Vaccine Action to Spur Return to Workplace Normality

There’s not always a happy moment when actions that make good business sense collide with actions that show good corporate citizenship. There is just such a moment to seize right now. 

That moment comes in the form of the ability of corporate executives to take action to get their employees vaccinated against Covid-19.

Ed Bastian, who heads Delta Air Lines, is one of the first to take the leap, though even he hasn’t jumped in with both feet. “Any person joining Delta in the future, we’re going to mandate that they be vaccinated before they can sign up with the company,” he told CNN. 

But Bastian disavowed any intention to require vaccinations of existing employees. He acknowledged that the unvaccinated might endure some restrictions on the job – an inability to work international routes, for example.

Meanwhile, Scott Kirby, who heads United, believes that companies, especially those in the travel industry, should be willing to mandate vaccination, but he’s not willing to go it alone, instead hoping that it will become an industry-wide practice.

And among airlines, at least, corporate approaches range from incentives to get the vaccine – an additional day off and a $50 voucher for American – to simple encouragement without any particular carrot or stick, as is the case so far at Southwest.

The transportation industry, where damage from the pandemic was particularly severe, is an obvious place to start when considering vaccine mandates. And that goes beyond airlines. Norwegian Cruise Line may stay away from Florida ports if the state follows through with its plan to bar companies from requiring vaccination in order to receive services.

But let’s face it: Vaccine mandates are divisive. It’s far beyond the scope of this article to parse all the reasons for that, but we can at least acknowledge that it’s contentious, and that the contention is there even if vaccines have been mandated for many years for non-Covid ailments, and in circumstances, like attending public schools or working in healthcare, that have adopted mandates without much in the way of general resistance. 

This doesn’t take into account the continued existence of both organized and disorganized opposition to vaccines in general, but, somehow, the Covid vaccines have taken this to another level.

We may have accepted those other mandates, and we may not have a particularly persuasive rationale for distinguishing between vaccines for other contagions and the Covid vaccines. But when it comes to Covid, vaccine resistance seems to be more widespread and more political, and that would likely be the case for any mandate.

A business organization, however, is not the government. Its mandates don’t apply to the general public. It has considerations of its own, and it has good reasons to get behind vaccines – at least for its employees.

To begin with, encouraging vaccination aligns with the idea of good corporate citizenship. It seems clear that wide vaccine distribution is the quickest way out of the pandemic, period, whether you believe that the country can reach “herd immunity” or not. In other words, it’s our best route to normal life, to normal business, to normal workplaces, to normal schools, to normal restaurants and shops and, yes, normal airplanes. 

But a full-bore reopening of the country only works if it doesn’t lead us back into a pandemic resurgence. And vaccines are our best defense against that eventuality.

With that approach, the end result is that good citizenship coincides with good business, but it’s more than just a general proposition. There are also some specific business reasons to be active on the vaccine front.

There is likely to be a net gain in business, with the vaccine-positive part of the population being more likely to intentionally patronize businesses that have vaccinated staffs.

And that principle should also apply to one of today’s hotter topics, the return to the physical office. Employees are likely to be more enthusiastic about that return if they can be reassured about its safety. Vaccines push things in that safer direction. If managers are intent on reopening, taking a proactive vaccine stance is a crucial piece of the puzzle.

Speaking as a career counselor, I see an emerging effect on recruitment. The best candidates will, perhaps for the first time, be making safety an important part of their criteria for what makes an offer attractive. 

An organization that has taken active steps to get its people vaccinated is going to be a more appealing place to work. If nothing else, it’s the sign of an employer who pays attention to the well-being of its staff, a quality that makes for a kind of bare-minimum requirement for attracting the best and brightest.

If we really do want to ditch the masks, lose the social distancing and return to what we once considered normal life, corporations have a role to play in the grand project of getting shots in the arms of as many of us as possible, whether that’s by mandates or incentives or, if nothing else, simply by active encouragement. 

At this point, no one has the luxury of sitting on the sidelines. But when a corporate stance is such an obvious combination of good business and good citizenship, deciding to get active on the vaccine front should be almost automatic, and calling that decision a no-brainer grossly overstates its complexity.