In Business Las Vegas, October 19th, 2007
Perhaps it shouldn't be surprising, but there's a disconnect between the way vision care and human resource professionals view the importance of employee vision problems.
Employers should take care to safeguard their employees' vision, according to a report by a national vision council.
The Vision in Business report compiled this year by the Vision Council of America said
Nevada
's loss is $344 million annually on reduced productivity stemming from employees' job-related vision disorders.
Nationwide, the cost has reached $16 billion annually, the report said.
But a top
Las Vegas
human resource executive says most employee vision problems aren't job-related and that addressing vision problems is not a top priority.
"I'm not seeing any statistical data to support (the report's findings)," said
Sandra
Liechty, president
of the Southern Nevada Human Resources Association, who also brokers insurance for Custom Benefits Consultants. "Vision is not there as a priority."
Most of the employers she assists in providing employee benefits do offer vision, she said, but added that vision problems in the workplace "are not tied directly to the work they do."
Vision Council of America
Chief Executive
Ed
Greene
called the findings in his group's report "shocking."
Greene
said employees can suffer from eye- and headaches, as well as other disorders not visually apparent to others, such as glaucoma.
"There is a direct correlation between vision problems and actual missed time (from work)," he said.
Greene
attended the International Vision Expo held at the Sands Expo and Convention Center Oct. 4-6.
With the workplace transformation from manual laborers wearing safety glasses to workers staring for hours at a computer screen, employers may not necessarily realize an employee's vision is what's causing poor work productivity.
"It changes the whole scope of what employers should be worried about," he said.
Computer screens are the main culprits behind vision disorders, he said. "We've dropped the thinking about vision and it's even more important now."
The report said 90 percent of those who work on a computer three hours or more daily suffer from computer eye strain.
One way to curtail employee vision problems is to offer vision coverage,
Greene
said, adding that employee vision problems are a major factor in lost productivity.
For every dollar a business spends on employee vision, seven dollars is gained, he said.
But even with the coverage, employees still need to be educated on the coverage benefits, and ways to prevent vision disorders.
The vision council estimates that 11 million people in the
U.S.
have uncorrected vision problems.
Vision coverage is a lower priority among employers, according to the 2006 Kaiser Family Foundation's annual survey of Employer Health Benefits.
According to the survey, while employers offered dental benefits 50 percent of the time, only 23 percent of employers surveyed in Western states offer or contribute to a vision benefit, slightly higher than the national average.
Large firms were twice as likely to offer vision coverage than small businesses, it said.
Still, the vision council recommends employees who intensively use their computers wear anti-reflective glasses specially designed to cut back the damaging glare a computer screen can have on an employee's eyesight, as well as a simple 20 minute exercise of staring at an object 20 feet away for 20 seconds.
This short visual break from the computer screen could actually help employees salvage their vision,
Greene
said.
