How to reduce employee eye strain during the pandemic
As we spend more of our days sitting in front of a screen, employers need to take measures to ensure their employees’ vision is protected.
If you’re like me and use screens for more than 10 hours per day, you could be straining your eyes and having unnecessary headaches. Over the last decade, screen time has more than doubled, from 3 hours in 2009 to 6.7 hours in 2019, according to Mary Meeker. And that was before COVID-19! Right now, if you work in front of a computer, socialize through Zoom, and watch Netflix in the evening, your numbers are even higher.
Digital eye strain: a 21st-century epidemic
Eye strain, also known as asthenopia, is an eye condition that causes fatigue, blurred vision, pain in or around the eyes, headache, and even double vision, especially during presbyopic years (middle age). These symptoms can come from watching television at a close distance, doing computer work, or reading on a smartphone without the proper visual correction. Before COVID-19, 65% of Americans presented symptoms such as eye discomfort, headaches, dry eye, and blurred vision. After COVID-19, most of them are in front of screens for even longer.
Related: Navigating vision care during open enrollment against the COVID-19 backdrop
Over 500 million years of evolution, the human eye was optimized for seeing clearly at a distance. Over the last hundred years—only 0.0000002% of human eyes’ existence—we’ve adopted screens en masse. The 1950s brought the TV screen, viewed at 8-10 feet; the 1980s brought the computer screen, now only 20 to 40 inches away; and the 2010s brought smartphones to within 8 inches of our eyes. Especially after the pandemic, with many companies emphasizing work-from-home policies, this rapid change has led to unprecedented–and accelerating–levels of eye strain, something that can be prevented.
And as we are fixated on our screens even more, employers need to take measures to ensure their employees’ vision is protected. Here are some of the reasons why providing a great vision benefit can help your company.
Reduce employee eye fatigue
According to the American Optometric Association, even individuals that don’t need prescription glasses for other daily activities may benefit from glasses made specifically for computer use. Three important lens features that help with eye strain and overall eye health are: antiglare, UV protection, and blue-light blocking.
Improve productivity
Uncorrected vision problems cause anywhere from a 2.5% to a 21% decrease in productivity. Visual eye strain lowers a worker’s productivity by around 15 minutes of work per day. For those with perfect vision but suffering from eye strain, that 15 minutes per day sums to more than 65 hours of productivity lost over the course of a year. With an estimated 65% of the 130 million workers in the US suffering from digital eye strain symptoms, this could mean over $8.4 billion hours lost in productivity.
Investing in high-quality glasses that prevent eye strain and promote productivity is a logical, high-yield investment for most companies.
Save on health care costs
Health care is most US companies’ second-highest cost, only behind employee salaries. Right now, 65% of Americans have digital eye strain, leading to headaches, blurred vision, and neck/shoulder pain due to eye strain affecting their posture. The cost of dealing with any of these issues, not to mention long-term damage from UV that comes from the sun, will far outweigh the much-smaller cost of simply buying protective glasses for their computer-using employees.
Attracting and retaining talent
With employee performance the most important contributor to a company’s success, it’s no wonder companies compete over top talent. For employees choosing between one company and another, vision benefits are a comparison point.
Reduce employee out-of-pockets
Most vision benefits only pay for a small portion of the cost of one set of corrective lenses — sometimes once a year, sometimes every other year, leaving most employees to pay upwards of $300 for a pair of glasses. Worse, those benefits almost never apply to non-prescription, health-promoting lenses! Employees with 20/20 vision should still be wearing glasses when they’re using a computer to reduce eye strain, but most vision insurance won’t cover a dime.
According to IBISWorld, over $40 billion in vision insurance premiums are paid in the US every year, nearly half of which simply goes to waste due to low plan utilization. MOre than 90% of Americans use screens for work, leisure, or connecting with family. Shouldn’t the money we already pay to protect our eyes actually go toward protecting our eyes?
Antonio Moraes is CEO and co-founder at XP Health.
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