How companies from ANZ and NAB to Telstra are selling the idea of free flu vaccines

This year’s flu season is shaping up to be the worst in a decade. Here’s how some of Australia’s biggest companies are ensuring workers roll up their sleeves.

This year’s flu season is shaping up to be the worst in a decade.

Australia’s biggest companies are rethinking how they sell the idea of free flu vaccinations to workers ahead of what is expected to be the worst season for the virus in a decade.

The pandemic – which has involved the rapid deployment of not one, but five jabs to inoculate against Covid-19 – has up-ended what used to be business as usual in mid-Autumn: the corporate flu shot.

Hesitancy and fatigue has crept in from Covid-19 into flu vaccine programs among some employees. But others are also leaping at the chance to get a free flu shot, given the pandemic has heightened sensitivities to illness.

The split in views requires a more nuanced approach to protect staff against sickness and to stave off absenteeism, particularly as productivity growth has stalled over the three years to December. This compares with average annual growth in labour productivity of 1.25 per cent in the previous three decades.

CSL has accelerated the launch of vaccines for this year’s strain of influenza via its Seqirus division after infections hit 13,000 a fortnight ago – a number that wasn’t hit last year until early May.

For Australia’s biggest health insurer, Medibank, the flu shots are a no-brainer and it is not only offering them to employees but also to its policyholders for free.

Flu accounts for 10 per cent of all workplace absenteeism as workers take up to two weeks off to recover, and vaccinations can prevent up to 70 per cent of infections.

Medibank has adopted a flexible approach, offering flu vaccines via an onsite flu clinic for its corporate customers, which involves a nurse visiting the workplace to administer shots as well as vouchers so employees can get their flu vaccination in their own time

“We are seeing a significant increase in the number of corporate customers who have signed up to our flu vaccination program, compared to last year,” a Medibank spokeswoman said.

“Our corporate customers understand the importance of protecting their employees against influenza, especially with more people returning to the office.

“Vaccinating yourself against the flu not only protects yourself but those around you, and helps ease the pressure on our already stretched health system.”

Telstra’s Darren Fewster.

Telstra workers are approaching flu vaccines with enthusiasm, according to Darren Fewster, the telco’s group executive of transformation people and culture.

But rather than offer onsite shots, it is partnering with pharmacies to ensure employees are inoculated for free.

“Our employees appreciate our flu vaccination program and we are not seeing fatigue at this time,” Mr Fewster said.

“Some of our employees are also required to have the flu vaccine to perform work in vulnerable customer settings, such as aged-care facilities.

“We put the health and safety of our people first and this has underpinned our flu vaccination approach over a number of years.”

According to the latest data from the Department of Health, there have been more than 12,783 confirmed flu cases; this level wasn’t experienced until early May last year.

Meanwhile, international arrivals hit 1.61 million in January – the most since pandemic travel restrictions were imposed in February 2020 – creating a greater risk of importing the virus.

ANZ is encouraging and supporting staff to get the flu vaccination to “protect their health, and the health of those around them”.

“This year we’re again offering vouchers for staff to receive a flu vaccination from a pharmacy, or reimbursement for those who get their flu vaccination from their GP,” an ANZ spokesman said.

“With staff located in branches and offices across Australia, our staff can get the vaccination when and where it works for them.”

While the deployment of Covid-19 vaccines have been polarising and politicised, they have also been hailed as the most effective tool to return the world to normality.

NAB chief executive Ross McEwan has been one of the biggest advocates of returning Australia’s CBDs back to normality.

NAB chief executive Ross McEwan – who is based in Melbourne’s, which was Australia’s most locked down city – was blunt in July 2021, telling people who did not want to get vaccinated that they could “stay at home” while those who were vaccinated should be given more freedom.

“Let’s get on with the job,” he said at the time, adding that a survey by the bank found that 80 per cent of Australians were “happy to get vaccinated”.

“Ten per cent say they’ll swing and 10 per cent say, ‘Not for me, thank you’. For those that don’t want the vaccination, well they can stay at home.”

This year, NAB is deploying its corporate flu vaccine program in a similar way to previous years but is also reminding people to be aware of their eligibility for Covid-19 boosters.

“Each year NAB runs a voluntary influenza vaccination program, whereby NAB covers the cost of flu vaccination for colleagues,” a spokeswoman said.

“This long-running program supports the health and wellbeing of our colleagues across Australia. Colleagues can access vaccination at our major commercial buildings, some branches and business banking centres or at an off-site provider if they are unable to attend these NAB locations.”

It comes as RBA governor Philip Lowe said this week that faster productivity growth delivered “a bigger pie, higher real wages, a lift in our collective wealth and a more prosperous economy”.

“It also means that, for a time, there is less upward pressure on inflation,” Dr Lowe said. “The fact that the supply side of our economy is growing more slowly than it once did carries the implication that demand also needs to grow more slowly if we are to avoid persistently higher inflation.”

CSL Seqirus influenza director Natasha Rees said while vaccination for influenza normally began in April to give people more coverage during the season, the company had provided doses earlier this year.

In February, former CSL chief executive Paul Perreault said while there has been lower influenza infections in the past three years, this season was experiencing the highest number of cases in a decade.