Companies should encourage their employees to get vaccinated against Covid through incentives, not mandates, according to Wharton School teacher Nancy Rothbard.
“There are a lot of challenges with forcing employees to do anything,” Rothbard said Thursday on CNBC’s “Squawk Box”. “Any boss will tell you, it’s so much more convincing than telling.”
The question of whether workers should be required to be vaccinated to return to office has been raised recently, as nearly 3 million people in the U.S. receive shots a day. The latest numbers from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention show that nearly a quarter of the American adult population is completely vaccinated.
While many experts believe it is legal for employers to make vaccines mandatory, business leaders may be concerned about alienating staff.
“I think trying to encourage people to get vaccinated will be a much more popular route than mandates,” said Rothbard, a management professor whose research focuses in part on motivation and work commitment.
Companies like Tractor Supply provide employees with unique cash payments to encourage them to take a Covid vaccine. Target offers employees up to four hours of pay per hour – two hours for each dose for Pfizer and Moderna vaccines, which require two shots. Target also provides help to pay for trips to Lyft from and to appointments.
The Johnson & Johnson vaccine, the only one authorized by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration for emergency use, is only one dose.
Companies should consider employee preferences about disclosure of vaccine status, Rothbard said, adding that some people are less comfortable sharing personal information of any kind with employers and colleagues.
“There are ways to do it in a more private way, where you might want to step aside an employee and say‘ Look, have you been vaccinated? … If you haven’t, we need to make alternative arrangements. ”The safety of others, she offered.
The debate over the spread of vaccines in the workplace does not diminish the need for Americans to be inoculated to help end the pandemic, Rothbard said. “The term ‘herd immunity’ implies that this is a collective cost, not just an individual decision that people make when they choose to get vaccinated.”
Despite the importance, Rothbard stressed that incentives are likely to be effective in helping companies achieve high vaccination rates among their workforce.
“I have a document called‘ Mandatory Fun. ’People don’t even like being forced to have compulsory fun if they don’t feel it’s legitimate in the workplace,” he said. “People don’t react well to mandates. They react better to incentives and encouragement.”
Vaccine testing for clients
The fact that customers have to prove vaccination tests to get services in a business (e.g., eating at a restaurant) has become another controversial issue in the United States. Vaccine passports say requiring people to prove they have been vaccinated benefits public health, allowing for a safe reopening of the economy.
Last week, Florida Republican Gov. Ron DeSantis signed an executive order restricting companies from requiring a customer to prove they have received a Covid vaccine as a prerequisite for service. In his order, DeSantis argues that Covid vaccine passports “reduce individual freedom and harm the privacy of patients.”
Texas Gov. Greg Abbot issued a similar order Tuesday, banning the state government and private entities receiving public funding to demand Covid vaccine passports.
Dr. Scott Gottlieb, a former FDA commissioner, told CNBC on Wednesday that he believes the conversation about checking the status of the vaccine has been off-base.
“I think we’ve been thinking about vaccine passports for the wrong purpose. I think the way they’re likely to be used is to really create two access lanes to different places,” Gottlieb said in an interview with ” Squawk Box “. ”
For people who cannot prove they have been vaccinated, Covid testing may be required along with secondary symptom screening, said Gottlieb, who is now on the advice of vaccine maker Pfizer.
“The other will be a fast lane, where if you can prove you’ve been vaccinated, you won’t have to provide evidence that you’ve been tested recently,” or do any symptom control, Gottlieb said. .
“It will be like an E-ZPass, where you can go through the fast lane or if you still like to pay the toll because you think the police are tracking you with the E-ZPass device, you can stop and stand in line and pay the toll,” he said. to say.
Disclosure: Scott Gottlieb is a CNBC contributor and board member of Pfizer, the start of Tempus genetic testing, healthcare technology company Aetion Inc. and biotechnology. Illuminate. He is also co – chair of Norway Cruise Line Holdings′ I Royal Caribbean“Healthy Candle Panel”. The Associated Press contributed to this report.