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Onsite Flu Clinic: Good or Bad Idea with COVID-19?
Is hosting an onsite flu clinic a good idea when the COVID-19 pandemic is still prevalent? See our answer.
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With both the flu and COVID-19 cycling this upcoming season, getting a flu shot is more important than ever. But due to necessary precautions to prevent further spread of germs, should companies host their own flu shot clinic?
Our answer: yes, if you’re able to maintain safe social distancing and other preventative measures.
Why Companies Should Host an Onsite Flu Clinic
Immunizations are an important part of a healthy, disease-free life. By hosting an onsite flu shot clinic, your company will promote vaccinations and make it much more convenient for employees and their family members to get immunized.
Per the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), employers specifically benefit from onsite flu shot clinics in the following ways:
- Flu shot clinics decrease time missed away from work to get vaccinated.
- Employee health plans already cover vaccinations.
- Hosting clinics improves morale.
- Vaccinations reduce absences due to illness, resulting in improved productivity.
- Each year, U.S. employees miss an average of 17 million workdays and companies lose an estimated $7 billion in sick days and lost productivity on account of the flu. (Source: CDC)
How Do We host an Onsite Flu Clinic?
The CDC outlines the following guidelines for planning, hosting and promoting an onsite flu clinic:
- Get manager buy-in by framing vaccinations as a business priority.
- Assign an in-house flu vaccination coordinator or team with defined roles.
- Consider using experienced flu vaccination services such as a pharmacy or community immunizer.
- Host the clinic before the end of October, as flu season begins in the fall.
- Allow employees to attend the flu clinic as part of their workday.
- Consider making the clinic available to employees’ families.
- Track numbers to try and increase the percentage of participation from year to year.
- Provide incentives for participating.
- Promote with posters in high traffic areas, intranet reminders, emails, social media, and employee portals.
- Create a comfortable and convenient place to host the clinic, keeping in mind safe social distancing measures to eliminate spread of germs.
- Have your managers and executive team get vaccinated first to set the example.
What If We Don’t Have the Resources or Facility to host an Onsite Flu Clinic?
If you’re unable to host an onsite flu clinic, create flexible workplace policies to allow employees to go off-site and get vaccinated, preferably before the end of October. Share posters of organizations, pharmacies, and doctor’s offices that offer flu vaccinations. If you’re unaware of places to get vaccinated, use vaccinefinder.org.
If you're able to safely host an onsite flu clinic, you will help prevent the spread of flu germs this season.
For more tips and information about flu vaccinations, please contact our your certified Stratus HR expert.