As an employer, it is your responsibility to ensure your employees are safe within the workplace. In many occupational environments, workers are exposed to biological agents that pose risks to their health and well-being. One effective measure to minimise these risks is to provide your employees with safe and effective vaccinations.

While certain occupations, such as those within the healthcare industry or roles involving work with specific communities and animals, require vaccinations, most other occupations are not legally mandated. Therefore, encouraging employees to agree to certain vaccinations, like annual flu jabs, might be challenging if it’s not part of your current company policy.

At BizHealth, we are dedicated to making vaccinations easy and accessible for you and your employees. That’s why we offer an onsite flu vaccination programme, alongside a range of other wellness and health-related services to support employee health and well-being. The best part? We handle everything for you.

How Does BizHealth’s Vaccination Program Work?

First, nominate a member of your workforce as your dedicated vaccination coordinator. This person will be in charge of contacting our team to arrange the vaccination program. It’s important to enlist the support of team members that are equally as dedicated to the cause as you are.

Next, we will discuss the best time to conduct the program. We are flexible and aim to ensure the vaccination schedule fits with your employees’ availability, boosting participation rates.

If you have a large office or multiple employees, we can set up multiple clinics across different locations on-site or run clinics over a couple of days to accommodate shift workers. Likewise, we can also help you plan for workers off site.

It is important to reserve suitable spaces for the clinic. As per the Department of Health Victoria guidelines, the space should include a room for the vaccinations and nearby waiting areas for staff to wait for up to 15 minutes after the vaccination is completed. If you’re unsure about space requirements or the suitability of your worksite, contact us for more information.

In the days leading up to the vaccination program, actively encourage participation, particularly from those who may be hesitant. Our team can provide promotional materials and pamphlets for you to distribute.

Likewise, the Department of Health Victoria has created a series of relevant materials, including an email template, newsletter text, a poster template, and an influenza vaccination checklist that you can utilise to share important information and bust common misconceptions associated with the flu vaccination. You can access these materials here.

Don’t forget to maximise on outreach opportunities in the days leading up to your workplace vaccination program. Bring it up during employee meetings to ensure everyone knows the details and send reminders to your staff. If vaccinations are offered to employees’ families, inform them early so they can arrange a suitable time.

Strategies to Promote Workplace Vaccinations

The more employees who are vaccinated, the safer your workplace will be from the advent of the influenza virus. Therefore, it is critical to promote strategies that encourage your employees to get vaccinated. Here’s a couple of our top tips.

• Make sure your employees know that the vaccination is free. Your employees will be more inclined towards getting vaccinated if it is at no cost at all to them. Research reveals that the availability of a free flu vaccine has been able to increase uptake by up to seven times.

• Promote from the top. Encourage organisational leaders to actively participate in the vaccination program. When top leadership willingly gets vaccinated, it sets a powerful precedent for others to follow.

• Be proactive. Make sure to have all bases covered before undertaking a vaccination program. This means ensuring all potential concerns are anticipated and addressed openly and honestly. While the goal is to encourage all employees to get vaccinated, for personal or health reasons, some employees may be unable to do so. It is then important to respect these choices and their confidentiality.

• Consider incentives such as paid time off or gift vouchers for employees who decide to get vaccinated.
• Monitor and evaluate the success rate of your vaccination program. This will help you tailor your strategies for future vaccination programs to encourage higher employee participation.

Partner with BizHealth for All Your Workplace Vaccination Needs

At BizHealth, we’re proud to be the leading provider of workplace vaccination programs all across Australia and New Zealand. Our program is offered in all major cities for workplaces and corporations. If you’re keen on conducting a workplace vaccination program, contact us today to get started.