As Covid-related mandates and regulations continue to change, more employers are implementing their own policies. A key component of your Covid-19 policy will be to identify which of your team members have received (and not received) a complete vaccine regimen.
While a survey is a great way to learn who in your workplace is either vaccinated or unvaccinated, you’ll want to consider how you solicit survey responses and how you store said information.
Here are the main challenges to consider with vaccination surveys.
1. Accuracy
When administering a survey, the first issue you’ll run into is that of accuracy. If your workplace intends to implement a mandatory vaccination policy for all workers, then there’s a likelihood that some team members would lie about their vaccination status. According to research from Qualtrics, almost 30% of unvaccinated workers claimed they would lie about their vaccination status in order to protect their jobs.
While we all want to trust every member of our organizations, overlooking the prospect of false responses could put the health of your teams at risk. Only one person entering the workplace with Covid-19 can infect a large portion of your team, threatening the lives of your vulnerable workers.
Additionally, with the fourth dose of Pfizer and Moderna vaccines being approved for use in older adults, you also have to consider the role of updating your survey results. Administering one survey takes long enough, and constantly having to create updated versions poses risks to your ability to collect data accurately.
2. Privacy
As with other protected health information, soliciting a person’s Covid-19 vaccination status is a bit more complex than simply asking. According to the U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC), employers may inquire about vaccination status and request proof of vaccination; however, they should take caution when asking why a person has chosen not to get the vaccine. Doing so could uncover protected medical conditions that require your business to make ADA-compliant accommodations.
Additionally, businesses must also abide by state-based data privacy laws. For example, the California Consumer Privacy Act (CCPA) requires employers to provide written notice of the CCPA and the company’s compliant privacy policies before collecting vaccine-related data. Similar legislation is pending in several other states such as Virginia.
3. Storing Results
Similar to ensuring privacy in your data collection process, many states also have laws that dictate the ways in which this data is stored. Some of these laws require employers to take reasonable steps to secure personal information, while others create a liability shield in the event of a data breach if an employer stores personal information in statutorily prescribed ways.
In many states, records containing a name and medical information are considered personal, making it necessary for employers to securely store Covid-19 vaccination data. In most cases, the best way to ensure secure storage of said data is through an app.
Remaining Compliant
In addition to increasing buy-in from your workers, a Covid-19 health tracking app can mitigate issues related to the accuracy, privacy, and security of worker vaccine records. By providing a secure portal through which employees can upload their vaccine records, employers can easily and privately keep track of their workforces.
To completely eliminate the need for cumbersome vaccination surveys, an app like ConfirmD offers a secure digital platform. Available on both Apple and Android phones, this app allows employees to easily upload any Covid-19 vaccinations and tests. On the back-end, ConfirmD is fully compliant with CCPA and HIPAA, and it also offers advanced security measures, allowing employees to easily opt out of tracking at any time.
During the early days of the pandemic, a vaccine survey seemed like the logical way to keep our teams safe, but as the situation continues to evolve, it’s clear that businesses need a more advanced and permanent solution. When it comes to safely storing and tracking employee vaccination data, ConfirmD is the most thorough app on the market.
