May 14th, 2021
10 mins
As part of the new national campaign ‘Every Vaccination gives us hope’ on the Covid-19 vaccine, the Government have developed an employer toolkit to help ensure employers and their staff get access to reliable and accurate information about the Covid-19 vaccine.
We would ask that you use these resources, consisting of Vaccine Employer Briefing Document, vaccine fact sheets, Vaccine Employer Briefing Document, videos, posters and many more, to run an internal awareness campaign and to ensure staff have access to NHS-verified advice on the vaccine.
It would be great if your organisation can support this campaign. We would also ask you to pledge your support to be as flexible as possible in supporting your staff to get the vaccine and play your part in the UK’s biggest vaccination programme in NHS history.
Industries and employers unite to encourage more than a million staff to get the COVID-19 vaccine
- Leading employers across the country, including Asda, IKEA and Santander, have come together to encourage their staff to get the COVID-19 vaccine when eligible
- Many businesses have pledged their flexibility to help staff get the vaccine during work hours
- The Government is calling on all businesses, organisations and industry bodies to make a similar commitment to drive vaccine uptake across the UK
Leading businesses, employers and industry bodies across the UK have come together to support the COVID-19 vaccination programme and encourage their staff to get a jab when eligible.
So far, nine of the UK’s biggest national employers have pledged their support in promoting positive vaccination messages and encouraging their 240,000 employees to get the vaccine – including during working hours – to ensure workplaces are safe and staff can play their part in the UK’s biggest vaccination programme in history.
IKEA, Asda, Slimming World, Metro Bank, Procter & Gamble UK, Santander, Nationwide, Severn Trent and Merlin Entertainments are just some of the many businesses that have maintained extensive safety measures to protect staff throughout the pandemic and now, to help encourage and maintain high vaccine uptake among their employees, they have pledged to promote positive safety messages and signpost staff to NHS-verified advice on vaccines.
Industry bodies, such as the British Beer & Pub Association and Builders Merchants Federation – whose members supply the UK’s vital Construction Industry – have also thrown their weight behind the coalition in a bid to encourage their partners to get involved, totalling over a million people.
Health and Social Care Secretary Matt Hancock said:
“Our vaccination programme has so far saved thousands of lives, protecting our loved ones and bringing down infection rates to a point where we can see normality on the horizon. It’s fantastic that employers are prioritising the safety of their staff and doing all they can to encourage people to get vaccinated. I urge everyone to get their vaccines when they get the call so we can beat this pandemic together.”
With more than 54 million vaccines administered so far, people aged 38 and over are now eligible to get their COVID-19 vaccine.
Organisations have pledged to be as flexible as possible when it comes to staff getting the vaccine and many companies, including IKEA, have also committed to giving paid time off work for employees, in addition to providing sick pay as standard for the minority who experience minor side effects like fever or a headache.
Employers will also use resources from the new national government campaign to run an internal awareness campaign consisting of key messages, vaccine fact sheets, informative Q&A videos, posters and many more resources to ensure their employees get access to reliable and accurate information about the COVID-19 vaccine.
The government is calling upon all UK organisations to join the campaign by introducing similar internal awareness campaigns to promote the benefits of vaccines.
Vaccine Deployment Minister Nadhim Zahawi said:
“Vaccines save lives, they protect you and your loved ones from this terrible virus and they are the best way out of this pandemic. “Thank you to all of the organisations which have joined this incredibly important campaign to promote vaccine uptake. “I call on every business in the UK, no matter how big or small, to join the national charge and help your employees to access life-saving jabs when they are eligible.”
Faisal Tuddy, Superintendent Pharmacist at Asda said:
“We have been extremely proud to play our part in the vaccine rollout by hosting NHS vaccination centres in three of our stores. Asda was the first supermarket to offer this service and so far our pharmacy colleagues have now administered over 36,000 doses. We are also encouraging our colleagues to get the jab as soon as they are eligible to and are supporting them by giving them the time off to attend both appointments to receive the vaccine as well as the time they need to recover if they feel unwell.”
Vaccinated people are far less likely to get COVID-19 with symptoms. Vaccinated people are even more unlikely to get serious COVID-19, to be admitted to hospital, or to die from it and there is growing evidence that vaccinated people are less likely to pass the virus to others.
The government has already hit its target of offering everybody in cohorts 1 to 9 – those aged 50 and over, the clinically vulnerable and health and social care workers – a first dose of the vaccine by 15 April and is on track to offer a jab to all adults in the UK by the end of July.
For more information on the Covid-19 vaccine, visit: www.nhs.uk/covidvaccine
The employer toolkit can be download here: coronavirusresources.phe.gov.uk/covid-19-vaccine/resources/employer-toolkit/
