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How to Implement the Testing and Vaccine Mandates

Mandira Venkat Oct 8, 2021 12:00:00 AM
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Federal agencies, state departments, and large companies are all implementing vaccine mandates. The approach has become the new standard workplace safety procedure as we continue to navigate COVID-19. President Biden has ordered OSHA to create a rule mandating businesses with more than 100 employees require workers to get vaccinated or be tested weekly. Employers are actually anxiously awaiting OSHA’s ETS. 

Developing the vaccine policy is only the first hurdle, once in effect tracking employee compliance will place a heavy burden on human resource officers. They have to maintain a secure record of all employees who are fully vaccinated as well as unvaccinated employees’ weekly test results.

See how our solution can help you comply with OSHA’s ETS!

 

Who is implementing the mandate? 

At least 19 states have established testing and vaccine mandates. Federal employees are required to get vaccinated or submit to masking, biweekly testing, and social distancing. Soon, companies with over 100 employees will all be required to have a vaccine tracking or testing protocol. Several leading companies – Ford, Google, and Citigroup have already announced a vaccine mandate. According to a recent survey, more than half of employers plan to implement vaccine mandates.

States with Testing or Vaccine Mandates Large Companies who already have Vaccine Mandates
California  Walmart 
Colorado TJX
Connecticut NBCUniversal 
Delaware  Walgreens 
Hawaii Citigroup 
Maine  Google
Maryland NFL
New Mexico Cisco 
New Jersey Pfizer 
New York  Anthem 
North Carolina  United Airlines 
Pennsylvania Morgan Stanely 
Rhode Island Salesforce
Virginia  Goldman Sachs 
Washington State Street Bank
  WarnerMedia 
Uber 
Equinox 
ViacomCBS 
Gilead Sciences 
Genentech
Saks 
Twitter
The New York Times 
Doordash 
The Washington Post 
Frontier Airlines 
CNN 
Jefferies 
Union Square Hospitality Group
Ford 
Microsoft

 

You’ve implemented the mandate, now what?

Your employee vaccination policy has been announced. Great! Now you need to find a way to securely manage employee health information at scale. In-house solutions place a tremendous burden on IT and HR teams. Any company with more than 100 employees will need to automate their system to keep track of who has been vaccinated and completed a COVID-19 test.

Beware of these mistakes

Storing records on Excel, Google Sheets, or other similar databases can lead to security and compliance issues

There was recently a security breach in Microsoft Power Apps that were exposed online, revealing the contact tracing information and COVID-19 vaccination status of users. Another data breach occurred at California State University, Chico revealing students who requested religious exemption from the COVID-19 vaccine. 

Using siloed solutions for vaccine tracking and test management

HR teams are overwhelmed by their responsibilities to track employee health status and manage communication workflows in the event of positive cases and exposure. Managing these workflows with separate solutions places a significant burden on teams who go back and forth between calendars, Excel, and other platforms. With our one platform, administrators can manage their COVID-19 mandates, communications, and workflows in one place. 

Cannot store vaccine information with other employee records

According to the EEOC, employee vaccination status is considered “confidential medical information” and has to be kept separate from personnel files, both print and digital.

Looking for additional tips? Gartner provides great resources for employers to review before establishing a vaccine mandate. 

Automating your COVID-19 Workflow

Our Command Center provides digital vaccine tracking and testing tools to help administrators comply with the recent guidelines. But that’s not all. What do you do if an employee reports a positive test result or symptoms? ReturnSafe’s case management, screening, and contact tracing tools help HR manage workflows to prevent outbreaks 

Vaccination Tracking & Verification

The Vaccine Tracking tab helps you track employee vaccination status, gauge employee sentiment towards vaccination, and verify employee vaccination records. 

Vaccine Verification

Test Tracking

In the Test Results tab, an organization’s testing provider can upload bulk imports of employee test results into the Command Center for administrators to review. 

Test Management

Case Management

In the Case Manager tab, administrators can create and update positive, preemptive, and cleared cases. Administrators can also override employee screening recommendations and have access to workflow management tools to ensure cases receive the appropriate follow-up communications.

Case Manager Contact Notification

If you are on a tight deadline, book a demo with our team to get up and running as soon as possible.