Biometric screenings are a type of health assessment that use clinical tests and measurements to determine a baseline for employees’ overall health. Most often, these are held at the workplace for a quick and convenient experience. Employers can typically choose different options, but most biometric screenings include:
- Physical measurements (height, weight, waist circumference)
- Blood pressure
- Cholesterol levels
- Blood sugar levels
A biometric screening can give your employees a window into their health, including whether they’re at risk of:
- Obesity
- Heart disease
- Sleep apnea
- High blood pressure
- Diabetes
- Hypertension
- Anemia
Spend a Little, Save a Lot
The aggregate data from these screenings also provide valuable insights for employers. They can tell you whether your population is prone to any particular health risks, allowing you to adjust your wellness strategy to better fit your workforce. This goes double for industries that involve physical labor, where some trends may indicate safety issues that need to be addressed.
Employers play a critical role in our healthcare system, and solid wellness programs are a vital component in a happier, healthier workforce. Done right, annual biometric screenings encourage employees to monitor and improve their health. Often, this results in fewer sick days, increased productivity, and fewer claims on the health plan. With 75% of health care costs stemming from preventable chronic conditions, a wellness plan that allows employees to monitor risk factors and encourages healthy lifestyle changes is invaluable.
According to Forbes, a lack of employee engagement can be far more damaging to your business than most employers realize. Biometric screenings, and wellness programs in general, send a clear message to your employees: their well-being is important to their employer. That translates into more satisfied employees, giving your overall culture a boost.
Making the Most of Biometrics
A poorly-strategized wellness program can be just as bad as not offering one at all. If you plan to offer biometric screenings to employees, take steps to integrate them into a larger wellness effort. To start, here are some dos and don’ts:
- Do: Encourage employee participation by educating them on why biometric screenings are beneficial. Employees may be skeptical about “giving away” their health data; let them know that the information gleaned in their biometric screening is considered PHI, and therefore subject to HIPAA, just like a checkup would be.
- Don’t: Offer incentives for participating—or penalties for abstaining—without verifying with your legal counsel that your program is in line with the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA) and the Genetic Information Nondiscrimination Act (GINA).
- Do: Prepare your employees by furnishing information on what they can expect at the screening, as well as resources for reading their results. Remind them that a biometric screening is not a medical examination or diagnosis, so any concerning results should be shared with their doctor.
- Don’t: Collect individual data or offer to “help” employees understand their results. While aggregate data is useful information for your strategic planning, individual information is protected under HIPAA.
- Do: Support your employees in making healthier lifestyle adjustments. This can include wellness campaigns inspired by the aggregate data or reminders to make slow, gradual changes based on the goals they’ve selected for themselves.
- Don’t: Treat biometric screenings as a stand-alone service. Screenings are a great way to get a baseline and monitor year-over-year developments in certain areas of health, but if no lifestyle changes accompany these results, the data becomes useless.
