Majority of professionals believe employers should require proof of COVID-19 vaccination

New research has revealed 67% of professionals believe employers should require proof of vaccination for COVID-19 before returning to the office.

With millions of people out of work and millions of others forced to work from home, the pandemic has reshaped the nation's labor force. Online professional network Blind has explored whether professionals believed their employer could eventually be allowed to require a COVID-19 vaccination in order for people to keep their job.

"While political leaders in the U.S. have been hesitant to make sweeping regulations related to the coronavirus, business leaders may be in a unique position that would allow them to enforce strict measures in their work environments, the company says.

On Blind, a Salesforce professional asked, Should employers require proof of vaccination before returning to office?

Of the respondents, 67% of professionals believe employers should require proof of vaccination before returning to office, while 89% of Twitter professionals believe employers should require proof of vaccination before returning to office. Meanwhile, 92% of both Lyft and Airbnb professionals believe employers should require proof of vaccination before returning to office.

A user at Byton responded, "If workplaces can mandate masks in the office, then they can require proof of vaccination."

These statistics follow some learnings from questions Blind asked back in late November:

Do you think employers have the right to ask their employees to get vaccinated before returning to the office? Would you get vaccinated if your employer asked you to? Would you go back to the in person office if vaccines were not mandatory?

Of the 3,273 professional respondents, 69% of professionals think employers have the right to ask their employees to get vaccinated before returning to the office.

That number is even higher for FAANG professionals, 72% think employers have the right to ask their employees to get vaccinated.

Seventy eight percent of Facebook professionals think employers have the right to ask their employees to get vaccinated, while 72% of professionals said they would get vaccinated if their employer asked them to, and 77% of FAANG professionals said they would get vaccinated if their employer asked them to.

Only 36% of professionals said they would go back to the in person office if vaccines were not mandatory.

Fourteen percent of Oracle professionals said they would go back to the in person office if vaccines were not mandatory, while 19% of Intuit professionals said they would go back to the in person office if vaccines were not mandatory, and 21% of IBM professionals said they would go back to the in person office if vaccines were not mandatory.

A user at Apple asks, "Can our employers force us to get vaccinated as a condition for continued employment?" Apparently, most professionals do not mind if they do.

Overall, a majority of workers say they would support a requirement for all colleagues to be vaccinated.