Articles

Benefits of Offering Biometric Screenings to Employees

By Danisha Sheppard, PSHRA-CP

Danisha Sheppard is the HR Director of the North Charleston Sewer District. She has 18+ years of Human Resources experience. She has her MBA in Human Resources Management.

In a 2025 survey conducted by AFLAC, data showed that more than 90% of Americans are putting off recommended health screenings. (AFLAC Wellness Matters Survey 2026) According to the same survey, the results shows that some of the reasons those people surveyed have put off receiving the recommended health screenings are: no reason for not receiving recommendations, logistics, don’t like/trust doctors/embarrassed, health/don’t need, usually like to self-diagnose/treat with over the counter/natural remedies and prefer to research health concerns online. (AFLAC Wellness Matters Survey 2026)

Most employers offer affordable health insurance to their employees, with the expectation that the employees will use the insurance at a minimum for preventative screenings and illness appointments. However, not all employees go to the doctor for regular screenings or even have a family doctor.  This results in serious medical conditions being undiagnosed and unknown until the employee has a medical event.

At North Charleston Sewer District, we wanted to encourage our employees to receive preventative medical care. Under the Affordable Care Act, most insurance plans offer no-cost annual physical or wellness visits. Offering these physical or wellness visits allows policyholders to check their lipid panel, glucose and hemoglobin A1c. In addition, their physician will check blood pressure, height, weight and BMI. These are basic medical tests that can show indication of underlying medical conditions and overall health.

To ensure that employees are having their health screened, employers can partner with a local occupational health medical facility that provides on-site biometric screening services. The biometric screenings can also be paired with other add-on services such as flu shots, hearing testing, hepatitis vaccines, other routine vaccines, and electrocardiogram (EKG). For people that do not like traditional needle sticks, there is the option for fingerstick testing.

However, even offering the on-site biometric screening testing option to employees may not be enough to entice some employees to sign up for an appointment. Some employees do not want to miss time off from work to schedule their doctor appointments or have not previously had insurance. In this case, they might not prioritize their health, unless health issues prevent them from working. It is also possible that employees do not understand all their group’s health benefits, resulting in non-use.

Biometric screenings can be advertised to employees under the company Wellness Initiative, if one exists, or turned into a Wellness Fair, inviting vendors from the company’s different insurance providers to give information and speak to employees about their insurance benefits and company wellness initiatives.

At the North Charleston Sewer District, we host an annual biometric screening and flu clinic. I have found that employees are interested in signing up for health initiative events such as this.  We have had other health initiatives such as incentivizing employees to use our walking path at work. In our experience, biometric screenings have had the most participation.

After the results are received, the nurse-on-site will go over the findings with the employees. If there is cause for concern, the employee will be referred to contact their medical provider for further testing and treatment.

As the employer, you can either bill the employee’s insurance for the services provided or the employer can pay for the services. Additionally, if your health insurance plan offers wellness reimbursement funds, you can submit the charges for reimbursement under the wellness provision of your plan and the event will be free to the employer.

Some employers try to incentivize employees’ participation in biometric screening by offering incentives for participation. Some of the incentives that employers can provide include paid time off (PTO), gift cards, a monetary incentive, company SWAG, raffle prizes, contributions to health premiums, and even Health Savings Accounts contributions.

As an HR employee from an organization probably with limited budgetary resources, you may be wondering how you would pay for a biometric screening event. At the North Charleston Sewer District, we have been fortunate to receive wellness funds with our annual insurance renewal. As a result, we can offer employees a monetary incentive for receiving the biometric screening.  Since we have started offering biometric screenings, there have been two employees that have notified us that they have medical conditions that were diagnosed because of receiving biometric screenings at work and receiving irregular results.

I am thankful for our wellness funds and for the opportunity to offer biometric screenings and flu vaccine benefit to employees. When considering what to offer to employees, keeping financial constraints in mind, consider looking at the benefits that your health insurance provider offers that may not have to come from your budgeted funds. Or you can have the vendor bill the employee’s insurance for the testing that is provided.

Wellness initiatives do not have to break the bank or wipe out your HR budget to be effective. It’s important to look at your available resources provided by your health insurance plan to see what you can afford.

AFLAC. The 2026 Wellness Matters Survey, 2026,

www.aflac.com/docs/cancer-campaign-wellness-matters/aflac-wellness-matters-survey.pdf