Wellbeing kiosks – pause for five minutes to take stock of your health

When it comes to providing health and wellbeing checks, it can pay to bring the service to the people rather than make the people travel. Which is why the Wellbeing People’s interactive health kiosk is such a brilliant idea.

The kiosks let people self-test a number of key indicators, from weight, body mass index and body fat content through heart rate and blood pressure. It only takes around five minutes, and at the end people can take away a print out that shows them how they have fared and how their levels compare with medical standards. It might show that all is well, or it might indicate a potential problem such as high blood pressure. And it’s not all about physical health. The kiosk check-up also includes a more holistic check-up called the Boomerang Life Balance which aims to evaluate mental as well as physiological wellbeing.

In 2012, the Wellbeing People carried out an impressive 80,000 health checks up and down the country in communities, businesses and schools. And more recently, the scheme has been adopted by Wates Group, the construction firm, which is in the process of rolling out a kiosk health check service across its sites, from Glasgow down to Bristol.

The company aims to reach all its sites, with kiosks staying for two weeks to a month depending on the size and number of employees at a given site. Of course, it is key to ensure that staff know what the project is all about. “With any scheme such as this, it’s important to ensure communication is adequate so that take up is as high as possible,” says Paul Roberts, consultant at IHC.

Kelly Osborne, responsible for health and safety at Wates has said that a lot of effort would go into ensuring staff were aware that the kiosks were available and how they could benefit from taking a little time out: “There will be lot of promotional work to encourage employees to do it because it’s for their own benefit at the end of the day,” she told Employee Benefits magazine.

“The Wellbeing People’s kiosks are an excellent way to bring health checks to employees on site and minimise the effort involved for all concerned. Having kiosks at the workplace will make the process less intimidating and simpler for people wanting to take a little time out to check their health,” says Paul.

For more information on the Wellbeing People kiosks, contact your consultant at IHC.