'Come work for us and we will give you a covid vaccine'....

[TwirpingBird]

I just heard an a 'jobs available' section on a local radio station. A recruitment agency is looking for cleaners to work in a healthcare setting 5 days a week. At the end of the job advertisement it said 'if you come work for us, we will give you a covid vaccine' and the DJ added 'oh well that's a great bonus. You get a covid vaccine before everyone else!'.

I know cleaners are incredibly important, more than ever now, but using a the prospect of getting a vaccine as an incentive to apply for a job, and including it in the radio advertisement, felt wrong to me. What do you think? Not a big deal?

Pretty awful. Cleaners should def get it but no way should they be incentivised to apply.

TBF if I was going to be a cleaner in a healthcare setting I would want the jab. Sounds reassuring, and maybe more people are likely to apply.

But conversely you could apply, get the job, get your jab then leave I suppose.

Maybe people will start to realize that cleaners are just as important as anyone else and stop looking down on them.
No idea about vaccines , but it wouldn't surprise me if they can do this? I would bet my last fiver that a black market for vaccines will spring up somewhere even if they say it won't!

I don’t have a problem with it

It’s a dangerous, unpleasant, underpaid and under appreciated job. Why shouldn’t they advertise the only upside?

I have actually worked as a cleaner myself in hotels and get that it may not be a job many people would consider, and I guess it is an incentive to apply and that's what a recruitment agency want, but it felt odd. I think who priority for vaccines is an emotional topic at the minute and some may find it odd that its included as a form of 'bonus' in a job advertisement. I dont know. Maybe this is just another new coronavirus thing to get used to.

Cleaners in healthcare settings should be the same priority as nurses and doctors in healthcare settings. Especially cleaners which work in covid wards etc.

I read a really sad story on the BBC news website about a cleaner who contracted covid through her job. She was terrified of going into work (but did anyway). Then when she and her husband became ill, she was terrified of passing it on to their elderly FIL and tried really hard not to. But of course, because they shared bathroom and kitchen facilities, she did. He died.

If anything being on a lower income (which cleaners are) makes it harder to cope with illness and isolating from family. A senior consultant in a hospital with a big house and disposable income probably has more opportunity to protect their families when they fall ill then a low paid cleaner. (Not that I begrudge the consultant their jab either!)

So anyone who suggests hospital cleaners shouldn't be a priority is being very unreasonable imo.

Cleaning in a hotel is different to cleaning in a healthcare setting during the height of a pandemic!

Probably much harder to recruit for as well.
But the jab is not being offered to hospital cleaners as some extra bonus they dont really need.

It is being offered because they are working in a risky workplace, and because high sickness levels among hospital cleaners will severely affect healthcare.

www.bbc.co.uk/news/stories-55682405

This story is worth a read.

Again the question isn't should they get it, everyone knows they should. The question is should it be included in a job advertisement?

I think it is relevant to the job so should be the advertisement. Cleaning in a healthcare setting is high risk so applicants need to know about health and safety measures to mitigate the risk before they decide to apply. Selling it as a "bonus" is not on though. How did the advert frame it? The DJ's comment was idiotic though

Of course it should be in the advert. If it wasn't people might not apply as they are worried about getting covid.

Yes, if it means more people apply. It might reassure those who were thinking of applying, but who were anxious about the risk.
If the job is made safer, more people will apply.

Would you object to the army promising helmets and protective clothing to new recruits?

It was very much framed as a sort of bonus, like it was grouped with the 'flexible hours, competitive salary, and we will give you a vaccine!'. That's why it sounded wrong to me. If it was framed as a 'here are the things we do to keep you safe' it would be a bit more ..... I dont know .... appropriate or something. The DJs comment didnt help.

If you work in a healthcare setting you are priority for the vaccine anyway aren’t you ? What if you took the job and then didn’t want the vaccine... I think it should be in the job ad.

@TwirpingBird

Again the question isn't should they get it, everyone knows they should. The question is should it be included in a job advertisement?

Maybe they’ve included it in the advert because it’s not automatically obvious to everyone that cleaners in a healthcare setting are eligible for the vaccine?

I work in recruitment for adult social care and we have been told to push this with applicants.

I think, as Sparkling says, it would allay the fears people may have which could deter them from applying. I am put off applying for certain roles at present because I wouldnt feel safe enough.

It's relative to the job so I don't see the problem

There will be lots of people applying to care homes/healthcare settings in order to get this jab. I don't think many will need to be told they'll get it. The vast majority will be aware and will be their main aim.
I wonder how many last the distance once they've been jabbed.
Especially now, care homes are desperate for staff and are not particularly concerned with experience/training as this done on the job. I wonder how many new staff are actually really after the job in question.

I think it should be included in the ad.

The first barrier to someone applying is going to be fear of covid, so it makes sense to address it in the advert,

Same as saying “training provided” if something very niche or specialised.

Yes it should be included in the ad so people apply. Cleaners in healthcare settings are more important than ever now because they are the ones disinfecting and sanitising everything to prevent the spread in hospitals. I wouldn't want their job right now and they deserve to have the vaccine, hopefully it will encourage more people to apply.

How easy would it be to recruit hospital cleaners at the moment, expecting them to clean the morgue, Covid wards, busy public Areas, waste management, but without reassuring them they'd get a vaccine? Pointless advertising, I'd think.

Probably true but tasteless nevertheless. And would you want people to have that as a reason to work for you- would they not be the kind of people who would only do the job until they could get another?

Cleaners in healthcare are incredibly important, underpaid and often have shitty antisocial hours (4:30pm -9pm or 5am- 8:30am). They should be absolutely priority for the vaccine.