How employers can use the world’s largest and fastest vaccination drive to motivate employees to return to work?

Employees have been hit severely by COVID-19, which has heightened workplace tensions. As the pandemic progressed, businesses began to see an increase in employees hesitating to come to work for fear of getting coronavirus and spreading it to their families. Anxiety was present as a result of sadness produced by the virus’s abrupt death of loved ones, the struggle to obtain basic medical supplies, the scarcity of reliable information on essential Covid resources, and the looming economic hardship.

Employee morale is at the heart of a company’s productivity and success. Recognizing this, forward-thinking companies are adopting a variety of steps to reassure staff. These activities include, among other things, delivering regular updates and credible information on the situation, as well as specific allowances, additional leave, mental health support, and insurance coverage.

Vaccines provide the Indian economy with a fresh lease on life as the prevalence of Covid-19 declines. It offers hope for a cure for the COVID-19 epidemic and is good news for the economy. As a result, the discussion of workplaces reopening their doors and bringing remote employees back into the office has begun to gather traction.

In the nine months leading up to October 21, the nation has administered approximately one billion doses of the covid-19 vaccine. Due to limited production capacity, the immunization programme began with a targeted approach, beginning with covid warriors and front-line employees, then senior individuals, and finally the 18-and-up adult population. It’s been a hard road since then, with scientists’ reputations and the government’s abilities originally being questioned. After China, India is now the second country to reach one billion doses globally. Both countries have populations in the billions.

Companies are hence encouraging vaccination drives to get their workforce to the office, resume operations and drive sales. There have been some visible positive changes in the Indian economy.

Demand Surge:

According to current statistics from the Cowin website, over 75% of People have been vaccinated with one dose and 30% of people are fully vaccinated. Hence, the past few months have seen the increased opening of restaurants, retail stores, and malls. People are moving out with their families for a weekend outing in public shopping places. As a result, a huge shift to offline purchasing has been seen.  The combination of entertainment, family connection, and the gratification of being connected to the outside world has led to discretionary spending. The extra flow of cash is a good impetus for companies to boost their sales. Festive offers, unique consumer experience, and remote delivery are some of the offerings by businesses hoping to make a strong recovery. Businesses will require their marketers, strategists, and field personnel on their feet as the demand surge is being seen.

Improved Supply Chain:

Since social distancing standards are being relaxed, manufacturers are endeavoring to match market expectations as pent-up demand picks up. This will result in a higher capacity utilization rate. Factories will be able to improve output levels as a result. There is an influx of investor-friendly policies with the hope of removing the supply chain restrictions. Manufacturing businesses will need their full workforce back to action to support this demand surge.

Effect on overall workforce confidence to return to work

It is expected that the vaccination will ease out the fear in the minds of employees and many will love the idea of coming to the office. However, there are still many companies struggling to get their cent per cent workforce vaccinated. I have listed down some measures which can be taken in this regard.

1. First, find out what vaccine-adoption support actions employees say they want from your company
2. Second, learn how the employees’ expectation compares to what other employers are doing in the marketplace
3. Third, discuss with the strategy team what roles management could (and are) playing in supporting vaccination in the workforce. Are they building broader networks, and communities for employee assistance?
4. Chart out how employers could navigate a return to work across a range of vaccination scenarios (for example, where only part of the workforce is vaccinated).

Research by McKinsey has shown that currently, not enough employers provide the full range of initiatives that would have a significant impact on adoption rates at scale. There are visible gaps at the following.

1. Efforts at conviction-Sharing information and other resources to educate the staff, making the intent of senior leaders towards vaccination visible by making them actively participate in the drive and holding awareness sessions for the importance of vaccination for a safe workplace.
2. Efforts at convenience-Getting in touch with the employees regarding the eligibility criteria, booking slots for vaccination, reimbursement policy, and ensuring on-site vaccination for a majority of the workforce.
3. Efforts at costlessness: Ensuring employees get time off for getting the vaccination done, tying vaccination with positive rewards and non-monetary incentives, covering transport costs while going to and fro from the vaccination center, free meals, goodies, etc.

