Make it your business to promote flu shots
Indirect costs, including absenteeism, cost employers about $76.7 million a year.
The average annual flu-related illness at work accounts for:
- 45 percent of all days of illness during flu season.
- 39 percent of all illness-related work days lost in the year.
- 49 percent of all days with illness-related reduced productivity.
The CDC recommends that everyone six months or older get a flu shot. It is never too late to protect yourself or your employees, but the earlier people receive the shot, the better.
What else can employers do to keep the flu at bay? Simple hygiene practices adopted to avoid the coronavirus will also help limit the spread of flu because both are viruses. Here are some suggestions …
- Stagger more work shifts. This will reduce the amount of people working in the office at one time.
- Limit meetings. If there is no need to gather large groups of workers in a confined space, then do not do it. Conduct meetings via conference calls or video conferencing.
- Expand telecommuting. Determine who can work from home or another location.
- Allow sick workers to stay home without fear of losing their jobs.
- Institute flexible leave policies to allow parents to care for a sick child or loved one.
- Provide no-touch trash cans, hand-washing stations, soap and hand sanitizer.
- Encourage employees to wash their hands frequently, avoid handshakes, and take other hygienic precautions, such as disinfecting workplace surfaces, like phones and computers.
– Sources: CDC, Challenger/Gray/Christmas Inc.
Offer flu shots for employees
Physicians Quality Care OCCMed will give flu shots at your worksite on your schedule.
Flu shots are the best way to protect employees from getting sick and missing work because of the flu.
Contact OCCMed Director Jennifer Carmack at 731-984-8400 or jennifer@physiciansqualitycare.com.
