Further to our recent report: “Corporate Vaccination Policies Evolving,” a Willis Towers Watson survey of 961 employers revealed a stark increase in the percentage of companies planning to implement vaccine-related mandates in some form by the fourth quarter of 2021 (52%) relative to mandates implemented as of mid-August (21%), when the survey was conducted.
Key takeaways include:
- More than 20% of companies are planning or considering vaccination as a condition of employment for all employees, and nearly 30% are planning to make or considering making vaccination a requirement to gain physical access to the workplace.
- Nearly 60% currently track their workers’ vaccination status, and another 19% are planning to do so or considering doing so later this year; 62% of those require proof of vaccination, such as CDC vaccination cards, and 36% rely on employee self-reporting.
- 80% of companies require employees to wear masks indoors at any location and another 13% are planning to do so or considering doing so.
Notably, nearly 40% of companies don’t expect their organizations to reach a “new normal” in terms of returning to the workplace and ending pandemic-related policies and programs until the second quarter of 2022; about 25% are looking to the first quarter.
See these articles: “Majority of companies plan to have COVID-19 vaccine mandate, survey finds” (ABC News), “Most U.S. Employers to Require COVID-19 Vaccination” (CFO), “Toss the Clorox Wipes, Stock Up on Masks to Be Safe at Work” (WSJ), and “Enforcing Vaccine Mandates Is Messy Business” (WSJ); and additional resources on our Coronavirus (COVID-19) Resources page.
This post first appeared in the weekly Society Alert!