It’s no secret that the COVID-19 pandemic has drastically reshaped countless different industries. But, now that the vaccine is finally being introduced, business owners and HR professionals have certain obligations that they need to be aware of.
Fortunately, we have all the information you need to prepare yourself. Let’s explore everything that you need to know about vaccine guidelines.
Decide Whether or Not You Should Require a Vaccine
Before you can move forward with your vaccination policy, you’ll need to decide whether or not your company mandates vaccinations for its employees
This can be a difficult decision to make since there’s a large number of factors at play that support both sides. For example, you may not want to be a company that unilaterally requires employees to follow strict mandates. On the other hand, though, leaving the decision entirely up to the employee could lead to an unsafe work environment in some scenarios.
Fortunately, there are ways that business owners can compromise if they cannot choose between both sides.
For example, vaccination may be left up to the discretion of the employee except if their job requires certain high contact activities. To elaborate, only team members who frequently participate in meetings, engage with clients, etc. would be required to receive one.
Prepare to Accommodate Certain Exemptions
In the event that your company does choose to mandate vaccination, you should prepare for certain types of exemptions. For instance, it’s not unlikely that an employee would claim religious reasons for not wanting to receive a vaccine.
Similarly, a member of your team could have a medical exemption (such as an allergic reaction) that you’ll need to accommodate.
Otherwise, you may encounter issues down the road if you intentionally disregard these requests for exemption and require your team to receive a vaccination.
Minimize the Cost for Your Team
One of the best ways to ensure that the process goes as smoothly as possible is by minimizing the costs your employees will experience. Although the vaccine itself is provided by the federal government at no cost, there is still an associated ‘administrative fee.’
Requiring your team to both receive a vaccination and requiring them to pay the fee can quickly lead to unwanted conflict. You’ll also need to be accommodating of the time that employees spend traveling to receive the vaccine.
As a general rule of thumb, you should aim to eliminate the cost and consequences of receiving the vaccine entirely to ensure that your company can implement its policy without encountering any obstacles along the way.
Managing Vaccine Guidelines Can Seem Complicated
But the above information will ensure the process is as streamlined as possible. From here, you’ll be able to ensure that you follow all of the necessary vaccine guidelines and avoid any pitfalls in the future.
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