Employers with vaccine mandates offer insights into what others may expect

Impending vaccine mandates are raising questions and creating concern for private employers with 100 or more workers.

Last month, President Biden directed OSHA to issue regulations under which these companies must require workers either to get vaccinated or provide negative COVID-19 test results at least weekly to enter a company’s worksite. Employers anticipate that the requirements, once issued, will present a range of challenges.

Related: Navigating the choices around Biden’s vaccine mandate

Mercer asked employers that already have implemented mandates about the biggest hurdles they have faced. This is what they said:

Industry trends. More than one-third of respondents already have vaccination requirements in place, and the policy varies widely by industry. Of the health care organizations responding to the survey, nearly half require all employees to be vaccinated and an additional 16% require only those working onsite or engaged in specific activities to be vaccinated, for a total of 63%. At the other end of the spectrum, few manufacturing respondents — just 4% — require all employees to be vaccinated, and only 12% require any to be vaccinated.

Turnover. Of respondents with vaccine mandates already in place, 71% say they have seen no change in turnover as a result. However, 25% have seen a slight increase and 4% report a significant increase.

Surcharges. Despite a few well-publicized examples of prominent employers implementing a premium surcharge, only 3% of respondents currently have a surcharge or are definitely planning to add one, and only 14% are even considering it.

Incentives. Currently, 15% of respondents offer employees cash or a gift card as an incentive to be vaccinated, and 7% hold raffles. Additional time off is offered by 17%. Relatively few additional respondents — just 8% — say they are considering adding these types of incentives.

Testing. Respondents were evenly split between those that would accept testing as an alternative to vaccination (22%) and those that would not accept testing except as an accommodation for those granted medical or religious exemptions (21%).

Exemptions. About half of respondents report that 2% or fewer of employees subject to the mandate have applied for a medical or religious exemption.

Concerns. The majority of respondents are concerned that implementing a vaccine mandate will result in increased turnover. The complexity and cost of planning and implementing a vaccine mandate was the next biggest concern, followed by employee morale and engagement, with 30% very concerned and 40% concerned.

Read more: 

• Employers have the power to fix the U.S. health care system
• How will the federal vaccine/testing mandate impact self-funded group health plans?
• FAQS on the COVID-19 vaccine executive order