I'll never forget bringing my aunt to the United States to have a cataract surgery, lens implantation and cornea reconstruction. She was thrilled to be able to read her newspaper for the first time in years, and it touched me to realize how essential our sight really is and the importance of catching eye problems early on. This has become my driving motivation for making sure preventative vision coverage is available to our employees.

Aside from detecting debilitating and incredibly costly eye diseases, a high-quality eye exam can pick up early signs of diabetes and high blood pressure – two of the biggest culprits in rising health care expenditures. Diabetes, for example, accounts for $6,650 in annual medical costs per person and $4,500 in annual productivity loss per person. With early intervention, employees and their employers can often avoid these implications. Plus, certain eyewear enhancements, such as photochromic lenses, can protect diabetic employees' eyes from the UV damage and light sensitivity for which they face a higher risk.

Of course, healthy employees benefit from eyewear, too. Aside from helping wearers see 20/20, today's eyewear comes with lens enhancements that can help employees with issues such as eyestrain, which is a common worker complaint and results in productivity loss.

Did you know, for example, that eye-focusing problems can cause employees to lose up to 15 minutes a day? Research suggests even when employees don't realize their vision needed to be corrected, their productivity could be affected by 20 percent – a shame, given how easily vision problems can be discovered by a routine exam.

Voluntary vision growth

Voluntary vision plans are on the rise. In fact, nearly 70 percent of employer vision plans are already either fully voluntary or share the cost with employees, according to industry research. HR managers may worry employees won't stick with their plan if they're suddenly paying the bill, but the reactions we're getting may surprise you.

I participated in an HR panel discussion about the value of vision coverage as part of an annual education event for benefit brokers, called Transitions Academy. Several of us had recently switched over to a voluntary plan, and everyone reported a high rate of retention among employees. In my case, we actually saw a 16 percent growth to 50,000 employees enrolled in our vision plan once it changed to a voluntary option in 2010.

This represented about a 65 percent overall enrollment in the benefit. What helps make our particular vision coverage unique is that it's part of a flex plan, through our major vision plan provider, that gives employees pretax savings, which includes out-of-pocket costs. Plus, with employees contributing to plan costs, we were able to offer them a more robust plan that provides access to both lenses and frames every year, which we weren't able to offer previously. It's a win-win arrangement, and our employees have reported high satisfaction.

As for actual costs to the employee, voluntary vision coverage is still inexpensive, especially when compared with medical premiums. When you consider everything vision care and vision wear can do for preventative health, productivity and even peace of mind, a comprehensive, voluntary vision plan that still offers a yearly exam and coverage or discounts on quality eyewear options is well worthwhile. Employees clearly value their access to vision care services and are generally willing to make a small investment to keep it.

Employee education critical

It takes more than maintaining employee enrollment in order to call a voluntary vision plan (or an employer-paid plan, for that matter) successful. Maximizing the impact of a vision plan on health and productivity requires making sure your employees are actually using it.

Recent research makes it clear there is room for improvement. For example, a 2010 survey by Transitions Optical revealed about 30 percent of vision plan enrollees don't use their plan to get an eye exam. Unfortunately, this undermines the ability of exams to detect costly diseases and the ability of an eye doctor to recommend the right eyewear to help employees see better at work and at home.

Fortunately, this is something that can be helped through some pretty painless employee education efforts. Most of these efforts are helpful in increasing enrollment in the plans as well – all of which works to the benefit of the employer by helping more employees see their best.

My fellow HR panelists agreed that, while employees inherently understand their vision is important – and may even be willing to pay for their own plan – they don't necessarily understand why they should use it if they aren't noticing vision problems. That is, they aren't aware of the preventative aspect of eye care or the fact that their sight might not be as good as they think.