Industry pushes vaccinations for staff

Greg Anderson-Peters, the former National Sales Manager at Victory Curtains and Blinds and National Sales and Marketing Manager at Design Blinds, says that the industry should be encouraging employees to get vaccinated, especially the retail showroom, in-home consultants and installers.

“Retailers in particular could then ‘promote’ the fact their contact staff are fully vaccinated and use this when booking leads and installations,” Anderson-Peters says.

“I am sure this will be seen as responsible behaviour and a positive reason for consumers to purchase from companies who can prove their staff are fully vaccinated.”

“Covid will be with us for years to come, in some form, hence, the Industry must look at embracing methods to give consumers confidence when dealing with the industry. “Perhaps the industry should register those companies and personnel who complete the vaccination program and ‘Industry Endorse’ them?”

Window Furnishings Australia canvassed a number of major window furnishings companies about their attitudes towards vaccination and whilst the idea of mandating vaccines was not generally accepted, all of the companies spoken to said they were being proactive in getting their staff to have the jab.

Sharon Tieman from Premier Shades in Gosford was one of those who said she would love to make the vaccine mandatory for her staff if she could.

“I have heard the craziest reasons why they don’t want one, I do everything in my power to bite my tongue,” Tieman says.

“My standard answer is ‘What does your doctor say to do?’ We are not offering any incentives other than time off to get the vaccinated and gentle encouragement.

“I feel like business owners have the “tail wagging the dog” at the moment.  As business owners we have to make decisions for the whole business and all its employees. Our decisions relate to finance, safety and compliance.”

Simon Meyer from Blinds by Peter Meyer says he would be very hesitant in making vaccinations mandatory for staff, however, he would definitely support a mandate that customers and staff must disclose if they are unvaccinated or not.

“This would give both customers and staff the power to choose and protect themselves by opting to accept or deny a home consultation with an unvaccinated customer or staff member.”

“For a commission-based sales person, this would very quickly impact their ability to make sales and may encourage them to rethink their attitude toward getting vaccinated without taking away their right of choice.”  

Meyer says that at the time of his comments 90% of his staff are either fully vaccinated, had their first jab or have booked in to be vaccinated. 

John Clarke from Aeronaut Automation says that it is a good idea for staff who work face-to-face with customers to be vaccinated for both sides.

“I’m always glad to see couriers and trades people who choose to wear a mask and disappointed to see those who don’t.”

He says that he has made a major point of encouraging his employees to get vaccinated but is running into some challenges.

“We have at least one dyed in the wool anti-vaxxer and no logic or discussion or facts will change that to the point where we’ve been told not to discuss it.”

Joshua Phipps from Marketmakers says that getting the jab is a personal choice and the individual is responsible for what they do.

“It’s a personal choice and until it becomes legislated that a measurer, in-home quoter or installer must be vaccinated to enter someone’s home we won’t enforce it on our staff.

“90% of our staff are fully vaccinated or had the first shot by the third week of August,” he adds.

Lorraine Scott from Capitol Shutters also thinks mandatory vaccination for staff is a curly question.

“I don’t agree with mandating vaccine in order to maintain a job position. Individuals should have the choice, however this also extends to the consumer and retailer and who should be granted access to their premises, not just residential.”

“Ultimately anyone should have the right to refuse entry to an unvaccinated person. We will more than likely see this become an unspoken and unwritten criterion when recruiting new staff.”

Scott says that the company is simply discussing the benefits and leaving the decision up to the individual.

“Uptake has increased though and some of our younger staff members have decided to have the Astrazeneca jab purely as that is all that is available them immediately.”

Michelle Macready from BM Blinds says that a meeting held by their safety committee in early August with the entire staff, encouraged everyone to seek medical advice about obtaining the best coronavirus vaccine for them.

“The aim is to encourage all staff to be vaccinated by the end of August. Both Maggie and Phil, who are our version of front-line workers, chose to be vaccinated in the hope they will be able to visit our customer base as soon as it is safe to do so.”

“It was important for us to make recommendations to our staff based on the health advice. Providing a safe and healthy workplace for all our staff members and our customers is a priority.”

“As an industry, we need to be looking at this as a marathon, not just a quick sprint. Our focus must be on the long-term impacts rather than looking at quick fixes.”