According to the vaccine tracking executive order from President Biden, all federal contractors and subcontractors will be required to have all workers on a jobsite vaccinated or have documentation of a negative COVID-19 test weekly. Additionally, vaccine tracking and/or negative COVID-19 results tracking will be required for any company with over 100 employees. It would be much easier to track if the COVID-19 vaccine was a one-dose vaccine for all Americans. But, with the different vaccines, it’s a mixed bag that is further complicated with the recommendation for booster shots and the option to provide a negative weekly COVID-19 test.
With all the variables for vaccine tracking, executives from all general contractor departments are researching to find the best solution. For employee documentation, most people think it would just be the responsibility of the human resources department, but this issue is so massive, CFO’s are seeking solutions from their peers. In a recent post in the CFMA Connection Café, two CFO’s were asking their peers how they were handling vaccine tracking.
General contractor’s financial executives have a much more difficult job compared to their peers in other industries. According to the Construction Financial Management Association, profit margins for general contractors in the US are razor-thin. The average pre-tax net profit for general contractors is between 1.4 and 2.4 percent.
Why are financial executives concerned about vaccine tracking? It all comes down to the potential impact on their bottom line. Without the right vaccine tracking and negative COVID-19 result process and reporting, they could be looking at fines of $14,000 per incident. If the Build Back Better Bill passes, much more hefty fines will be imposed on firms that violate the vaccine tracking mandate to the tune of $70,000 for a serious infraction and up to $700,000 for willful or repeated violations that can be applied to each occurrence and not limited to one fine of $700,000.
As you work on a plan to prepare for the vaccine tracking mandate, here are 12 must-ask questions as you evaluate your options:
- With hundreds or thousands of workers on each of our jobsites, how can we quickly capture vaccine documentation?
- How do we know which document is their most recent vaccine or negative covid test document?
- How do we know what percentage of the workers on the jobsite have vaccine doses 1, 2, or booster?
- How do we know when workers sign into the jobsite if they are required to provide a negative COVID-19 result or if they have already provided proof of full vaccination?
- Even if there is not a legal mandate, how can we provide vaccine tracking to our clients that require it?
- How will we know if someone comes on the jobsite without vaccine documentation?
- How do we scan all the documentation that can be searchable and associated with each worker on the project?
- How do we find the non-compliant workers and subcontractors on the jobsite?
- Where am I going to pull resources from to manage this process and quickly let all workers on the jobsite know the new process?
- How can I quickly communicate the new process to all subcontractor and their workers?
Everyone is anxiously awaiting what the final ruling for vaccine tracking and negative COVID-19 results. All employers with over 100 employees should be preparing now to use technology to address as many of the questions above as possible. Find out how HammmerTech’s Safety platform makes it easy to manage all workers on all of your jobsites. To learn more, visit our COVID-19 resource page.
