The Employer Quandary with Vaccine Mandates
While some employers are required to mandate masks and vaccines, others are not. There is much to be weighed in making a decision that affects many and in public sentiment considering what is for the betterment of all. The legal professionals are busy these days but sometimes you just need to hear the advice in black and white. I love a refreshing direct point being made and this is why I share Kristin Prinz is a Chicago-based Employment Attorney and 10KSB Peer. Her article CAN EMPLOYERS RAISE HEALTH INSURANCE PREMIUMS FOR UNVACCINATED WORKERS? gets to the point and must be seen given the many decisions employers are grappling with these days.
The Talent Emergency is alive and well and exacerbated at the crossroads of health, personal safety, wellbeing, and the means by which talent can now choose to make a living. Employers need to take a thoughtful moment to exercise care and respect for the talent that serves them and leading with heart is something I advise. I lead an HR Shared Service firm that is industry agnostic. We have HR practitioners that have been onsite and in-person with our clients since before the pandemic. While others on my team are working from the comfort of home. Did I require vaccines? No. Do I follow CDC guidelines, Yes! I saw a question online today,
How do we go about organizing work beyond the constraints of the traditional job, in a way that creates a kind of dynamic stability that unleashes the potential of both organizations and people at scale and speed?
Give them choice and respect their choice all while leading with heart. You have to believe that people want to come to work to do good, not harm. Hopefully, they respect your choice as the owner of your business but extend grace, flexibility where you can, and understanding. I feel it is not overcomplicated. Yet, we seem to find ways to complicate things, especially now. For me it’s simple. If I was in an industry whereby I had to require people to be onsite and in-person then it makes sense and most reasonable people will go along with the employer mandate to get vaccines and wear masks.
The messaging must be done with CARE. Yes, we have clients whereby we are mandating vaccines through policy and messaging. I have yet to have a client penalize employees by charging them a higher contribution rate for health premiums through the legal world has already said, “yes you can”. I don’t recommend it. Why? Again, the Talent Emergency is alive and well and if you need people to run your business, then you must trust them as adults. In my business, I have a number of positions/roles and if you can create roles that can be remote or hybrid then create an employee engagement option whereby they have the right to choose the role that works right for their personal health, family dynamic, and peak performance in serving your business and their needs. Then make the changes necessary to empower your talent to work where they must and drive accountability to values and standards of performance. Make sure your Managers are informed and agile with communications and the heart of the business not just plan, delegate, monitor, control.
Do everything you can to tie your values to rewards and tasks to impact. I will see my team for the first time in person since before COVID-19 on a boat floating Lake Michigan on September 25th. The majority of my team will be there and I can’t wait. The few that won’t be there, I don’t love them any less. I respect their wishes to not join us and I will send a gift regardless to their home. Especially since we have a few Boosters out of state now. I will not judge them nor hold it against them if they refrain. This is important as many are working with bias and judgment and forgetting to just LIVE as we must LIVE, moving forward with CARE, not isolation, not Us vs. Them, but CARE.
These days you have to hire for potential and invest in building capabilities and skills among your staff. In real-time, we do this at HRBOOST® by working in a collaborative team framework. As we all know we have to build skilled talent now because if you want to buy skilled talent, you are going to pay if you don’t have a strong culture invitation that is lived. We explicitly share internally for increased transparency and optimal decision-making in a fast-paced world.
I hope my two cents this morning, helps you remember the leader YOU are and that YOU can lead from wherever you stand. Be well. Stay Well. And give yourself permission to realize JOY and PURPOSE through your WORK! That’s we roll at HRBOOST®®
