How Employers Can Influence Employee Coronavirus Vaccine Uptake

Employers play a key role in increasing coronavirus vaccine uptake, but not necessarily by requiring workers to receive the vaccine, a recent Kaiser Family Foundation (KFF) report found.

“Getting more Americans vaccinated isn’t only up to the government. Even without requiring workers to get a vaccine, employers can play a role by offering paid time off to get vaccinated and encouraging their workers to do so,” said Drew Altman, president and chief executive officer of KFF.

Employers appear to be pursuing this strategy of encouraging the vaccine and offering time off to receive it. According to around 66 percent of workers, their employers have encouraged them to take the vaccine. Twelve percent of respondents stated that their employers offered a reward to those who received the vaccine. 

Only 9 percent of the respondents said that their employers had required that employees get the coronavirus vaccine.

In addition to recommending that employees get the vaccine, employers offered paid time off if employees need to receive the vaccine during work hours or if they suffered side effects.

By comparing the population of respondents whose employers encouraged employees to get the vaccine and gave them paid time off to those who did not receive their employers’ encouragement to get vaccinated against the coronavirus or who did not receive paid time off to do so, the potential implications of employers’ actions become clear.

Seventy-three percent of workers whose employers encouraged them to receive the coronavirus vaccine had at least one vaccine shot. Additionally, 75 percent of those who received paid time off to get the vaccine have gotten at least one shot.

In contrast, only four in ten of those whose employers did not encourage employees to get vaccinated had received a coronavirus vaccine shot. Similarly, half of those whose employers did not provide paid time off to get the vaccine reported that they had received the coronavirus vaccine.

These distinctions remained true regardless of variations in race, age, ethnicity, income, and even regardless of whether the individual identified as Republican or Democrat.

Although employers’ encouragement to receive the vaccine appears to be an influential factor in whether or not employees choose to get vaccinated, employees did not approve of turning that encouragement into a mandate.

Slightly more than six in ten employees reported that did not believe their own employers should require that employees take the vaccine (61 percent). This response did vary based on other factors, with the unvaccinated and Republican-identifying respondents more likely to object to employers taking such a step.

As the number of coronavirus cases declines, the public’s urgency around getting vaccinated seems to have decreased as well.

Exactly half of the survey population said that they lived in a household that was entirely vaccinated. However, a quarter of the survey population said that they lived in a household with no one vaccinated and 50 percent of all unvaccinated respondents said that the coronavirus cases were so low that vaccination was unnecessary.

“These findings underscore the importance of vaccine communication that emphasizes that the pandemic is not over,” researchers emphasized.

Many payers are well aware of their responsibility to support coronavirus vaccination among their members and have taken numerous steps to do so. However, some have also included their own employees in these efforts, recognizing their positions of influence as employers.

For example, Cigna offered a financial incentive to employees who received the coronavirus vaccine. US employees who got vaccinated received $200 in their health savings account and could use part of their 10 days of coronavirus-related paid time off for recovery.

The results of KFF’s research may not be surprising in light of previous data which showed that employees have relied on their employers for coronavirus-related information during the pandemic. Nearly six in ten employees stated that employers should share coronavirus vaccine information according to a study by Alight.