What is corporate eyecare?
Corporate eyecare is an employee benefit that helps employers to comply with health and safety obligations for staff who use visual display units (VDUs), or to help those who drive on business. The most common ways to provide corporate eyecare include e-vouchers, through a health cash plan, or through an arrangement with a local optician.
Where can employers get more information on corporate eyecare?
Employers can find out more information about their eyecare responsibilities via the Health and Safety Executive’s website: www.hse.gov.uk.
Who are the main providers?
Key providers of corporate eyecare include ASE Corporate Eyecare, Boots, Duncan and Todd, Edenred, Optical Express, Smart Employee Eyecare, Specsavers, Tesco Opticians, Unum, Vision Express, and VSP Vision Care.
With just under half (48%) of employees now spending at least seven hours looking at a digital screen for work purposes, it is perhaps unsurprising that 41% of employers are concerned about employees' eyesight as a result of display screen equipment (DSE) usage in their working role, according to research by Specsavers Corporate Eyecare, published in March 2017. Safeguarding employees' eye health, therefore, is a key consideration for many organisations.
A routine eye test can not only check for vision-related problems, such as cataracts, glaucoma or diabetes-related retinal issues, but it can also detect wider health complaints, for example some forms of tumour, diabetes, high blood pressure or high cholesterol levels.
There are four main areas of corporate eyecare. These include display screen equipment (DSE) packages, designed for employees who use screens for the majority of their work; prescription safety eyewear for staff in at-risk roles; driver eyecare; and optical care, which can be offered to employees as a healthcare benefit.
Legal obligations
Employers have a legal obligation towards their staff when it comes to eyecare. The Health and Safety (Display Screen Equipment) Regulations 1992 dictate that employers have to fund an eye and eyesight test for all employees using computer screens, laptops, or similar devices for work. If the test reveals that an employee requires eyewear solely for DSE work, then the employer must fund the full cost of the glasses, including the basic frame and lenses.
Employers are only required to fund the basic eyewear appliances that are required purely for display screen work, and only if the employee's own day-to-day glasses are not sufficient for this style of work. Staff can select more costly eyewear, however, they have to cover the additional costs involved. Employers must also provide safety eyewear where required.
Employers also have an element of responsibility for employees who drive for business purposes. Although the onus is on the employee to ensure they are fit to drive, a fatal accident caused by an employee’s poor eyesight while driving for work can have legal implications for employers under the Corporate Manslaughter and Corporate Homicide Act 2007.
Implementing eyecare benefits
Employers have a number of options available when it comes to offering eyecare benefits. One of the most popular is via pre-paid paper or electronic vouchers from larger suppliers such as Specsavers. The employer will purchase these vouchers for their workforce, then allocate them to staff who request eye tests, enabling the employer to track voucher usage and take up.
The cost of corporate eyecare will vary depending on the level of cover the employer wishes to provide. For example, Specsavers' DSE voucher costs £17 per employee, while its optical care voucher, which is available for all employees regardless of their nature of their role, is £35 per employee. Employers should also consider that they may need to purchase a minimum amount of vouchers. Specsavers require employers to buy a minimum of five vouchers, for example.
Alternatively, employers can run schemes with local opticians, for example, operating on the basis of employee referrals or arranging on-site eye examinations.
In addition, optical care can be included as part of a health cash plan. Rather than having the cost of items, such as sight tests, fitting fees, prescription glasses, contact lenses, or prescription sunglasses, frames and repairs, covered, the employee will pay for their eye test and glasses then claim it back from the health cash plan provider.
As well as meeting legal obligations around employees' eyecare, employers may choose to offer additional benefits to all staff regardless of whether they use DSE for work purposes, or to extend eyecare benefits to employees' partners and dependents. Unum Dental, for example, offers a loss of sight payment of £10,000, as well as the ability to add cover for a partner or spouse, through its optical insurance plan. Other broader optical cover options, such as those available through VSP Vision Care can help employees with the cost of buying new glasses.
Corporate eyecare is usually delivered every two years for individuals in line with the recommended time frame for eye tests.
Statistics:
- 34% of UK adults who have not been for a sight test in the last two years would attend an eye test if it was provided for free (Source: RNIB and Specsavers, July 2016).
- 42% of UK adults are aware that a routine sight test can detect high blood pressure (Source: RNIB and Specsavers, July 2016).
