Vaccine mandates vary by states, cities, and even localities. This puts childcare businesses in a precarious position as they care for the most vulnerable, unvaccinated segment of the population–young children from ages 0-5.
As childcare providers, there is a real pressure in keeping a COVID-safe environment both for the staff and children in care. As vaccines are yet to be approved for kids, the best precaution and prevention is to have childcare employees fully vaccinated.
But how does one convince a worried and hesitant childcare worker to get vaccinated? Here are the ways.
Lead by example by being vaccinated.
Make sure childcare directors, owners, and key figures in centers are vaccinated. This way, employees that experience vaccine hesitancy can see firsthand that there is really nothing to worry about being vaccinated against the coronavirus. When they see those vaccinated suffer little to no side effects at all, it can nudge their disposition in the right direction.
Educate childcare staff on the importance of vaccines.
With misinformation spreading faster than the truth about coronavirus vaccines, it can be terribly terrifying and confusing for childcare staff.
To fight this, it’s best to set it out straight for your employees. Share with them official updates about coronavirus and vaccines from trusted scientific online sources. Give them the right resources from which they can learn the latest news and updates about coronavirus and vaccines. It also helps that the material is written in a way that is easy to understand and absorb.
Find a friendly local face to explain coronavirus vaccines.
Aside from sharing online resources, going offline and local is another way to get childcare staff over their vaccine hesitancy. Your local resource person can discuss coronavirus, its variants, and the roles vaccines play in preventing a severe case of the virus.
People are more likely to listen to a friendly familiar face. A local resource person can help your childcare staff to be more open, ask questions, and understand the facts and science behind vaccines.
With a familiar face in front of them, childcare staff can confidently raise their questions, worries, and fears and be answered comprehensively with the chance for follow-up questions. As their knowledge about the coronavirus situation and vaccines grow, it will help them quiet down their doubts and boost their trust in getting vaccinated.
Urge your employees to take advantage of COVID-19 related incentives from the government.
While politicians can further muddle the waters regarding the pandemic, the federal government has been supportive enough going as far as providing tax breaks and reimbursements for sick leaves.
Include these incentives in your staff updates to let your employees know they stand to gain more rather than lose by getting vaccinated.
Give vaccinated employees exclusive benefits and perks.
Giving rewards and benefits to vaccinated staff can encourage the others to get the jab. Rewards and benefits can range from physical comfort such as getting rid of masks to employee discounts to key establishments. Add to those the paid sick leaves or a better health insurance coverage.
As for unvaccinated employees, while most companies cannot discriminate against them, some have imposed measures to make them pay more into their healthcare for being unvaccinated. Imposing other stricter measures for unvaccinated employees such as weekly COVID-19 testing and mask mandates can help in lessening the risk of COVID-19 infection.
Ask them to get vaccinated for the children in their care.
As more variants of the coronavirus appear and vaccines are yet to be recommended for young children, COVID-19 vaccination for adults is the best way to safeguard children’s health in childcare services.
So the best argument to help childcare workers overcome their vaccine hesitancy is to tell them to do it for the children instead of for themselves. As children have no option but to wait until the CDC approves of a vaccine suitable for them, adults need to do all they can to protect the youngest and most vulnerable segment of the population against the virus. And to do that, getting vaccinated is a must.
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