Vaccination may not be ‘must’ to return to office | Economic Times

A majority of companies may not make it mandatory for their employees to be vaccinated before they return to work, a new survey has said. Most firms will consider employee preference and pandemic situation to draw up their back-to-office plans.Only 33% of companies are taking vaccination as one of the requisites for resuming offices, according to the survey by professional services firm Aon shared exclusively with ET. In comparison, 60% of respondents said they will look at what their employees want before making a decision, and 74% said they will consider government statistics on Covid-19 cases.“It is interesting to note that a large number of companies will understand and gauge employee preference before charting out a safe plan to return workers onsite,” said Roopank Chaudhary, partner and chief commercial officer at Aon India.“This is in line with a large number of companies adopting flexible workplace models even post-pandemic.” 83350011The survey covered 217 companies that have a large part of their workforce in India, including 158 firms with global revenue of at least $500 million and up to $20 billion. HCL Technologies, Tata Steel, Deloitte, Publicis Sapient, and Titan Industries among others said getting employees vaccinated is a priority but not a prerequisite.