One of the most significant things you have to consider when you’re growing your business is the productivity of your employees. The more productive they are, the faster your organization will achieve its goals and objectives.
However, one thing that might set you back without even knowing it is your employees’ health. When employees are unhealthy, so is your business—it’s a domino effect that you can effectively stop through better health benefits. While offering healthcare insurance is a great step forward, why not level it up with eye care benefits?
Eye health is crucial in today’s digital world, especially if your employees work remotely. Hours and hours in front of a computer screen can take a toll on their eyes. If you want to know more reasons why you should offer eye care benefits to your employees, read on!
Employees Want Eye Care Benefits
Did you know that 80% of employees would actually prefer a better benefits package over a pay raise? It might come as a surprise to some, but employees nowadays value what you can give them in terms of benefits, especially health support, paid leaves, and retirement savings plans.
With vision benefits, companies can help employees cover the cost of:
- Surgery for eye injuries
- Contacts or glasses
- Treatment for scratches or infections
- Preventive eye exams
Eye Care Benefits Enhances Competition
Employees want to feel valued, especially when they’re hitting their targets and meeting tight deadlines left, right, and center. However, they also want to know that you care about them. With employee benefits, especially healthcare packages including vision and dental care, they will see that you take them and their health seriously.
Most companies don’t offer vision benefits, so it might give you an edge in your recruiting efforts and potentially retain your top performers.
Eye Care Benefits Help Maintain Productivity
Eye problems can be a minor inconvenience or a debilitating disease that can directly affect how your employees work. Imagine working with blurry eyes. Nobody wants that! Vision problems can make even the simplest of tasks unnecessarily tricky. And studies have proven this as even minor vision problems can decrease your employees’ productivity by as much as 20%.
If your employees work non-stop in front of their devices, digital eye strain is something they will encounter along the way. This vision problem doesn’t stop at the eye as it will lead to symptoms such as light sensitivity, headaches, and back and neck soreness. All of these make producing quality work challenging.
For your company and everyone in it to prevent digital eye strain effectively, help employees get regular eye exams and corrective contacts or lenses through proper eye care benefits. You can also look into creating eye health programs within your company. Some ideas include:
- Conduct eye health workshops where they can learn more on how to make the most out of their eye care benefits
- Create daily reminders to limit screen time and encourage them to do a few stretches or walk around the office
- Implement the triple 20 rule where your employees need to take a break from their screen every 20 minutes for 20 seconds to look at something that is 20 feet away from them
Eye Care Benefits Show That You Care
Keeping our eyes healthy is crucial for work and our day-to-day lives. When an employer offers benefits beyond healthcare insurance, you show employees that you care about them beyond their role in your company. You’re showing them that you care about their overall wellness and quality of life.
When it comes to our health, our eyes are one of the last things we think about. However, eye doctors not only assess our vision and check for any abnormalities and diseases in our eyes, such as cataracts or glaucoma. They can also look beyond that and identify other conditions that are happening within other areas of our body.
Based on the changes they will see during eye exams, ophthalmologists and optometrists can detect signs of high cholesterol, hypertension, cancer, diabetes, and other health problems. They’re basically getting an early diagnosis that can even be life-saving. With this, your employees can get the treatment they need before their condition worsens.
It’s hitting two birds with one stone as eye care benefits effectively reduce your employees’ long-term healthcare costs and minimize loss of productivity due to doctor’s appointments and sick days.
Eye Care Benefits Save Your Company Money
Last but not least, eye care benefits are inexpensive add-ons and will even save your company a ton of money in the long run.
When you supplement your traditional vision benefits with a low-cost booster that will give your employees access to contact lenses, elective glasses, virtual preventive exams, frames, and other benefits, you’ll gain $7 for every $1 you invest. This essentially saves you over $2,700 per employee annually.
Healthy Employees For A Healthy Company
Vision plays a huge role in the overall health of your employees and your organization. By taking steps to keep your employees’ eyes in tip-top shape, you’re also guaranteeing that your company is and will always be in excellent condition.
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