By Ben Reynolds, Director of Sales at EyeMed UK
Employee vision care can mean different things to different companies – and even to different departments in the same company. It’s a general term used to describe providing an employee population with some sort of help with protecting their eyes and vision. However, many businesses still see it as a grudge purchase and an unnecessary cost that doesn’t provide much return.
But what if we flipped the script and considered the real costs of not investing in vision care properly?
The Reality for Screen Users
This discussion focuses on screen users in your workforce, who are “protected” under DSE (Display Screen Equipment) legislation. In a nutshell, employers should provide regular eye tests for employees who use a screen as part of their role – and glasses if needed to carry out their job.
Employee vision care isn’t a nice-to-have, it’s an absolute must-have. In this blog, I’ll explore the core teams impacted by vision care and how businesses can optimise their approach for the best results.
Managing Employee Vision Care
In many organisations, employee vision care falls under the broader remit of HR; whether that’s the benefits team, health and wellbeing, or health and safety.
Regardless of which team is responsible, someone must oversee the process. Their responsibilities include tracking employees who:
- have had an eye test
- are due for one
- has said they missed one
- didn’t know they were meant to have one
- believe they don’t need one (but likely do)
- had one but don’t wear their glasses.
This is while they are also firefighting 358,485 other issues and trying to do the other parts of their role. The management of this can be a full-time job on its own, but rarely is it given anywhere near enough resources to manage it correctly. And if given any supporting “tools,” it’s often a spreadsheet and a “good luck” pat on the back.
What is the hourly cost for the people involved from HR?
So once an employee has had their eye test, and they have hopefully/maybe/possibly/probably been recorded on the spreadsheet as having had it, what’s next? The employee has paid for their eye test, and (in this example) glasses, and has been instructed to “just put an expense claim in”. Now it falls on the lap of the Finance team.
Now, it’s a little-known fact that finance teams have other things to do other than look at claim back requests each month. But let’s pretend for a minute this is their only job. They have received possibly one, possibly 1000 claim back forms this month. With photo’s of something which once resembled a receipt for an eye-test but now looks like a photo of a crumpled bit of paper from 1987. They then have to take said photo and reconcile these claim backs which isn’t the quickest of tasks and organise the claim back to be paid.
But what if one employee is trying to claim back too much against their limit? What if the item they are claiming for isn’t clear on the receipt? What if they are claiming for “work glasses” which actually would look too extreme at a Timmy Mallett tribute night? What if they’ve lost the receipt?
What is the hourly cost of this from people involved in finance and the managers who have to approve the expenses form in the first place?
The Hidden Cost on Employee Wellbeing
Once the claim is approved, the employee gets reimbursed – sometimes weeks later. But here’s the reality: many employees are already struggling financially. Asking them to pay upfront for vision care and wait for reimbursement can create unnecessary hardship.
Unfortunately, working poverty is a daily challenge for so many families. Many will have to decide whether they buy food or have an eye test, buy their children a birthday present or have an eye test, top up their heating in winter or have an eye test. These are some extreme examples, but unfortunately, they are a reality for too many, and this is before we even look at possible tax implications.
What’s the mental health cost of this added financial burden?
A Smarter Way Forward
- Pay for Vision Care Upfront: The first priority should be to pay for the eye tests (and glasses if needed for work) initially and move away from an employee having to pay for them and claim back. Yes of course, there is an upfront cost to this, but there will be much more to pay by doing it the other way round.
- Calculate the True Cost of Self-Management: Find out the true costs of what it takes to self-manage vision care – how many people are part of the process and what is their time involvement against their hourly rate? Work this out on a monthly basis and the total cost may surprise you.
- Streamline the Process: Think about how you can streamline the process and remove as much of the admin burden as possible. You can’t take shortcuts but you can ensure that as much of the process is as automated as possible and opens up time in the diary for other tasks to be taken off the “to-do” list.
Enter Managed Vision Care
It’s exactly what it sounds like – a way of managing vision care. What this looks like in reality is by providing eye care plans. The process of supplying employee vision care through eye-test vouchers.
Managed vision care enables companies to purchase eye-test vouchers from a provider and then records who has used them, who is still to have an eye-test and when they are next due. This then provides evidence of duty of care, compliance with DSE regulations and removes 99% of the admin burden. All while saving the associated costs on HR and Finance by self-managing this.
Imagine the high-fives at the next office party between HR and Finance when they now have time to actually concentrate on their job. Imagine an employee not having the financial pressure of paying for eye-tests. Imagine the increase in productivity when people can actually concentrate on their job and see their screen clearly. Imagine the reductions in absence levels when employees don’t have time off with migraines because of eye-strain.
I’m not sure John Lennon was referring directly to the benefits of employee vision care in his 1971 hit, but I like to think he was. Imagine a world where people can see more and do more.
If you want to find out how managed vision care can save time, cut costs and boost employee satisfaction, contact us today.