How do I deal with this employee who wont take a Covid-19 jab?
Caroline Mboijana. PHOTO/FILE
Dear Caroline,
As a company, we decided that all employees that want to work from the office should be vaccinated. However, this one employee has refused to get vaccinated, yet his role is crucial to our operations, so he cannot work remotely. He says vaccines are against his religious and cultural beliefs. How can I resolve this problem without having to terminate this hardworking employee? Gracious
Hello Gracious,
This is a difficult situation to be in, and I empathise with you. How you deal with this situation is critical in respectfully maintaining your relationship with your employee while balancing your trust with the other employees. You will always find it very difficult to sway someone who has strong religious beliefs, so manage your expectations. You mustn’t dismiss your employees’ views as irrelevant. Some arguments support their perspective, which is not necessarily related to religion or culture and these would be your vaccine-sceptics. Your starting point is to check whether your organisation has a policy that outlines how Covid should be managed in the workplace. If a policy does exist, does it provide a clear guideline on how to manage the situation? If there is no policy, then your Head of HR or People should develop one. While that is being addressed, you may want to consider the following options.
A method employed by many employers is to have this discussion based on available scientific data. You want the data to speak to the success of vaccination in terms of lives saved due to vaccination. It must also communicate the number of deaths associated with unvaccinated people. While your employee may point out that vaccinated people have contracted Covid, it’s important to acknowledge they have got sick but have not died. In addition, recognise that were vaccinated people have got ill and died, these deaths are likely to be associated with pre-existing conditions. If you have no success influencing them through the data, identify persons who have got sick and recovered and ask them to share their experiences. It would have the most significant impact if you can locate anti-vax/vaccine sceptic who has got ill and recovered. This option should be available as a talk to all staff. This would avoid “personalising” the situation.
If this approach still has no wins, you may want to consider changing the employee’s role. You’ll only be able to do this if the business requires the position you’re considering moving them to and that they are a good job: person fit. I would advise against “creating roles” as this will have an impact on the company. Another approach is to change their working hours and place of work. Consider if the work can be done when he has limited interaction with others, or can he work in an area in the office that is of significant distance from other employees. Remember that while you’d like to support this employee, you have an obligation and responsibility for providing a safe working environment for the whole organisation. This means you must do everything to make sure that other staff feel safe and comfortable. Not only is this requirement for building trust, but more importantly, you must avoid the risk of litigation if someone falls ill and the illness results from the employer not taking due care. The final approach with your anti-vax/vaccine sceptic employee is to consider enforcing a PCR test every two weeks at a trusted centre identified by the employers. My suggestion is for an employee to be responsible for paying for the tests. This will inevitably impact their financial well-being and may cause them to reconsider their position. The Covid landscape is ever-changing and ongoing. So we need to be mindful of not dismissing valid questions.
Caroline Mboijana,
Managing Director, The Leadership Team (U)
