In the search for workers in this tight labor market, companies have courted new hires with the promise of higher wages, sign-on bonuses, ample vacation time, and childcare.The latest: “No vaccine required.” That three-word phrase is popping up across online job listings (sometimes emphatically in all caps and accompanied by exclamation marks) as businesses seek to turn the federal government’s proposed vaccine decree on its head and attract employees — notably those from a talent pool that’s been turned off by or turned away from employers that require a Covid-19 vaccination.
Under the series of federal regulations, which have met some legal challenges that could delay or stop their implementation, private businesses with more than 100 employees, certain health care workers and federal contractors will be required to be fully vaccinated or, in some cases, undergo regular testing for the Covid-19 virus.
And although the reasons behind the “no vaccine required” job listings vary by business — for some owners, it’s philosophical; for others, it’s desperation amid an unbalanced labor market — several employers say it’s working.
When Primal Life Organics amended its job postings to include the phrasing “*NO VACCINE REQUIRED,*” the company saw an increase in applications from the single-digits to 30 or 40, said CEO Trina Felber, who founded the Akron, Ohio-based maker of natural skincare and dental products in 2009.
“It was at that point that we were then able to start hiring people,” Felber said, noting the company brought on six new employees after adding “no vaccine required” to its job listing.Felber said she saw an opportunity to attract employees that would fit well with the company’s culture.”
We try to foster independence,” she said. “I feel that as a culture for my company, I don’t want people to be hired being told what they can and can’t do personally. I believe that the right to choose and the freedom of choice is a basic need that every human has.”Primal Life’s “no vaccine required” amendment did come with a caveat that any company policy related to the virus or vaccine could be altered “should the environment, mandates, or virus existence [change].”
However, some economists and legal experts caution that offering this particular incentive is a considerable — and a potentially deadly — gamble.”My suspicion is that these employers are probably facing hiring challenges, and they’re throwing everything at the wall to try to get the workers they need,” said AnnElizabeth Konkel, an economist at the Indeed Hiring Lab. “That’s a very short-term bet with long-term consequences.”On Indeed’s job listing site, the “no vaccine” searches started to pick up in August, gaining steam after the US Food and Drug Administration approved the first Covid-19 vaccine, according to Konkel.