There are three key ways employers can make a difference:

Creating strong consumer conviction-

1. Educate the workforce. Companies like Verizon have provided an online COVID-19-vaccine FAQ guide for employees with information on the specific vaccines approved for use, how to register for a vaccine, and internal company policies related to the vaccines. Daimler through its company-related health-insurance programme has included an interactive portal where employees can ask questions about COVID-19 vaccines.
2. Host panel discussions and interactive webinars with physicians and public-health experts to share scientific information, answer employee questions and address concerns. For example, Kotak Education Foundation has organized a doctor’s meet, where I was invited as a panelist to answer the apprehensions of their beneficiaries to get vaccinated. Similarly, a series of seminars with medical experts were organized by OCBC Bank Singapore to educate its workforce on the positive impact of vaccines on easing social distancing norms, scientific knowledge on vaccine efficacy, and potential side effects. Sessions like this help in debunking several myths.
3. Highlight ‘vaccination ambassadors’ and their vaccination stories- Everyone looks up to the company’s leadership team as a role model. Why not use this to nudge employees to get vaccinated? Behavior modeling is one of the most effective tools in getting the workforce to adopt a new behavioral change. In this case- it is getting vaccinated. Employers can foster a supportive environment for COVD-19 vaccinations by, for example, having company executives or managers share their vaccination experiences with employees or by establishing a network of vaccinated “employee ambassadors” to answer questions and share their experiences. In practice, making sure that role models and ambassadors are visible to all employees and representative of the workforce will help to maximize the reach and impact of the effort.
4. Formulating a strong vaccination policy: A survey has shown that most employees whose employers have mandated vaccination for all employees, feel safer to return to work as compared to those employers who only recommend their workforce to be vaccinated. The norms may differ from company to company; however, the general perception of the people is that the workforce should be safe for me to return to work, otherwise I have conveniently adapted myself to home settings.

Providing high levels of convenience

1. Sharing adequate information: The vaccination process is often complicated. Employees are often perplexed on finding information about local vaccination sites, their operating hours, eligibility criterion, booking slots, and documentation required. Some companies like Tyson Foods have outsourced this communication responsibility to third-party sources like Matrix Medical Network to support vaccine communications, administration, and counseling to ensure that Tyson’s US employees have access to information about COVID-19 vaccines at the tip of their fingers.
2. Simplifying vaccination experience: Employers can help their employees with vaccination scheduling by reserving appointment slots at nearby vaccination sites. Similarly, businesses can collaborate with medical or public-health organizations to assist with vaccine queries, scheduling, and even to connect employees with transportation services to provide free rides to vaccination appointments.
3. Increasing on-site facilities: In the United Arab Emirates, Emirates Airlines has established clinics at company locations to provide COVID-19 vaccines to all employees. Amazon has also held some pop-up clinics in Seattle to provide vaccines to eligible members of the community as well as employees in the company’s warehouses and retail stores.

Ensuring that vaccination is truly “free” or better.

1. Giving structural support & covering direct costs: Certain interventions like providing incremental sick days or PTO for vaccination and any necessary recovery time, modifying shift schedules, offsetting any potential structural barriers to workers getting vaccinated can encourage employees to get vaccinated. Some companies have come up with unique incentive schemes. Chobani announced that it would pay for up to six working hours of vaccination for its employees—three hours for each of the two COVID-19-vaccine doses. Similarly, Dollar General provides four hours of paid time off to employees who self-report having received a vaccine dose.
2. Offering attractive rewards & incentives: Companies can provide financial and non-financial incentives to their employees for vaccination. Cash bonuses, retirement contributions, and other gifts could be used as financial incentives. SodaStream gave vaccinated employees gift cards. Non-monetary incentives could include wellness-program reward points from insurance providers or prioritization of vaccinated employees to return to work during the phasing of return-to-work. JBS USA, a Brazilian meatpacker has announced to pay $100 to employees in the United States who voluntarily receive a COVID-19 vaccine. Emerson Electric also announced plans to reward employees who get vaccinated by contributing to their 401(k) retirement accounts.

Employers should be uniquely positioned to achieve all three objectives due to their privileged access, the position of trust, and practical ability to address potential barriers to vaccine uptake. Employers are making efforts to bear the cost burden of vaccinating employees and their dependents. This is in addition to vaccinating business partners and community members to restore operational normalcy over the next few months and accelerate the path to societal and economic recovery.

By adopting a structured and phased plan, I think most companies will soon be able to achieve their cent percent workforce vaccination goal.