Optical Benefit in Malaysia

We know the importance of perks and benefit to employee. It gives sense of security to employees when they know that their health care are covered and this helps in employee retention. Perks and benefits if given right can increase employees productivity. There are many types of employee benefit i.e. insurance, dental, disability etc. One that we would like to discuss about is the optical benefit in Malaysia.

There is no exact benchmark to define optical benefit. However, what it covers is a subsidy for annual eye examination and partial or fully payment for prescription glasses by the employer to the employees.

It’s important to note that merely stating the benefit without proper execution cannot maximise its potential. After all the objective of the initiative is to give the best the company can to the employees.

As MATA is a company that focuses on providing corporate eye care service, we notice that there are few areas that can be improvised in providing optical benefit in order to get the best of optical benefit.

1. Engaging eye care event vs traditional approach
Instead of purely giving optical benefit the traditional method i.e. claim for new glasses, we find that a holistic eye care service will be more meaningful. Eye care talk will be helpful to raise eye care awareness and sharing about eye exercise on how to relief eye fatigue. These are useful tips that can be practised on daily basis to help to ease the eyes. A holistic eye care service helps one to be more aware of eye health level instead of just getting new glasses and forget about importance of care for the eyes.

2. Beyond prescription check 
Rather than just doing eye prescription check, dry eye test will be really helpful especially for the ladies who wear contact lens for long hour. Another eye test is IOP test to test eye pressure. This is useful for elder employees to check for sign and of glaucoma.

Many may not be aware of the perks that are provided by the company. This could be due to unappealing way of presenting the perks. So be it optical benefit or healthcare benefit, we suggest presenting these info in visual and infographic form. Besides, optical claim process should be hassle free and remuneration should be fast. By reducing the friction in the claiming process, employees will be much happier to enjoy the benefit.

4. Personalised to one’s need
Different employee may need different eye care or glasses. Through understanding the demographic of company employees, tailored eye care service will be able to cater to individual’s needs. In addition, one-to-one consultation by eye care professional for the employees enable them to get the eye care that fit them best.

5. Guaranteed quality and Affordable
Ultimately, it will be great to get exclusive discount for employees. It is definitely a win-win situation to the employees and the company. Since the company has already set a budget for optical benefit, why not make sure that the employees get the best our of the spending. Besides, the employees get to buy something much cheaper than the market without compromising the quality.

Communication is the key

In the end of the day, communication between management and employees is important. Management should review the benefit frequently to make sure that the employees are contended with the benefit given. Changes should be made as and when it is needed.

Here in MATA we are actively serving corporate clients i.e. Digi, Air Asia, Garena and more. We provide services such as primary eye care, prescription check, colourblind test, eye care talk and corporate rate.

To find out more, visit www.mataclinic.com