Why Include Health Screenings?
According to the Kaiser Family Foundation in its 2016 Employer Health Benefits Survey, almost half of the United States non-elderly population is covered by employer-sponsored health insurance plans. This means employers are significantly invested in their employees’ health and wellness. By including health screenings as part of their wellness program, employers are empowering employees to understand their modifiable risk factors and healthy lifestyle changes to improve their overall health. Although this may seem like a simple process, it’s more difficult to track the ROI and VOI of including health screenings than most companies think. That is why we wanted to share these tips from Corporate Wellness Magazine on achieving and measuring the success of health screenings and wellness programs.
Steps to Achieving and Measuring Success
- Create a Sustainable Culture of Health: You will not see results from your wellness program unless the entire organization, from the top-down, is committed to a healthier lifestyle. This includes participation in the health screenings that benchmark health status and the programs offered to improve it. Having full support and participation of the program will allow better data collection and will encourage the change needed to see results.
- Make Engagement Easy: Most workplaces are made up of multiple generations. The key to engagement is tailoring your efforts to each of these generation’s preferences. Take signing up for example. Some of your employees will prefer emails with health screening information and an appointment-scheduling link that they can use at their convenience 24/7. Other employees might prefer a printed letter with a specific signup location while some will be engaged through an interactive voice response (IVR) customized message. Having multiple versions of targeted communication will pique the interest of more employees and inspire action, leading to more measurable results.
- Location, Location, Location: Offering just one health screening location will not get enough engagement from employees. Having a health fair at the office will reach those who want to conveniently get their screening done. However, some people will not feel comfortable with this option. Consider offering screenings that take place at a primary care provider’s office, participating labs, or retail pharmacies.
- Get Professional Help: Many health screenings and ongoing wellness programs fail because their time-consuming complexity overwhelms the human resources department. Partnering with an experienced expert, such as Health Designs, to manage all of the logistical and operational aspects of wellness programs enables HR professionals to focus on other aspects of their job. Health Designs offers convenient onsite and offsite biometric screenings integrated with face-to-face Intrinsic health coaching for all participants, not just high-risk. Warm transfers to additional programs and resources as well as high-risk follow-up are included in our Core service offering.
Click here to read the original article from Corporate Wellness Magazine, and visit our Assessments and Screenings page to learn more about what Health Designs can do for you!
