100% eyewear requires 100% eyecare

For those yet to come across the phenomenon, 100% safety eyewear policies are where employees are expected to wear their safety eyewear for the entire time they are in the at-risk workplace. PPE policies used to dictate that, for example, an employee must wear their safety eyewear while actually at their workstation and performing a hazardous task. It is, however, becoming more and more common now, particularly within manufacturing environments, for employers to ask employees to wear safety eyewear for the whole of the time that they are in the warehouse or on the shop floor. So the comfort and fit of safety eyewear has arguably never been more important. 

Comfort

Specsavers Corporate Eyecare has undertaken independent research* into safety eyewear to investigate the importance of comfort when it comes to safety eyewear. This revealed that 78% of employers worry that employees remove safety eyewear if it is not comfortable. If employees are expected to wear safety eyewear 100% of the time, issues of comfort may well become even greater. 

There are several steps an employer can take to help ensure the comfort of the safety eyewear they provide. It seems an obvious solution, but trying on safety eyewear to check for comfort before it is purchased is something that not all employers enable their employees to do. Safety eyewear that is selected online or from a catalogue, with no ability to try on before it is purchased, is not always able to meet individual needs. 

Fit

Having safety eyewear properly fitted by a professional has two major advantages: firstly, the eyewear can be checked for comfort and secondly, it can be adjusted for fit. Both of these measures have a positive impact on safety: crucial for the eyewear to be effective, and to increase the likelihood of it actually being worn.   

Styling

When it comes to choosing the best style of safety eyewear, there is no substitute for actually trying them on. This gives the wearer the opportunity to feel the weight of the glasses and to check for comfort and quality. It helps if the optician has a full range of safety eyewear readily available in-store. Styling is perhaps more important than many people would originally consider. Of course, safety must be the main concern but, being able to choose a preferred style and having more modern options, will have an impact on individuals actually wearing their safety eyewear. In fact, safety eyewear has progressed a great deal in recent years and now comes in a wide variety of male, female and unisex styles, in different colour options and even wraparound-style frames.

Administration

With 100% safety eyewear policies in place, it is likely that more employees will be required to wear safety eyewear more often. This in turn has implications for administration. It helps when an eyecare policy is easy to put in place and manage. Safety eyewear needs to be replaced at regular intervals, prescriptions will change frequently, and employees will come and go. This makes it essential that the administration process is simple and straightforward, right from procuring safety eyewear in the first place, through to distributing provision to employees and enabling them to quickly and easily obtain their eyewear. Equally, it is important that pricing structures are transparent and consistent across all employees. 

Common sense

Nobody would even consider buying their everyday glasses without trying them on. So why do some employers deem this appropriate for choosing something as essential as safety eyewear? The increase in the amount of time and circumstances for which employees are now being expected to wear their safety eyewear should be reflected in the amount of care given to the selection of safety eyewear. This is not to say that it should take extra time or increased budget, it is simply a case of finding an eyecare policy that enables individuals to be treated as such. A policy that allows choice, and offers quality and expertise.