September 14
How To Plan For An Onsite Vaccination At Your Workplace
How To Plan For An Onsite Vaccination At Your Workplace
Onsite staff vaccination is essential, especially if your workplace is busy and most workers can’t get enough time to visit conventional vaccination centres. You’re undoubtedly familiar with mass vaccination’s long queues and unpredictable waiting times. Doing it at your business premises is very convenient for your staff.
Keep in mind that your workers’ health is your responsibility. When they’re healthy, they become productive at work, enabling you to make decent profits. Also, vaccination ensures your staff doesn’t miss work now and then. Mark you, flu is one of the main reasons why workers fail to show up at work. Thus, onsite flu vaccination goes a long way to ensuring business continuity. Workplace vaccines also make your staff feel acknowledged, thereby boosting their morale.
Your starting point is to devise a workable plan for the onsite vaccination so that everything proceeds well on the vaccination day. Also, reading through a detailed employer vaccination policy lets you know what you must do to have a successful immunisation activity at your workplace. With that in mind, below are six considerations to make when planning for an onsite vaccination at your workplace:
1. Talk to the staff about vaccination plans
First and foremost, make your plans clear to the staff regarding the forthcoming workplace vaccination. By all means, it shouldn’t be a surprise to them. The activity will face much resistance if vaccinators come to the business premises out of the blue and you ask them to queue for their jabs. Their physical and psychological preparation is mandatory.
While at it, ensure even those on leave get the announcement. Moreover, ensure every department is aware of the workplace vaccine requirements so they prepare accordingly.
2. Prepare adequate space for the health professionals to set up
The vaccinators you invite for an onsite vaccination will require enough space to set up their equipment. Usually, a table and a couple of chairs. If you have dozens of workers vaccinated, the activity may take up to a couple of hours, and you wouldn’t want them to interfere with the core business functions. So, consider doing the vaccination in unused space within your premises. This way, they can work efficiently without interrupting any ongoing business in the office.
3. Schedule the days for the vaccinations
Specifying the exact day and time the onsite vaccination will take place is paramount. By doing so, your staff will clear any urgent tasks before the activity begins so that they don’t use it as an excuse for failing to show up for the jab. Scheduling also assists in preparing your staff physically, emotionally, and psychologically. Bear in mind that some people develop anxieties on news that they’ll receive needle injections. Thus, if they’re informed beforehand, they’ll have enough time to process and calm their fears.
4. Decide on the incentives to give
Not all news of vaccination is received with open arms. Sometimes, there’s resistance. For this reason, you’d want to incentivise your staff through free giveaways like sporting tickets, scholarships, cash, food, drinks, and lottery entries.
Additionally, you can make it kind of a family day by allowing your staff to bring their loved ones along for the vaccination. Everyone loves such breaks from the norm; thus, they’ll gladly embrace the activity.
5. Determine how you’ll handle those with side effects
To reiterate, some vaccines come with an array of side effects. Pain, swelling, redness, and / or, tenderness around the injection site are the most frequent side effects from a flu vaccination Thus, it’s essential to put a plan in place to handle such reactions. You can consider creating some days off for the affected persons for any severities.
Conclusion
Onsite vaccination at your workplace helps prevent spreading of diseases such as flu among your workers. More so, it’s convenient for your staff as they won’t have to change their schedule and travel to other vaccine centres. So, plan adequately to ensure the activity progresses without any hitches. Ultimately, your crew will stay healthy and be productive at work. They’ll also appreciate your show of care for their well-being.
References
Anonymous, “Promoting Vaccination in the Workplace,” Center for Disease Control and Prevention, October 25, 2021, https://www.cdc.gov/flu/business/promoting-vaccines-workplace.htm
Anonymous, “Why it’s important to get a flu jab,” Manatu Hauora, March 31, 2022, https://www.health.govt.nz/your-health/conditions-and-treatments/diseases-and-illnesses/influenza/flu-influenza-vaccines/why-its-important-get-flu-jab
Anonymous, “Possible Side effects from Vaccines,” Center for Disease Control and Prevention, April 2, 2020, https://www.cdc.gov/vaccines/vac-gen/side-effects.htm
Deborah Weatherspoon, “Understanding Opposition to Vaccines,” Healthline, September 15, 2017, https://www.healthline.com/health/vaccinations/opposition
