The 2022 flu season is off to a fast start. The best defense—just as it is with COVID-19—is vaccination, which public health experts urge for almost all people 6 months and older, starting now.
This Toolkit will help your business take action to protect the health of your workers and customers.
Employer Actions for Flu Season
You can make it easier for employees to get their annual flu shot by taking one or more of the following actions:
- Offer paid sick leave. More than 30 million U.S. workers lack access to paid sick leave. Low-income employees are significantly less likely than high-income workers to receive sick pay. This has important implications for public health, as well as workplace productivity. When people don’t have access to paid sick leave, they’re more likely to go to work when they’re under the weather, putting their co-workers and your customers at risk of getting sick, too.
- Host a flu shot clinic. Numerous pharmacies and other providers can assist in bringing this service to your workplace. Consider making it available to workers’ families, too—vaccinating children against the flu will make their families healthier and reduce absenteeism from parents caring for their sick children at home.
- Offer flexible time off for employees to get flu shots if you can’t host a clinic on-site. What helps people get vaccinated is making a plan. And time off helps that plan come together.
- Make use of effective messaging. Your company leaders are trusted messengers on health, so encourage them to share their stories about why they get their flu shots. This may include the shots’ routine nature (“I get it every year”) or an emotional appeal (“I want to know I can enjoy a healthy holiday with my family”). If your company has seen high uptake at previous on-site flu shot clinics, share that with employees (“Last year, more than half our team got their free flu shots on site.”) Keep in mind that research shows they may be more receptive to hearing about “flu shots” than the “flu vaccine.”
- Encourage employees to get their COVID-19 booster with their flu shot. Framing COVID-19 boosters as routine as flu shots (which roughly half of all adults get each year) could increase their uptake this year and going forward. Emphasize the convenience of getting both shots at the same time.
- Confirm and enhance health insurance coverage for flu shots. If your health insurance provider covers flu shots, communicate that to your employees. And if it doesn’t, consider expanding that coverage for 2023.
- Educate your employees and spread the word on social media. Answers to common questions, print-ready materials and social media graphics and messaging can be found in the resources below.
- Work with employee resource groups to communicate with workers from historically excluded communities. Collaborate on tailored messaging and ways to make sure you’re reaching hourly, part-time and front-line workers. And consult your ERGs on approaches to overcoming barriers to flu shot trust or access. Use our Tips for Engaging Employee Resource Groups and Informal Employee Networks and Audience Insights & Messaging Guidance for Black, Hispanic, American Indian and Alaska Native Communities to apply effective principles of tailored outreach to your flu shot campaign.
Download the full toolkit here.
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