How businesses are tracking their employee's vaccination status and well-being amid COVID-19 recovery
Dr. Mary Kay O’Neill, Partner and Clinical Services Consultant at Mercer, joins Yahoo Finance’s Alexis Christoforous and Kristin Myers to discuss Mercer’s survey on tracking vaccinations.
Video Transcript
KRISTIN MYERS: And speaking of vaccines, a new survey from Mercer finds that employers are tracking who is getting vaccinated, and even more are planning on doing so. We're joined now by Dr. Mary Kay O'Neill, partner and clinical services consultant at Mercer. So Doctor, a quarter of employers are tracking these vaccinations. How are they doing that? And how are they handling-- or are they anticipating any at all pushback perhaps from employees who don't necessarily want that type of information to be tracked?
MARY KAY O'NEILL: Well, as with all things COVID and every point along the way, it's kind of a hybrid of different efforts. Number of companies have internal resources. Mercer is one. We have a voluntary registration process. Others are using vendors that are tracking vaccination status. And others are in the development process.
Some of them are piggybacking on systems they had to track testing results, for example. And-- and as you know, from the federal government, there has been a statement that they are not going to be authorizing a national program. But New York has-- has its own system, Excelsior system, that is useful to-- to help connect people as do several airlines. So it's a little bit of everything out there right now.
ALEXIS CHRISTOFOROUS: Dr. O'Neill, what are you hearing in terms of employers perhaps mandating that employees get vaccines? Might we start to see that at least in particular sort of high-risk sectors?
MARY KAY O'NEILL: Yeah, although that too is a patchwork. And I think, as everybody knows, that this is a really tricky issue for us because of different people's beliefs or understanding about vaccinations. And so people are worried about alienating part of their workforce. On the other hand, employers, of course, are required and committed to having a safe and healthy workplace.
So we are seeing universities and hospitals, not all of them, but making that decision. Some retail and manufacturing employers are also making the decision to come down on being able to demonstrate safety. We have the EEOC that has said that employers can mandate this as long as they have programs for people who-- who don't agree with it.
And so I think that we are finding our way, to tell you the truth. And I think people are concerned about being too restrictive. But as different organizations walk down this road, I think people will learn how to do this and hopefully how to do it in a way that people feel is respectful but still practical and-- and is really oriented to workplace safety.
KRISTIN MYERS: Doctor, I know that you're saying that employers right now, companies right now, are in this finding their way mode right now. What are you hearing are some of the ways in which they are trying to find their way, at least in approaching that return to work requiring some of their employees to be vaccinated? What are-- how are some of them thinking about that right now?
MARY KAY O'NEILL: Well, what I've experienced is a lot of companies are taking the time to have really open, almost like educational sessions where people can bring their concerns forward and get-- get their questions answered. I've-- I've done a number of these for different companies where people are able to share what their concerns are and to hear their colleagues' concerns as well and to get those questions answered.
We are also seeing now part of the Biden vaccination effort has made it possible for different companies such as some of our national retail pharmacy chains to actually come on site and make it transactionally easy for companies to provide vaccines in the workplace. And so a bunch of different wheels are being turned, if you will. And then, you know, a lot of our companies that we consult with besides the ones that are in that more high-risk industry are global in nature.
And so one of the areas almost everybody agrees upon is for the purpose of business travel. There will be jobs or roles that will absolutely require a vaccine verification of some kind or another, or you won't be able to enter certain countries. So I think we're sort of moving bits and pieces forward. And-- and I think that, you know, some companies will come up with-- with really useful systems that will be applicable across the workplace. And other-- other companies will look at that and understand how to proceed.
KRISTIN MYERS: right, Dr. Mary Kay O'Neill, partner and clinical services consultant at Mercer. Thank you so much for joining us.
