Evaluation Considerations

The most consistent thing about providing employees vaccinations is change. Employee members change. Flu virus itself changes. Employee receptiveness towards your programs may also change year to year. Here are some recommendations on how to review your programs and improve it as you go:

Set program goals

For clinics, the goal is often high participation rates. Participation for Prevention recommends that companies strive for a rate of at least 80%. If there is an understanding that a company is not going to reach that goal in the first year, consider what steps need to be take to ultimately achieve it.

Start collecting data immediately

Data from the first year of the program will provide a baseline against you can compare progress from year to year. This information provides a snapshot of your organization's perception of the value of the vaccine and how much work lies ahead in educating staff members.

Consider developing an employee satisfaction survey

As with participation data, developing a survey for the first year and then administering it in subsequent years will help inform what improvements to the program are made. Surveys can be administered online or distributed during staff meetings.

Keep the communication channels open

Throughout the program, make sure the ongoing discussions among members of the implementation team are taking place to note what is going well and what needs to be changed. Eliciting suggestions from employees throughout the season also can result in new ways to enhance program communications.

Determine who in your organization did and did not receive the vaccine

Finding out the types of employees, such as office workers or salespeople, who received the vaccination, their age and where they are located geographically, can help you figure out what groups you are having trouble reaching.