Should I offer immunizations to my employees?

The common cold forces many people to take time off work. The flu bug seems to infect one person and before you know it you have 10-20 employees out at any given time because they are all sick. This poses the question : "Should you offer immunizations to your employees?"

It is a smart idea to offer immunizations to your employees, especially if you can get the health insurance company to pay for half of the cost. Immunizing your employees can protect them against the flu and it can save you thousands of lost dollars in sick leave each year.

The cost to have a flu shot is normally around $15. Some insurance companies will pay even more money to vaccinate you because it saves them thousands of dollars if you get a shot and you don't get sick. Employers that are willing to cover the cost of the immunizations are looking at fronting a big bill, but it will be worth it if you can save your office from the flu bug.

While you may have some employees that never get sick, many of them will get sick from being around the people they live with. Children are prone to several infectious diseases and they tend to bring home many of these viruses to their parents. The parents of these children aren't always getting immunized like they should. Find out what shots your employees need and bring in a health care staff to vaccinate them.

Hepatitis shots, tetanus shots, and flu shots are just 3 of the shots your employees may need. Inform your employees when the vaccination day will be and you can pay for the flu shot or you can cover the cost of all the shots. The best policy is to inform your staff members that they need to be current on their shots in order to work there. School-aged children must show a shot record in order to attend that school so why can adults get away without showing their shot record, especially when they are exposed to harmful viruses?

The spread of diseases is rapid and before you know it, you and most of your employees will be sick. The risk of coming down with the flu or another infectious disease is lower when everyone at the office has had their shots.

When you get a shot, you can have a few side effects. Some people that get the flu shot actually experience flu-like symptoms for a couple days. Normally the symptoms will go away in a few days andyou will be good to go. The vaccines contain part of the bacteria or virus that causes the larger problems. The vaccines are actually weakened so that they do not cause the disease. The vaccine will send the bacteria throughout your body and stimulate the immune system to react as if the real infection has occurred. The immune system will then create antibodies to attack the virus in case you ever come in contact with it again. It will take at least 10 days to 2 weeks before your body has built up the immune system to protect you against the virus. So if you get a flu shot and you come in contact with a person with the flu in a day or two, you will probably still get sick.

Depending upon the type of vaccination you get, you could have a single shot or multiple shots. Several vaccines require you to come in a couple months after the initial shot to receive a second shot or even a third shot. Try to offer vaccinations to your employees on a Friday. If your employees get sick from the vaccinations, the side effects should be worn off in time for them to return to work on Monday.