After the outbreak of COVID-19 in the early 2020, people’s lives halts in a stand still that affected lives of each person around the world; impacting businesses in hard points that either closed them down or pushed them to adapt for survival. Early 2021, after the breakthrough of vaccine against the virus the Philippine government aims to vaccinate every Filipinos through the program, RESBAKUNA: Kasangga ng BIDA.
One of the leading local multinational companies in the nation with almost 900 employees, B. Braun Philippines has pledged in this program by vaccinating all of their employees for free. Keeping in line with the company vision to protect and improve the health of people around the world, they believe that they should protect their people first so they could serve their patients better.
In preparation for the vaccination schedule, the company has set up internal online lectures with epidemiologists and infection disease specialists to provide more knowledge on the virus, infection prevention methods, and the vaccination. These lectures also included open forum or Q&A sessions with the specialists to help the employees gravitate towards safety and compliance in health and safety protocols. An internal survey was also conducted in which 82% expressed their willingness to be vaccinated within the year.
As of writing, more than 50% of the company’s total number of employees had their first dose already, the majority of which are healthcare workers employed by the company. B. Braun Philippines’ goal is to get at least 70% of employees. This has resulted to positive notion to the employees that most of them wished to get inoculated soon.
When asked why most of the employees changed their minds, most of them said that their primary motivation was the protection of their family and loved ones as well as to reduce chances of getting sick so that they will always be present to provide quality care for their patients.
The COVID-19 journey was not easy for everyone but B. Braun Philippines believes that with proper preparation and information dissemination to its employees, they can contribute to the fight against the COVID-19 disease and they can continue serving its partners and patients in the country.
