Assessing the health of an employee population should be the first step when implementing a wellness program.  Additionally, annual assessments should take place to evaluate the impact of the wellness program and the employee population’s health improvement over time.  Health screenings (also known as biometric screenings) produce the most objective data.  This data can usually be integrated into an online health risk assessment providing a more accurate and overall look into an employee population’s health risks based on actual clinical data and lifestyle factors.

Getting employees to participate in health screenings can pose a challenge.  In order to get high employee participation it is important to pick the type of health screening that will work best for your employees and provide the type of data you are looking for.  There are two methods for health screenings:

1. Capillary puncture, “finger-stick”
2. Venipuncture, “blood draw”

When choosing a health screening method consider your employee population and review the following pros and cons:

The venipuncture method allows for more specialized test to be performed, but could also be perceived as more invasive and time consuming by the employees.  The capillary method can be more susceptible to contamination, but may also be more convenient for employees, especially remote workers.  Cost will vary between the two health screening methods and service provider.  The ultimate goal is high employee participation, so choose the health screening method that employees will be most likely to comply with and you’ll be getting the most bang for your buck.