Mondelez International Inc., the maker of Ritz Crackers and Trident gum, wants to start welcoming workers back to office this summer, though with a caveat—they must be fully vaccinated against Covid-19.
It’s a thorny issue for many companies as some workers are hesitant about getting the shots, and Mondelez hasn’t finalized its plan. Yet for Chief Executive Officer Dirk Van De Put, vaccines are a way to ensure safety while restoring workplace culture and camaraderie.
“We want to create an environment where you feel comfortable and it’s like it used to be at the office,” he said in a Bloomberg Television interview April 28. “We can only do that if everybody’s vaccinated.”
Vaccines loom large as U.S. companies dial up plans to bring more workers back to the office and cities ease Covid-19 restrictions, with New York City Mayor Bill De Blasio vowing a full reopening of the nation’s largest metropolis by July 1. The New York Stock Exchange has begun opening further for traders who can prove they’re fully vaccinated and Goldman Sachs Group Inc. has formulated a plan to get U.S. employees to return to the office next month now that shots are widely available.
Some employers are pulling out all the stops for their workers to get vaccinated by offering incentives or holding inoculation drives at corporate facilities. Surveys indicate that a significant number of companies are at least considering vaccine requirements as a condition of returning to the office, but few have publicly committed to that approach amid concerns over the potential backlash from employees, implementation headaches and legal risks that could accompany a mandate.
“I think there are many employers that would like to mandate but in fact would like to not be the first movers on this,” said Jeff Levin-Scherz, population health leader at Willis Towers Watson, a consulting firm.
A March survey by Willis Towers Watson found 23% of U.S. companies were planning or considering a vaccine mandate for employees to return to the workplace, while one in 10 was looking at requiring shots as a condition of employment. Still, that’s down from a survey conducted in January in which 45% of respondents said they were studying or planning a vaccine mandate for in-person work and 34% were mulling vaccination as an employment condition.
For Mondelez, the company intends to initially bring back only vaccinated workers, although it’s still studying whether and how it could implement that plan, a company spokesperson said.
Mandate Reluctance
Companies have become more hesitant to impose mandates as they’ve come to grips with how controversial and disruptive they could be, whether because of politicization of Covid-19 vaccines, legal issues or the risk of losing workers, Levin-Scherz said.
“Something often looks more attractive when it’s further away before you recognize all the potential challenges associated with it,” he said.
Employers can require Covid-19 vaccines, according to guidance issued in December from the U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission, with exemptions for workers with medical conditions or religious beliefs covered under other federal laws. Interest in mandates surged after the guidance was released but has waned since, said John McDonald, a management-side employment attorney at law firm McGuireWoods LLP.