COVID vaccines are slowly being rolled out to the public, and each state and even pharmacy is handling things a little differently. As of now, there are three vaccine providers approved in the United States: Pfizer, Moderna, Johnson and Johnson. As an employer, there are many things for you to consider when it comes to the vaccine, and all of them can affect your culture and bottom-dollar. Being prepared with a plan to address the COVID-19 vaccine will lead to increased communication as well as providing some certainty in these crazily uncertain times. This article will break down vaccination eligibility, encouragement, and requirement topics. 

Eligibility

As states are handling COVID-19 vaccination eligibility differently, you will need to look up what is available in your specific area. Thankfully, there are some great tools available to do the hard work for you! For example, National Public Radio (NPR) has a great tool called How to Sign Up For A COVID-19 Vaccine In Your State. Another great tool is a Vaccine Finder by location. As of March 18th, Iowa ranks 7th most effective in the country for the actual distribution of vaccines provided, with 3,254,946 dosages administered! See the complete listing at the Becker’s Hospital Review website.

In the State of Iowa, you are eligible to be vaccinated if you are the age of 65 or older, are a qualified Essential Worker, or have a qualified preexisting condition making you particularly vulnerable to the disease.

• Essential workers include front-line positions such as first responders, such as those in the medical and public service fields, and schoolteachers or childcare workers, among other positions.

• Underlying medical conditions include those with cancer, specified levels of obesity, diabetes, pregnancy, heart conditions, etc.

To see the complete list, refer to this qualification list published by the Cedar Rapids Gazette or refer to the COVID-19 in Iowa website by Iowa.gov. Note, on March 17th, Governor Reynolds announced the intention for all adults to be eligible for vaccinations in Iowa by April 5th, 2021.

Encouragement

As an employer, there are many advantages to encouraging your employee population to become vaccinated, such as having less susceptibility in the office to spreading or contracting COVID-19. This leads to less call-offs, medical leaves of absence, anxiety, and even burnout. Unfortunately, there is no one-size-fits-all approach with vaccination encouragement. Some options include encouraging teammates by providing education and training, providing individual or group awards, using financial incentives, or perhaps leveraging wellness programs.

Training and Education

No matter what you decide to do, providing your employee population with training and education regarding COVID-19 and vaccinations is key, and in some places mandatory. Although the general public will still value the opinion of medical professionals over the support of their employers, providing employees with the facts and encouraging them to do their own research with credible, data-driven sources is imperative! The idea is that by providing facts, resources, and educational tools from accredited sources, such as the Center for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) Administration, your employees may be more inclined to voluntarily participate in vaccination efforts, rather than being dissuaded by conspiracy theories or non-factual news or articles.

The benefits of providing education to your employee population are that it can be time and cost-effective! Perhaps you have a one-hour all staff training. Employers can control the timing and ensure the information is coming from a credible source. Perhaps you have CDC pamphlets and posters available throughout your workforce, in your shared company system/drive, or available online. Employers can save much time by doing this but should be sure to properly identify the COVID-19-designated staff member internally, such as Human Resources, who is available for further discussion and to answer questions. 

Incentive Plans

Building an incentive plan involves employers rewarding employees, either individually or as a group, for voluntarily getting the vaccine. The incentive plan that seems to have the most attention is rewarding employees with a gift card of some kind if they get the vaccination at work or provide proof of vaccination outside of the workplace. In this case, employers need to ask themselves if gift cards are really a tool to tip the scale of someone on the edge of making such an important personal health decision they may be uncomfortable with. Another kind of incentive plan could be offering group incentives such as a pizza party during the lunch hour for each team that is vaccinated collectively. However you decide to incentivize your employees, the goals are safety and fairness. 

In many cases, when the vaccine is tied to an incentive plan, employers are requiring proof of vaccination and must be prepared to handle the sensitive nature of said medical notes. Be sure to have a plan in place in order to collect and maintain these documents in a safe and secure manner, such as using the Medical File of an employee’s Personnel File.

Incentives don’t have to be financial such as buying a gift card or pizza for a group. They can also be given in terms of “perks”, such as letting employees wear jeans, providing an extra-long lunch break, or getting their picture and/or name added to a “Wall of Vaccinations” at your workplace or on your website!

Finally, another way to provide a financial incentive and receive a tax credit would be to voluntarily comply with the Families First Coronavirus Response Act (FFCRA) which was updated with the American Recovery Plan Act (ARPA) that allows employers to pay for the time an employee needs to physically go get the vaccination. This is certainly an incentive to the employee as they would not need to take the time unpaid or dip into their precious paid time off balances. As of now, this option is available from April 1st through September 30th, 2021.

Wellness Plans

Traditional wellness plans offer incentives and even payment for recommended services such as voluntary, preventative visits with your primary healthcare provider. As you can imagine, incorporating the COVID- 19 vaccines into such a plan may get a little complicated. Co-payments may be different depending on which state or even county you reside in. Overall, the government has passed laws such as the Families First Coronavirus Response Act (FFCRA) and the American Recovery Plan Act (ARPA) to ensure that the government is ultimately responsible for paying to vaccinate America; however, depending on whether they are being dispensed by an in-network or out-of-network physician could be the difference between there being a reasonable co-pay or not. Some employers are deciding to reimburse the employee for said co-payments through their wellness plan if the employees bring the bill to the office.

Another way to address the vaccine by means of wellness is leveraging a Wellness Committee to address fresh vaccine issues and topics. Do you have a policy in place to address the proper COVID-19 prevention measures? If you do, is it formally written down? Perhaps this is a task for your Human Resources team or your Wellness Committee. This committee could even conduct a survey, brainstorm encouragement ideas for you that are unique to your specific culture, keep up with vaccine eligibility in your area, or even send updates to all staff if a local provider has the vaccine in-stock!  

Other Things to Consider

Although some employers and entire industries are going as far as providing vaccinations at work or even making vaccinations mandatory, these come with their own set of hoops to jump through. Overall, if employers are interested in encouraging but not providing or requiring the vaccine, they need to keep in mind that proper COVID-19 prevention measures should still take place. For example, even if there is an individual or even a team that has been vaccinated, that does not give the employee the green light to remove the masks and stop the handwashing.

Also, the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA) and Title VII of the Civil Rights Act both make it clear that if someone has a medical condition that could be complicated by getting the vaccine (such as pregnancy) or a religious reason prohibiting the vaccine for any reason, employers must accommodate such requests, in most cases. When it comes to building incentive programs, employers need to take this into consideration as the programs should be applied fairly and consistently. Therefore, if someone cannot get the vaccine due to a medical reason, will the rest of the department miss out on that pizza party due to this one, medical exception?

In the end, no matter your decision to handle vaccines at the workplace, COVID-19 education programs should be in place. At least once a year, employers should provide training to employees on prevention measures, should have policies in place to keep employees safe, and should be providing the proper personal protective equipment (PPE). For any questions, tools, or guidance, see the resources linked throughout this article or contact us today. 

By Samantha Rogers