Your Guide to Beating the Flu in the Workplace
As fall approaches, it’s important to prepare for flu season. Washing your hands often with soap and water, covering coughs and sneezes, and staying home when sick are all great ways to help prevent the spread of the flu. However, the most important step you can take is to get a flu vaccine! For the 2024-2025 flu season, the vaccine will be designed to protect against three influenza viruses. Here are some common myths and facts about the flu vaccine:
MYTH: The flu vaccine isn’t safe and doesn’t work.
FACT: The vaccine is very safe and effective. Millions of Americans have been safely vaccinated against the flu over the past 50 years. With COVID-19, we’ve seen how dangerous a virus can be with no vaccine. The vaccine may not protect everyone 100% from all flu types, but if you do get the flu, you may not feel as sick. You’re also less likely to spread the flu. It takes about two weeks to be fully protected by the vaccine, so getting a shot in September or October as the flu season begins is ideal.
MYTH: The flu isn’t that serious.
FACT: The flu can cause dangerous complications. For most people, the flu can cause illness for a week or more. For people with other health conditions, the flu can cause serious complications like pneumonia.
MYTH: The vaccine can give you the flu.
FACT: You can’t get the flu from the vaccine. The vaccine protects you without any chance of giving you the virus.
MYTH: I’m healthy and don’t need a shot.
FACT: The CDC says that everyone age 6 months or older should get a flu shot every year. Remember, even if you are healthy, you could pass the flu on to those at risk for higher complications
Free Flu Shots
If you’re on a medical plan, most locations offer free flu shots, just make sure to show your medical ID card and always use and in-network provider. You can also visit vaccines.gov to find a location near you. Just select your vaccine and enter your zip code and this tool will show all the locations near you offering flu shots.
Your Guide to Helping Employees Beat the Flu
Make Getting the Vaccine Easy!
There are many ways to help educate employees about the importance of the flu vaccine, and to make it easy for them to get the vaccine:
- Host an onsite Flu Vaccine Clinic at your office, using one of the vendors listed here – or you can check out the full list of vendors here.
- Providing flu shot vouchers to employees allows them to get a free flu shot regardless if they are covered on a health plan or not. Many onsite clinic vendors also offer voucher programs.
- Promote flu shot awareness by distributing our Employee Flu Shot toolkit and letting employees know that they can visit vaccines.gov to find an in-network provider offering flu shots near them!
Onsite Flu Vaccine Clinic Providers:
WellnessIQ
- Standard dose flu vaccine: $44 per participant
- 40 minimum participants
- Invoice client directly
Total Wellness
- Standard dose flu vaccine: $34
- 40 minimum, can accommodate 20-35 with added site fee of $250
- Invoice client directly
Why Hosting an Onsite Flu Vaccine Clinic Makes Business Sense
As fall approaches, it’s important to prepare for flu season by getting your flu shot. Preventing the flu in the workplace is one way to promote the health of your employees. Whether you offer flu shots onsite or encourage employees to get a shot on their own at a time and place convenient to them, reminding them of this important annual practice offers many benefits to both you as the employer and the employees. It reduces absences due to sickness, improves health and can increase productivity.
7 BILLION
in U.S. business earnings is lost annually due to the flu.
111 MILLION
work days are lost annually to the flu.
7.5 MILLION
flu illnesses were prevented by the flu vaccine during the 2019- 2020 flu season.
40%-60%
reduction in doctor visits due to the flu vaccine.
