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Concerns about the rapidly spreading Delta variant are prompting more and more U.S. employers to impose vaccination mandates on their workforces, according to a new investigation from consulting firm Mercer LLC.
Nearly 14% of 400 U.S. employers surveyed in late July and early August said they would or already require all staff to be vaccinated to work at a company site, Mercer said. An additional 15% said they needed vaccinations for certain functions such as business travel or customer contact.
Those numbers are up from a similar survey by Mercer in May, when less than 1% of employers said they would need vaccines and 8% said they would even consider a tenure.
With the return of Covid-19 cases to the United States, many business leaders believe they need to vaccinate more workers, but they are divided over whether to use more carrots or more sticks for do it. About 10% of employers said they offered a financial incentive to get the vaccine, while 19% said they offered extra paid time off as a reward, according to the Mercer survey. And 15% of employers said they give extra time off so employees can get their children ages 12 and older immunized.
More companies are likely to require their employees to be vaccinated once the United States Food and Drug Administration moves a Covid-19 vaccine from emergency authorization to full approval, Mary Kay said. O’Neill, partner of Mercer’s healthcare business.
“A number of companies that have taken a conservative stance on this may think it’s time they could do the warrant,” Dr. O’Neill said, adding that some human resources officials with whom Mercer interviewed say they are struggling to understand how to manage a workforce made up of vaccinated and unvaccinated employees. “It’s just hard to run a workplace with two groups of people like that. “
More and more companies are also making the Covid-19 vaccination a requirement just to get a job. The share of job postings indicating that a new employee should be vaccinated nearly doubled in the past month, according to job search site Indeed. Although the total number remains low – at around 1,200 messages requiring vaccination per million, it is up from around 600 in early July.
The rise in Delta variant cases has also prompted a number of companies, including Facebook Inc., Amazon.com Inc. and Wells Fargo & Co., to delay plans to reopen offices. Lauren Mason, senior manager of the career sector at Mercer, said some companies that were planning to bring back all office workers at least part-time are now making such returns voluntary. Some made the switch after employees expressed health concerns or reluctance to wear masks when they hoped that with the vaccines available they would not be needed, she said.
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