Featured in USA Today: Reperio is revolutionizing annual checkups | Click here to learn more
Featured in USA Today: Reperio is revolutionizing annual checkups | Click here to learn more
CareerPlug, an Austin, Texas-based developer of technology solutions to help companies hire the right employees, hoped to gain insight into their workforce health in order to cater existing employee health benefits to the needs of its largely remote team. But getting that health data was harder than expected. In person options were complicated by the ongoing pandemic and the inconvenience of having to schedule doctor’s appointments.
“Our employees work from home and have since the pandemic. They, much like the rest of the world are still a little apprehensive about leaving their homes to go to the doctor and stand the risk of getting exposed,” explained Tulay Solak, CareerPlug’s HR manager.
After hearing about Reperio's at-home health screening kit, Solak was sold—and she hoped employees would be, too.
47% of employees said they’d prefer to use a free Reperio at-home health assessment kit instead of going to a doctor’s office, and once employees received their screening kits, they loved them. Solak’s efforts, coupled with Reperio’s promise for a secure, HIPAA compliant and convenient screening experience, culminated in a high employee engagement rate (90%)—and heaps of praise from workers.
CareerPlug was founded in 2007 in Austin, Texas, with the mission of making hiring easier for organizations, and today serves more than 14,000 growing companies in the U.S. and Canada. The company is fully devoted to creating exceptional hiring experiences for organizations of every size: Its hiring software for non-HR people enables owners, operators, and hiring managers to make the right hires for their team.
CareerPlug already offers its workforce competitive health benefits, including comprehensive mental health and wellness perks. But since the beginning of the pandemic in 2020, the company’s workforce needs have shifted significantly.
Many individuals now work remotely full-time or part time, and while much of the world has embraced a “new normal,” some workers still have hesitations about visiting an in-person physician on a regular basis. Many millennial employees in the 26-to-41 age bracket, in particular, tend to feel less inclined to visit a primary-care physician unless they have an acute issue or are experiencing symptoms of a more serious condition.
When Tulay Solak, a 20-year human resources veteran, joined CareerPlug in late 2021 as the HR Manager on the People Team, she hoped to elevate employee health and improve overall health engagement. She knew from previous experience that health screenings were a great way to help employees get a baseline of their health and prevent the onset of chronic illness – an increasingly troubling issue. Chronic diseases cost the U.S. an estimated $3.7 trillion per year, including lost economic productivity, and while many costly conditions are preventable, a lot of individuals lack the right tools and insights to recognize and address worrisome health trends. Unsurprisingly, about 50% of adults born between 1981 and 1988 live with at least one chronic health condition, and many don’t even know it.
“I’ve experienced the benefits of employee biometric screenings at my former company,” explains Solak.
After hearing about Reperio’s at-home health screening service, Tulay hoped that CareerPlug’s remote workforce would seize the opportunity to engage with a health tool that they could use in the comfort of their own homes, to gauge eight unique metrics including BMI, cholesterol, blood-glucose levels, blood pressure and more. While individuals are using the kit, the accompanying Reperio app provides users with easy-to-follow instructions that direct them on how to properly use the enclosed FDA-cleared screening devices to collect samples.
Results are delivered immediately after the conclusion of the screening, providing in-depth insights and recommendations for follow-up care.
Before sending out at-home health screening kits to workers, Solak dedicated time during an organization-wide monthly Zoom meeting to explain the purpose of the kit. Reperio’s Chief Medical Officer Dr. Alex Marsh, an emergency physician, was on hand during the call to answer questions and address concerns, such as whether personal health information would be shared with CareerPlug’s leadership team.
“Knowing that Reperio’s health assessment data is confidential and secure, and anonymized was important to our workers,” says Solak.
After the presentation, 43 employees (47% of the CareerPlug workforce) signed up and indicated they’d prefer to try the Reperio kit, in lieu of visiting their primary-care physician to undergo the biometric same screenings.
Tulay was pleasantly surprised that 90% of workers who elected to have the Reperio at-home health assessment sent to their homes completed the self-screening process within three weeks.
“The positive feedback we received about the Reperio at-home health assessment exceeded my expectations,” says Solak. “The majority of our remote workforce appreciated the option to undergo routine health screenings, and receive essential health feedback, privately in the comfort of their own home, as opposed to an on-site environment. Many employees in the engineering department were very impressed with the kits, and with the Reperio app itself. It was very easy to use.”
Having a screening tool that’s convenient, easy to use, and HIPAA compliant encouraged several individuals who wouldn’t have gone to a primary care physician to undergo critical biometric screenings.
In 2023, Solak hopes to implement the Reperio screening service again, around May or June, when CareerPlug’s month-long wellness incentives program restarts. Because employees are now familiar with Reperio and have experienced how easy it is to privately self-screen and engage in preventive care, Solak believes they’ll be more inclined to use the at-home health screening tool on an annual basis.
Solak also notes that the tool will help CareerPlug gain insights into the programs and benefits that employees would be most likely to utilize. Because of the program, CareerPlug is planning to invite a health practitioner to speak to their employees at a future Lunch & Learn focused on heart health.
“The more data we have, the more accurately we can customize health plans to meet employees’ needs,” she says.
