Key takeaways
- Eye exams and dental cleanings do more than you think. They can detect early signs of serious conditions like diabetes, high blood pressure and heart disease.
- Preventive benefits are a retention tool, not just a perk. 88% of workers say benefits are a major factor in their decision to take a job, and 36% say health benefits are a top reason they stay.
- Prevention costs less than treatment. For most dental and vision plans, preventive services are already covered.
A toothache doesn’t clock out at 5 p.m. Neither does eye strain or that pesky headache that keeps coming back. These are minor but persistent problems people push through instead of calling in sick. But these are also the same problems that can slowly chip away at focus, productivity and morale.
The right preventive benefits can help keep small issues from turning into bigger (and expensive) ones.
The Basics: What Preventive Benefits Cover
Preventive benefits cover the services that help your employees stay healthy, not just fix what’s wrong. This includes annual physicals, dental cleanings, and eye exams.
For dental, preventive benefits cover:
- Routine cleanings: Even with good brushing habits, plaque and tartar build up over time. Regular cleanings remove buildup before it turns into cavities or gum disease.
- Oral exams: A dentist can spot early signs of decay , infection or oral cancer. Early treatment is almost always simpler and less costly.
- X-rays: The naked eye can’t see everything that’s going on in your mouth. X-rays catch hidden problems like decay between teeth or changes in bone density.
For vision, preventive benefits cover:
- Comprehensive eye exams: These go beyond checking how clearly you see. They look at the overall health of your eyes, including early signs of conditions like glaucoma or macular degeneration.
- Prescription evaluations: If your prescription is out of date, you’re working harder than you need to just to see clearly. This makes sure your employees have what they need to see well and work comfortably.
Unfortunately, these are the kinds of appointments that are easy to push aside when life gets busy. But here’s what happens when preventive benefits go unused: a skipped dental cleaning can turn into a costly root canal. An overdue eye exam means another year of straining to read a screen with the wrong prescription. When your employees put off preventive care, it impacts more than their health. It affects how they show up to work.
The Connection Between Employee Health and Performance
The connection between employee health and performance isn’t abstract. Dental pain affects concentration. Vision problems make it harder to read, focus and respond quickly. These don’t get flagged in a performance review, but they’re hard to ignore during an eight-hour workday. Left unaddressed, those health issues impact more than just the employee.
The Business Cost of Presenteeism and Absenteeism
There’s actually a term for when employees show up to work but aren’t really there: presenteeism. It can look like pushing through a day of meetings with a toothache. Or squinting at a spreadsheet because their prescription is two years overdue. Technically present but distracted and not at their best.
Presenteeism is more costly than most employers realize. It costs U.S. businesses up to $150 billion annually. That’s roughly 10 times the cost of absenteeism.
Missed days show up in attendance records, while presenteeism hides in plain sight. The work still looks like it’s getting done. But the quality, focus and output behind it tells a different story.
When employees stay on top of their health, problems like these are less likely to take root in the first place. That’s the case for making preventive benefits more than just a line item in your benefits package.
Missed days are the most visible sign that something is wrong— and they add up fast. In fact, U.S. employers lose an estimated $226 billion a year to health-related absences. That’s about $1,695 per employee. It’s not just an empty desk. It’s the work that piles up, the teammates who pick it up and deadlines that get pushed.
A lot of absences don’t come out of nowhere. Often, they’re the result of a health issue that had been building for a while. When your employees use their preventive benefits regularly, those small problems get handled before they become a reason to call in sick.
The Role of Dental and Vision Benefits in the Workplace
That’s where dental and vision benefits come in. While they’re separate from health insurance, they’re all part of what keeps the whole body healthy.
Did you know?
Nearly half of U.S. adults over 30 have some form of gum disease and most don’t know it.
Gum disease has been linked to serious conditions like heart disease and diabetes. This means what’s happening in your mouth can be a window into what’s happening in the rest of your body. On this vision side, 78% of employees say eye issues hurt their productivity at work.
