As we all know, vaccinations have been dominating the news for quite a while and has been on all our minds. At TASC, we are committed to providing a work environment in which all individuals are treated with respect and dignity. As an employer, I believe I cannot nor should I mandate an employee to take the vaccine. However, I also understand that every company has a culture and norms that prescribe how they expect their employees to behave and ours is no different.
When looking at the current situation with COVID-19 vaccinations, I found that my own organization was struggling with what constitutes appropriate norms and expectations for our employees. TASC is blessed, because the nature of our business and our business model means that we don’t need to have our employees work in one physical location. Out of more than a thousand employees we have roughly ten employees that literally need to be in our office because of the work they perform.
So, we anchored our decisions regarding our vaccination policy to our norms and culture. Those dictate that we have a civic and economic obligation. And because we are a business, we look at our civic and economic responsibilities as a business. There is also a human factor in all business, so we also took personal choice and personal beliefs into consideration.
Let me share a little about our vaccination program. We decided that we would require employees, on a need-to-know basis, to report their vaccination status to us based on their specific role in the organization and the nature of their work. The following employees and vendors/contractors will be required to be fully vaccinated (and provide proof of vaccination) against COVID-19:
- Employees entering a TASC facility.
- Employees in a role that involves in-person customer meetings at the customer’s place of business.
- Employees going to a TASC sanctioned meeting or event with other TASC employees (not with customers).
- Vendors/Contractors entering a TASC facility.
As I was looking at our situation and what our customers are facing right now I knew that my organization had a duty to step in to help. In fact some of our largest customers asked us to help. I listened to the needs of clients and our distributors and it became very clear that as a top tier Third Party Administrator (TPA) we could utilize our technology, experience in compliance and employee benefits and our skills to help other companies dealing with the vaccination issue.
I pride myself on our innovation and I challenged my team to step in and help our customers. We have spent millions of dollars and the last few years building and releasing the Universal Benefit Account. With that investment I knew that we had the technology, security infrastructure, administrative capabilities and know-how to deliver a solution quickly. And I am proud to say the team responded and developed and launched Vaccination Verification in less than three weeks! Vaccination Verification is a compliance offering that makes it easy for employers to ensure all individuals (employees, vendors, contractors, visitors, etc.) meet the vaccination and/or testing requirements based on their business practices or to meet federal or state requirements.
With the recent judicial activity, I think we delivered the offering to our customers just in time!
I believe this virus and others in the future will continue to occur, and no one can stop them completely. For your own health and safety, and that of your family, I encourage everyone to get vaccinated. We may not be able to completely stop it, but at least we can slow it down and reduce the impact it has on our community. However, individuals must have a choice based on their own personal situation. That is exactly what our Vaccination Verification offering will do.
I wish you all good health and happiness in 2022!
