Weather the storm of COVID-19 regulations with secure and accurate vaccine management
As COVID-19 cases surge across the world, many countries–even states–are introducing regulations to mandate that populations are vaccinated in an effort to curb the spread of the virus.
The US has already seen upheaval, with New York set to impose a vaccine mandate to go into effect on December 27th, impacting more than 180,000 private businesses.
European nations are quickly following suit with their own legislative measures—the German government’s aim of a minimum 75% vaccination rate will see incoming mandates, and in Austria, the government is due to announce compulsory vaccination for those aged 14 and over with a maximum fine of $4,000 for those who refuse.
With countries implementing different rules, vaccine mandates place a significant responsibility on employers and at the same time add further complexity to workforce administration. Many businesses see a vaccine mandate as a positive step in the fight against the virus. Tech firms such as Facebook and Google had already implemented their own vaccine rules. However, most companies were unsure how to navigate the administrative burden, and whether such a system might meet resistance from employees.
Having supported hundreds of organisations across diverse industries since the beginning of the pandemic, we’ve found that despite the many different challenges like these that companies face, it’s technology that has most often provided a path to a positive outcome amidst difficult circumstances.
Through scores of webinars, conversations, projects, and virtual events, we’ve listened and learned from business leaders to inform how we can continue to support organisations as the pandemic introduces new operational, regulatory, or technological complexities. The result of this insight is our Vaccine Management application for Workday, which has already helped many companies to ensure staff are safe, healthy and can collaborate throughout this rapidly evolving situation.
Why vaccine mandates might give businesses a headache
While vaccine mandates may be a step forward in beating the virus, they leave businesses grappling with finding secure and accurate ways to comply with the rules. The main challenge is reporting: how can you prove your employees are vaccinated? And what happens if you have multiple populations in different countries with varying regulations? It might just about be possible for a company with 100 employees to fashion a solution using email and spreadsheets, but basic processes present security and privacy risks. For a company with 1,000 employees, manual reporting would be unthinkable.
During one of our recent webinars, we asked attendees how they were approaching the mandate. Over 70 percent said they were looking for solutions. The key challenges they reported were:
- Finding time to process data: Based on our working knowledge, manually recording and validating double vaccinations plus boosters could take 10 to 12 hours per employee. Multiply that by thousands of employees, then consider the shifting requirements of vaccine regulations per state and country—manual reporting is simply not feasible.
- Data privacy: Employees sending sensitive information over email is a data security disaster waiting to happen. They might send their vaccination status to the wrong mailbox, or a malicious actor could intercept their email.
- Reliability: Spreadsheets are prone to error and easily compromised—access control is unsophisticated, and employees can forward or copy documents often without leaving a trail. Also, data is difficult to authenticate and vulnerable to tampering. When the consequences of non-compliance are hefty fines and reputational damage, reporting processes must be airtight.
- Visibility: A spreadsheet only reflects a company’s status at a point in time, so if the data manager has a backlog of emails to process, the spreadsheet is not up to date.
- Vaccine complexity: A global company faces a perplexing tangle of vaccine regulations. For example, not all countries recognise every brand of vaccine. Many governments require a double dose while others only stipulate one. Incubation periods also vary between vaccine brands. If individual countries implement their own rules, managing vaccine status will become a headache.
Introducing the Kainos Vaccine Management app
The most obvious home for vaccination management is a company’s people solution, such as Workday, since it’s already configured to collect, store and manage highly sensitive employee data.
The Kainos Vaccine Management app was developed with Workday Extend for Workday Human Capital Management (HCM) customers, in order to provide the best possible experience when maintaining compliance with local, regional, national and global requirements.
Developed over the last few months in anticipation of the mandate and launched the day after the announcement, the application looks, feels, and works just like any other process in Workday to simplify the process of recording vaccination data and COVID-19 test tracking.
How it works
It’s simple. An employee logs in to their Workday profile and clicks on the ‘Vaccine Management’ tab. The system then asks if they are vaccinated. If they choose ‘yes’, they fill in the date of vaccination and vaccine manufacturer and upload evidence such as a vaccination certificate. If they choose ‘no’, they can provide a reason.
Workday Extend has fully configurable orchestration functionality that enables the app to route the employee’s data to a manager or administrator for review and approval. Employees can also update their status with their smartphone, using the camera to take and crop a photo of their vaccination certificate.
The app also simplifies tasks for administrators and audit teams. A company can configure the app per region to meet each region’s requirements and run vaccination status reports across the entire organisation. The app also automatically knows when an employee’s vaccine has taken effect.
Leveraging Workday security and functionality
We built our app using Workday Extend—Workday’s development platform for third-party customised apps—so that it blends seamlessly into your Workday environment. You can use your existing login details, apply the same level of controls and have a consistent experience.
A business can record, report and audit vaccination status easily with just a couple of clicks and be confident data will be secure within their existing Workday system—it’s our mission to make life as easy as possible for organisations to harness the tools they already have to secure a safer, brighter ‘business-as-usual’.
If, as we expect, the vaccine regulatory landscape grows more complex, we have ensured our app can adapt to evolving regulations so it can continue to support you.
Kainos is not only an early adopter of Workday Extend but a fully-accredited Workday Extend partner. Our Vaccine Management app provides new tailored service offerings to deliver efficient solutions that help customers adapt to emerging trends, implement industry-specific requirements, or solve complex use cases.
Prepare for change
As the virus continues to impact businesses and society worldwide, companies must prepare for what might come next. Our app helps businesses future-proof vaccine administration and guarantees compliance regardless of what lies ahead. Whether appeals lead to a patchwork of different rules being applied across the world, or countries introduce rules for booster shots, rest assured that Kainos aims to make this journey as smooth and safe as possible for your business and its people.