Healthy employees perform better. Routine dental and vision care is one of the easiest and most practical ways to support that.
How Preventive Benefits Can Lower Healthcare Costs
Every year, benefits budgets get harder to manage. Premiums go up, costs climb and the pressure to offer competitive coverage doesn’t let up. The good news is that preventive benefits are one of the few places where spending more can cost you less.
When your employees stay on top of their dental and vision care, health issues get caught early. That means fewer emergency claims and lower overall costs over time. Research shows that every dollar spent on workplace wellness programs, healthcare costs drop by about $3.27.
Cutting voluntary benefits to reduce costs has the opposite effect. The costs don’t disappear. They just show up later, in as more expensive reactive care.
Preventive Benefits as a Retention Tool
Compensation gets people in the door. Benefits are often what keeps them there. In a competitive job market, employees are paying close attention to what their benefits package includes.
In fact, 88% of workers say it’s a major factor in their decision to take a job. And once employees are hired, benefits continue to shape whether they stay. 36% of employees say health benefits are a top reason they stay with their current employer.
For organizations where turnover is a real cost, recruiting and onboarding add up fast.
Offering dental and vision benefits sends a clear message to your workforce: that employee health is a priority, not an afterthought. When employees have options elsewhere, preventive benefits can be your differentiator in employee retention.
Encouraging Preventive Care in the Workplace
Offering preventive benefits is step one. Making sure employees use them is the next step. Turns out, 80% of employees don’t even read their benefit materials. And almost half don’t fully understand their benefits. This is not a communication problem, but rather an opportunity for you to help close the gap:
- Communicate year-round. Open enrollment is a start, but employees need reminders year-round. Monthly or quarterly check-ins through email, newsletters or your intranet help keep preventive care top of mind.
- Use multiple channels. Employees have different learning styles. Videos, flyers, lunch-and-learns and mobile-friendly resources all reach people differently. The easier you make it, the more likely employees are to engage.
- Lead with culture. When leadership uses their benefits and encourages others to do the same, it sets the tone. It tells employees that taking care of their health is supported, not something to squeeze in.
- Use open enrollment strategically. It’s the window when employees are actively reviewing their coverage. Use it to remind employees what’s covered and that most preventive care costs them little to nothing out of pocket.
Preventive Benefits as a Workplace Wellness Strategy
Workplace wellness is more than a step challenge or access to a meditation app. It’s also about consistent and accessible preventive care. The kind that catches a dental problem before it becomes a sick day or spots a vision issue before it affects someone’s ability to do their job.
That’s what preventive dental and vision benefits do. If you’re serious about a healthy and productive workplace, preventive benefits are not a line item. They’re part of the whole workplace wellness strategy.
Frequently Asked Questions
Preventive benefits are parts of a benefits plan that helps you stay healthy before something goes wrong. They cover routine services like dental cleanings, eye exams and annual physicals.
Preventive benefits improve productivity by addressing health issues before they affect performance. Dental pain and eye strain make it harder to focus, process information and do your best work. When employees use their preventive benefits regularly, those issues get caught and treated early.
Employers should encourage preventive care because offering benefits and using them are two different things. Most employees don’t fully read or understand their benefits materials. Clear communication, year-round reminders and easy access to care help close that gap.
Preventive care reduces absenteeism by catching health issues before they escalate. Many absences trace back to problems that had been building up for a while. When employees stay on top of routine dental and vision care, small issues get handled before they become a reason to call in sick.
Preventive care lowers healthcare costs because early treatment is almost always less expensive than reactive care. Research shows that every dollar spent on workplace wellness programs, healthcare costs drop by about $3.27. Fewer emergency claims and earlier interventions add up to lower costs over time.
Yes. Delta Dental of Arizona offers dental and vision benefits that employers can add to their benefits package. These plans emphasize preventive care, helping employees stay healthy, focused and productive while making benefits easy to manage. Learn more and view plans at deltadentalaz.com/shop-for-plans.
