Forrester: Despite COVID-19 Vaccine Deployment Underway, Employers Must Exercise Caution As They Plan To Reopen Physical Offices
From doubts about vaccines' effectiveness to significant country-by-country variation in administration priorities, employers need to be cautious as they define their pandemic management plans. In its new report, "The Opportunity, The Unknowns, And The Risks Of Vaccine Passports In The Workplace,"
The graphic showing all 15 risks is attached.
Key highlights from the reports include:
- Vaccines are not a silver bullet. Factors ranging from global vaccine strategies to early-stage understanding of the virus, its variants, and efficacy of the vaccine mean employers must plan to continue anywhere-work policies and hybrid experiences to balance convenience with well-being.
- Avoid the privacy and ethical pitfalls of a "no jab, no job" policy. Forty percent of European and 30% of US employees are ready to return to the office, but asking employees to carry proof of inoculation with them to enter the workplace introduces privacy and ethics risks.
- Follow principles of proportionality, fairness, and transparency. Employers should collect only the minimum amount of data needed to trigger specific policies. They should encrypt medical data and enforce strict access, sharing, and deletion policies to ensure fairness and protection.
- Employers must navigate compliance and legal risks. In the US, the
Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC) agreed that employers can make the vaccine mandatory for employees, but several state legislatures have challenged the legality of such a requirement. In the EU andUK , each country has its own approach. - Be mindful of customer experience and perceptions. Relaxing protocols for distancing, sanitization, and mask wearing in customer-facing interactions risks a negative impact on how customers perceive a brand and their willingness to do business with the organization.
"While COVID-19 is loosening its grip, it's not going away," said
Related Resources:
- Read the blog.
- Additional research: "Vaccines Will Not Accelerate Travel Unless There Is Order And Collaboration" (client access required).
- Read the latest insights and guidance for leaders to address the business and employee experience implications of COVID-19.
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Press contact:
kbranson@forrester.com
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