freedom challenge

COVID-19 has been the most challenging workplace issue we have had to manage both as organizations and as influencers in our communities. We will now move on from protection measures designed to prevent exposure to a strategy that relies on community immunity. As we do so, new challenges will be presented to us as professionals advising our respective organisations.

As communities open up, the number of cases will likely increase rapidly, as it has in Europe, the UK, and the USA as the pandemic spreads to unvaccinated populations. However, vaccinated individuals won't be protected entirely. Seven percent of patients in Melbourne's ICUs are double vaccinated. Protective strategies such as masks, social distancing, hand washing, etc. will quickly be abandoned by the people we steward.

We will need to manage our workforce's vaccination status based on different jurisdictions' vaccination regulations, regardless of whether they are employees, contractors, or service providers. As we saw with polio and smallpox, full community vaccination is the only way to defeat these epidemics.

Employers will have to determine their respective responsibilities to provide a safe working environment. It is my belief that the bare minimum requirement should be that everyone who interacts at the workplace is current on their vaccination. Furthermore, until the community transmission has been controlled, the supplementary strategies must be sustained. We will face increased challenges this year due to the growth in community freedom of movement, and we will have to continue adapting and innovating.