Half of Nonprofits Won’t Require Employees to Be Vaccinated as They Return to Work, Poll Finds

Half of nonprofits say they will not require staff members to be vaccinated before returning to the office, and 36 percent are unsure or still deciding, according to a poll of nonprofit leaders. In fact, only 11 percent of organizations so far plan to require employees to be vaccinated before returning to the workplace.

That’s according to a spot check of 635 nonprofits conducted by the organization Nonprofit HR in recent weeks.

In other ways, many organizations plan to stay flexible. More than half — 51 percent — plan to continue to allow staff members to continue remote work if their position accommodates it. Only 14 percent said they were planning to return all employees to the workplace with no remote work options.

Far and away the biggest concern for nonprofit employers weighing return-to-work policies was “mitigating health risks for staff.” But the second most frequently cited concern was more procedural: Forty-seven percent said determining if staff should be vaccinated before returning to the office was their among greatest concerns.

Lisa Brown Alexander, CEO of Nonprofit HR, said the findings demonstrate a need for nonprofit leaders to prepare for the risk that Covid could spread among employees as more people return to the office.

“It’s going to be really important that if you are contemplating having people back into the physical workspace that you’re prepared to do some measure of health screening on a regular basis. Have a process for when someone gets sick to notify people appropriately while keeping in mind confidentiality and privacy,” said Brown Alexander. “Those are all things organizations need to think about before they bring people back.”

Remote Work a Success

Most organizations — 62 percent — said their pandemic remote-work programs were successful. Most of the rest — 34 percent — thought it was merely “somewhat successful.”

What’s more, 78 percent of organizations said they “experienced unanticipated positive benefits” as a result of the shift to work-from-home life.