Employers have a permanent duty to their employees to keep the workplace free from harmful substances, people and situations. This is because employees need to function at the workplace to earn a living for themselves and their families. Employees who are sick from illnesses such as influenza (the flu) cannot render service to the employer. For this simple reason, employers may do well to offer corporate flu shots on-site in the workplace for the safety and well-being of their employees.
Here are other reasons you may need to provide corporate flu shots in your organization or company every year.
Table of Contents
Flu Viruses Mutate Over Time
Some people may wonder why it is necessary to take flu shots annually. The reason it is important to offer flu shots every year is that flu viruses don’t stay constant. As a matter of fact, flu viruses constantly mutate so that last year’s flu shots may be useless with the next viral mutation. The flu shots will simply not work at all. So medical research keeps changing as well so that researchers can design new flu vaccines which are believed to be effective against the new forms of flu viruses. This means employees who are up-to-date with their yearly flu shots will either not get sick with the flu from those viruses or their confinement due to the flu will not last very long.
Sick Employees May Infect Those They Work With
Another reason you should make sure to offer corporate flu shots is that it only takes one or two sick employees to render an entire office of co-workers down with the flu as well. Sick employees might not know they have the flu virus until they have full-blown symptoms. And even then, they may have already infected their colleagues. This means company productivity will be compromised and your company cannot compete in the workplace against your business rivals. Business goals cannot be met and you, as the employer, will not know how to change the situation except to send all employees home until everyone has recovered from the flu.
Sick Employees May Infect Their Households
An employee clueless to the fact that they are infected with a flu virus are unaware that they are contagious and are putting their household in danger. This means an employee who goes home will not be the only one down with the flu before long – everyone in the family can get sick this way. The employee’s spouse cannot work and the children of the employee will have to miss school too if they develop flu symptoms. If everyone in the family is sick with flu, who will take care of them all? This becomes a major problem for the whole household. While this point has nothing to do with the workplace, directly, it still affects the livelihood of your employees.
Your Corporate Wellness Plan May Already Offer Coverage for Flu Vaccination
If an employer like you is able to provide a corporate wellness plan, you should check the extent of the coverage. Are flu shots for employees covered already? If they are, then that is fortunate because you will just need to inform all employees to take their flu shots on-site in the workplace. Be sure to note those who do not take their flu shots as well, if you make on-site vaccination mandatory. These employees who remain unvaccinated may have some valid reasons, such as being allergic to egg-based flu vaccines in general or had already experienced vaccine injury in an earlier vaccination attempt. You may check www.sadakafirm.com/flu-shot-injury-vaccine-injury-compensation/ for more advice on how to deal with a vaccine injury.
You may also have to organize different health care arrangements for those exempted from the vaccination.
Take note as well that some corporate wellness plans might cover the families of employees as well. If this is so, encourage your employees to join the company-wide vaccination with their families so that it becomes a more comprehensive health care coverage. If their families are vaccinated, that means less worry for your employees when flu season kicks in.
You May Reward Compliant Employees If You Meet Business Goals
Corporate flu shots are indeed important so you can meet your business goals. Employees who are well enough to work are the reason your company meets those goals on a regular basis. If enough employees comply with vaccination requirements, meeting business goals becomes easier and more consistent. This means you will have the means and the money to be able to reward your employees at the end of the year. So, for the sake of encouraging employees to comply with vaccination efforts, you may offer financial rewards to those who do comply. You will just need to check with the company accountants to see how much you can afford to give, considering the heightened profitability of the business due to reduced absenteeism and fewer filings for sick leave over the previous months.
About Carson Derrow
