WTW survey reveals employers' vaccine-mandate intentions

Nearly four in 10 employers now expect their organizations won’t reach a new normal in terms of returning to the workplace and ending pandemic-related policies and programs until the second quarter of 2022. (Credit: Studio Roux/Shutterstock.com)

By the fourth quarter of this year, more than half of employers could have one or more vaccine mandate requirements in the workplace, according to a survey by Willis Towers Watson (WTW), which also revealed businesses’ intentions around making policies and other back-to-office plans.

These mandates range from necessitating vaccination for employees to access common areas such as cafeterias to making vaccination obligatory for a subset of employees to requiring vaccination for all employees. This is a dramatic increase from the current 21%. Specifically, nearly one-third of employers are planning or considering making vaccination a requirement to gain access to the workplace, and almost a quarter are planning or considering vaccination as a condition of employment for all employees.