Vision Care = Higher Productivity

If employers out there needed it, there is another reason to provide vision care for your employees and that is increased productivity.

Image: www.allaboutvision.com

A study conducted by the University of Alabama at Birmingham (UAB) School of Optometry found that vision impairments lower work productivity by as much as 20 percent. While other studies suggest you can increase profits by providing your employees vision care benefits to help boost productivity, decrease errors and reduce worker disability claims. Studies also indicate the most frequent health complaint among computer workers are vision related. 50 to 90% of computer users suffer from visual symptoms of computer vision syndrome (CVS) including eye strain, dry eye, irritation, blurred vision and double vision, neck pain and frequent headaches. CVS is a result of staring at a screen for too long without taking a break. CVS can cause more mistakes and lost productivity.

This can also be the cause of presbyopia, a vision impairment that has people struggling to see objects close to their face. Presbyopia is the normal loss of near focusing ability that occurs with age. Most people begin to notice the effects of presbyopia sometime after age 40, when they start having trouble seeing small print clearly — including text messages on their phone.

Every year, vision disorders alone account for more than $8 billion in lost productivity, and uncorrected vision can decrease employee performance by as much as 20 percent. Whether people with eye problems suffer general discomfort, functional impairment or extreme pain, their productivity has been proven to decline. In fact, even those who are symptom free but are living with uncorrected vision can suffer reduced productivity and accuracy. Even employees with perfect attendance can be less efficient if they are working with uncorrected impairments such as vision disorders. This is also known as “presenteeism” and results in 32 times more productivity losses than absenteeism alone. The loss of productivity due to vision disorders or eye injuries spans across all industries from manufacturing or construction jobs to office-based work such as accounting, engineering, and editing or software development.

Sources:

www.coloradoeyecenter.com

www.rebuildyourvision.com

www.thevisioncouncil.org

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