Some Australian companies are looking to only allow vaccinated workers to return to the office
Juan J. Monroe 
Cara Waters, SMH
Australian companies are increasingly looking to follow the lead of their US counterparts and only let fully vaccinated workers return to the office when lockdowns end.
Rather than mandate all staff to get the hits, the local arm of US tech giant Salesforce and ASX-listed software company Altium are both finding a phased approach to repopulating offices better suited to s adapt to the delayed deployment of the vaccine in Australia.
Salesforce employs 2,000 people in Australia. Its staff have mostly been working from home lately, and the head of its Australian operations, Pip Marlow, said the company is considering vaccination requirements alongside COVID-19 testing offers and office capacity limits. .
“I don’t think it’s really a simple yes or no answer,” Ms Marlow said when asked if the $241 billion ($331 billion) company would follow the example of Qantas and SPC make it compulsory for Australian employees to be vaccinated.
“I have employees with health issues that impact the timing of their vaccinations and with immunosuppressant issues [and need safety at work].”
Ms Marlow said she was watching closely Salesforce’s ‘phased approach’ in the US, where staff volunteer to return to the office and must be double-vaccinated to do so.
“What it looks like is coming back to the office where you volunteer to come back, and you’re double-vaccinated to come back,” she says. “We’re also using our technology to help manage that process so that when you come back, it’s as COVID safe as possible,” she added, citing Salesforce’s workflow software for managing schedules. staff for space capacity and to process health certificates.
The tech giant is requiring COVID-19 testing in the United States and asking staff to disclose their body temperature and any symptoms they may have.
“We really don’t have all the answers here, but what we do know is that when we reopen our offices here, our number one priority is: can we do it in a way that is safe for our employees and our clients? ” said Ms. Marlow. “How do we leverage technology to help make this safe and operate in this new COVID environment where finding contracts and being reachable will be far more important than ever?”
Altium, an ASX-listed software company is also turning to its offices in the United States for a guide to reopening safely.
Chief executive Aram Mirkazemi said requiring employees to be vaccinated if they want to return to the office was “working well” for the $4 billion US company.
“We don’t have mandatory vaccinations,” he said. “However, we ask those who want to work in the office to get vaccinated to come to the office. It’s an honor based system, we don’t enforce it, but that’s the understanding we have.
Mr Mirkazemi said the company would be guided by current regulations in Australia, but was keen to require vaccinations for those returning to the office.
“I think our principles, if we have an option, would stay that way,” he said. “Australia is a little different in the way they approach COVID, and we respect that a lot. And if that’s how it’s going in Australia, we’ll definitely support it.”
This story originally appeared in the Sydney Morning Herald. Read the original story here.
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