wellness, employee health and wellness is our specialty. Incorporating an employee wellness program at your workplace can have massive benefits for your employees in tracking and managing a healthy lifestyle. Let us help you reach your goals and set your employees up for success!

Contact us today to get started with biometric screenings.