How this company is enforcing their vaccine mandate

Vaccine mandates are becoming the norm for workplaces, but executing and enforcing them is leaving employers and employees with questions and concerns.

President Biden announced earlier in the month that businesses with over 100 employees must mandate vaccinations against COVID. Currently, 54.7% of the total U.S. population is fully vaccinated, according to the CDC.

Still, mandates continue to be a hot-button issue among employers and employees alike: 28% of employees will not get the vaccine, even if it costs them their job, according to a survey by the Society for Human Resource Management. Fifty-two percent do not think vaccines should be mandatory, SHRM found.

Read more: Returning to work doesn’t have to be stressful. Here’s how employers can help

Validity, a data solutions provider, put a vaccine mandate in place before Biden’s announcement, and reopened their offices in July with the requirement that all U.S. employees and facility visitors be fully vaccinated. COO Mike Piispanen spoke to Employee Benefit News about the decision-making process, what the employee response has been and the advice he has for other leaders navigating these mandates.

The vaccination policy you have in place, what is the current requirement you’re mandating right now? 
Globally, we have 400 employees, and 325 of those are in the U.S. We are requiring all Validity employees to be vaccinated. Our offices are open and only employees who are vaccinated can come into the office. Our theory was that we want our employees to have a safe environment and we want Validity to be its own pod where employees can come to a safe environment where only vaccinated people are present. And that goes for any visitors to the office as well — they must show proof of vaccination.

Mike Piispanen

And what went into the process of making that decision for your company? 
When the vaccines became available, we started to really map out when we thought everyone would be eligible and vaccines would be available. As the supply started to meet the demand and calendars and schedules started to come into clarity, it looked to us like early July was going to be the target, which is when we ended up opening offices.

Our original plan was you would have either a vaccine or you would come in with a negative COVID test, but we dropped the testing as a ticket to entry very quickly when delta started to impact that. For the health and safety of our employees and staff, it just made sense to have a vaccine when we’re in the office.

What has the employee response been, and how are you handling people who may not want to be vaccinated or return to the office at this time? 
We just deactivated badges until we got your vaccination card, and then we turned it back on. Our employees are required to upload their vaccine card through a secure portal that only our HR department has access to. There's no HIPAA information there. I think simpler is better. I know a lot of companies have tried to come out with incredible technology solutions, but simple works really, really well. And because we are effectively binary, you’re either vaccinated or you’re not.

Read more: How to navigate vaccine mandates as an employer

It will always be case by case because every employee has the opportunity should they have a medical reason or a deeply held religious belief to provide a reasonable accommodation in those situations, and we'll certainly do that on a case by case basis. But if it were to come down to a simple, ‘I'm not getting it,’ we'll make it a condition of employment. In our U.S. population, we are 90% vaccinated, so there’s a very small population of people who have not responded. Some of those folks work from home, but I like to remain optimistic and think that we'll get everybody, because people want to be in an environment and culture where we can collaborate and be amongst our peers. During July and August, it was great being in the office and meeting people for the first time.

Was the leadership team nervous about potential blowback, since this has become such a heated issue? Did that come into play when you were making this decision? 
We had discussions early on around the legal ramifications and as a private employer, we were confident that we have the ability to make that decision. What we did decide is that we don't necessarily need to be the first ones out there with a policy. There are other, larger organizations that will blaze the trail there in terms of mandates.

Our hypothesis has been that this was the path that we will be on, that companies would start to mandate. Employers wake up every day thinking, ‘We have to do what's best to maintain the health and safety of our workforce.’ I don't think anyone wants to say, ‘Hey, we don't really have any policies here. You can come in and do whatever you want.’

What advice would you give to other employers planning and managing through their own mandates? 
There was no playbook for how to manage into a pandemic, during, or out of a pandemic. There is no timeline. You have to assess the environment in real time and continually assess it. This is something that is not going away. It's just going to become something that we just have to deal with going forward, and we will evolve and develop the strategies to work in that environment and keep everybody safe.

This is really about the employer trying to do best for their employees. This is about their individual health and well-being and providing a way and the means to earn a living, to have a career and to stay healthy. And I think that those are very simple things that should resonate with anyone.