To think employers can pay for chicken pox vaccines

[coffeeforone]

I have been asked to put forward ideas of possible additional staff benefits to my employer. One that I have thought of is for the employer to pay for chicken pox vaccines (including for their family).

The benefits to both the employees and company are obvious. Less time off for parents benefits both. Kids don't need to suffer chicken pox.

But I'm not sure how well this idea would go down. If your employer offered to pay for the CP vaccine (but it would be a taxable benefit), would you vaccinate your little ones?

and also comes with its own complications e.g. can't be around people with weakened immune systems or pregnant women for 6 weeks most vaccine.
This is not true

Can't imagine the take up for the CP vaccine would be very high as most people won't need it and many people won't want it.

Perhaps try to think of things that would benefit the largest percentage of the staff rather than something that would benefit you alone and only one or two of your colleagues.

Also work hours save would be negligible.

I think adding chicken pox to the vaccination schedule would undermine the importance of the others. Chicken pox can be really serious and kill, but most people think it's harmless. Given that, adding a vaccine against chickenpox is only going to exacerbate some people's belief that getting mumps or measles for real is just a pleasant week off school.

I've already had my parents in law saying sniffily, "well we never used to have a vaccine for that" about the meningitis vaccines.

That's why the NHS haven't added it, im my opinion, anyway.

If the NHS thought it worthwhile to vaccinate, it would. There are plenty of other vaccines on the programme.

The NHS does think chickenpox is a good idea - if you look up chickenpox on their website it includes vaccination information and cost. They don't do it because in a highly constrained economic environment, chicken pox is not considered sufficiently dangerous to require the expense of vaccinating the entire population. Chicken pox is, in most cases, not dangerous. So it's hard for the NHS to justify the cost. Doesn't mean they wouldn't do it if they could. Having watched DD go through an absolutely awful case of it recently, I wish I'd vaccinated her.

My friend has a Pilates class and meditation group actually at work. Different fixed times throughout the week a teacher comes in. Probably more cost effective than full on gym memberships and in my friend’s workplace they have been recording stress levels and productivity etc (not sure how), and I’m told that these initiatives have been brilliant and they will be adding more classes. Gym memberships for each staff member would be a fortune and no guarantee people would use them.

Sorry should have said in response to pp re: gym memberships and other incentives/initiatives for wellbeing

Now a low cost or free pilates or yoga class at work (presumably in lunch break) WOULD be an incentive for me, personally. I'd do that in a heartbeat.

+The NHS doesn't vaccinate because it increases the risk of shingles in elderly people who haven't had the shingles vaccine.*
Except that’s proven to be nonsense in countries that do routinely vaccinate.

There's no need to specific vaccines like chickenpox. Rather say that they'll pay for any vaccines required for staff and their families - so could include flu jab for those who aren't covered but want it, chickenpox, TB etc. Would be useful if travelling and requiring vaccinations or other preventative medicine (eg what do people get when going to malaria areas these days?).

Private GP, local to office is life changing. Not just for staff but for productivity and work. I had it at my last place and it was great. Pregnant woman can also get pre-natal care through it which means the company also benefits because women aren't away from work all day because their midwife appointment is booked for 11:35 on Wednesday....

Birthday/christmas shopping days off are also nice. Duvet days are popular too - no lying because you just need a break. You call in and say you are taking a duvet day (does require a certain amount of responsibility from staff so that they don't decide not to come in on an important work day).

Fresh fruit/healthy snacks in the office go down well I find. Ditto decent tea and coffee.

Everyone who has the chicken pox vaccination needs repeated doses as it only lasts 10-15 years and leaves you at a huge risk of shingles which is really dangerous for adults

Absolutely not true and actually very dangerous to post things like this. The actual fact is that as the vaccine has only been in public health programs since 1995 in the States; we don't actually know yet how long it lasts. However, 23 years after the program was introduced, those adults in the program have not yet needed to be re-vaccinated. Having an immunity test is still advised until more time has passed.

And plenty of other posters on this thread seem to not fully understand how the NHS makes decisions. It is mostly about cost; how to get the best value out of medicine etc. What many don't know is that the government and NHS were going to consider rolling out the MMRV vaccine in the late 90s but after the Wakefield scandal, it was thought that the British public would not take well to the introduction. Considering how much damage his lies are still causing today, it is understandable.

Jam no it’s actually during working hours, so they don’t lose their lunch break by participating. Losing an hour or 40 mins or whatever hasn’t hit productivity, but has apparently helped everyone be more focused and productive. Friend told me that they’d monitored activity and put the classes during ‘slump’ hours and everyone comes back centred and energised. My friend said she does every one of the classes and has lost weight and got rid of a bad back. If I was in a position to suggest this kind of thing, then I would be very keen on pushing it through. I’ve seen lots of interesting statistics and info on Mother Pukka’s Instagram too, about the benefits of flexible working for all.

Nope. What if you don’t want to vaccinate your children against it? If they catch it naturally do the employers now have an excuse to not give you time off?

But they wouldn’t offer it to families as insurance wouldn’t cover it. It would be to employees, and like the bird flu vaccinations that HSBC used to offer, would probably result in a huge load of expired stock because of limited / zero take up.

A far more useful benefit would be BUPA private healthcare as they give discounts on vaccinations if you have a company healthcare policy.

Do people now choose jobs based on what kinds of "sweeteners" they're given?

In my experience it's less that people choose jobs for the perks as that it's a reason to stay - especially flexible working. A lot of people set their life up (commute, childcare, etc) around a company's flexible working policy, which then can actually make it quite tough to leave - so the employer sees increased staff retention. Even the really trivial perks - free drinks on a Friday, not wearing suits unless there are clients in, games tables at work - can make people quite loyal to a company because they worry that the atmosphere will be generally different elsewhere - I know a lot of people who work in city companies with quite little perks like that, but they talk about how they wouldn't want to work somewhere 'more corporate' so I think it works in setting a tone.

*ChazsBrilliantAttitude

My DF was a manager and the single most popular perk he introduced was a half day for Christmas shopping. *

Brilliant idea..

I know some friends who get free travel and an option to join final salary pension plus flexible working and company has one of those rewards websites too, but granted base salary is little bit lower than elsewhere. They are finding it hard to leave because to do so they would have to jump up significantly in pay to make it worthwhile as these additional benefits are too good. So sometimes yes the 'perks' do help to retain staff.

Agree with the day off for Christmas shopping too. My holiday year ran Jan to Dec so I used to try to save a day's leave for December so I could have a day out somewhere like Winchester/Salisbury with the Christmas market. Last year I ran out of leave :(

I expect it would result in managers being less sympathetic to parents wanting time off to deal with kids suffering from CP, and I don't want my manager thinking they have a right to an opinion on whether I choose to give my kids a vaccine not considered beneficial by the NHS.

I also think benefits like this just piss off staff without kids.

What if you don’t want to vaccinate your children against it? If they catch it naturally do the employers now have an excuse to not give you time off

I could imagine that happening but I am also thinking that an employer with a decent benefits system would be more enlightened anyway.

Oh and going by the lawn mowing thread - maybe employers should offer a gardening service too :)

Of course not, all my family have had chicken pox and a couple have had shingles.
We used to have CP parties when our older 2 were children, to get it out of the way when younger.

You'd be far better off funding separate Measles, mumps and rubella vaxes . I paid a fortune for my two to get those.

Or you could get them for free as a combined vaccine from the NHS and stop believing and perpetuating the scaremongering.

I could definitely get on board with a gardening service!