Marriott Rewarding Vaccinated Employees

At what point should we consider whether businesses are incentivizing their employees because they want it to be done fast vs a fear that employees don’t want the vaccine and feel this is the only way to get people to do it?

I am not trying to propagate a conspiracy theory, I just struggle with the fact that over my career employers have only ever incentivized behavior that is in their best interest. Sometimes this interest aligns with the employees, but it is never a 100% alignment.

For what it is worth, I think anyone who wants the vaccine should get it. However, I also wonder how much of the demand is because people want to say ‘the right thing’ vs there being an actual intent.

@Grounded Road Warrior Are you really struggling to discern why a company whose industry is hospitality would incentivize getting a vaccine for its employees?

The prevailing facts from science show that people in any sort of hospitality or people facing role should get the vaccine not only for the safety of the worker who are exposed to a lot of people often in close proximity but just as much to potentially lower spread from people who have to interact with a lot of people throughout the course of a day.

Of course there is a benefit to Marriott. They can go "we have vaccinated workers so the chance of our workers spreading coronavirus to you is low!" At the same time the workers themselves can be safer if they are exposed.

I love the policy but have a hard time wrapping my head around the fairness of it. My diabetic/elderly/minority coworker shouldn’t have the opportunity for a bonus before I do. The pay should only be awarded once the vaccine is truly available for everyone.

This means nothing because most hotels are not Marriott managed, which means most employees at most hotels are not Marriott employees. So this is actually little more than fake news

@Ken - If a company feels the need to incentivize behavior, they must feel like there is a large enough batch of their employees that don’t want to do what is being incentivized. If every Marriott employee was clamoring for the jab, why would they pay them to get it...

Based on your argument, I can see why Marriott would want to purchase shots directly from pharma and administer it themselves, so their employees can get it quicker. But it still raises the question as to why they feel they need to incentivize the behavior in the first place. If everyone wants it, than 3 weeks of pay is an enormous cost for no particular reason.

This is completely inappropriate until at least one vaccine is fully approved. Covid vaccines are only autorisied for emergency use so far. Pressuring employees into taking them is wrong and I'm surprised it got through the lawyers.

I'm happy to live in a country where it is completely unthinkable to have an employer ask for employee's medical records without a very good reason. (And this would not count as a good reason.)

As a Marriott fan, some of the changes to the loyalty program in the past couple years had me rethinking my loyalty.
This move however, has restored some of my faith. Marriott is making forward-thinking moves that show industry leadership. It'll be interesting to see if other hotel groups follow suit.

@Sel, D.

If you're having trouble "wrapping your head around the fairness of it," consider the fact that the people who are eligible for the vaccine before the general public are the ones who have had to live with the unfairness of being more vulnerable to the virus that's been ravaging the globe for more than a year.

@Lucky, at least one other travel brand is, in fact, compensating (not pressuring as some here are claiming) employees for vaccination: Amtrak.

Employees are receiving 2 hours pay for the first dose, and 2 hours for the second, and are supposed to be receiving paid time off in order to actually receive the shots (although anecdotal reports suggest that some supervisors are not on board with official company policy here). Not sure how the compensation works for a single dose of the J&J vaccine.

It's not an INCENTIVE, it's removing the DISINCENTIVE of losing a half-days pay to go wait in long lines or rush out to be in a lotto for leftover vaccines. It allows entry level employees to not worry about a short paycheck because they need to have a medical appointment. Some of you are talking like it's hush money or a CEO bonus, while it's just fiscal security for people who have vulnerable finances for over a year. I'm happy their doing it but wish they directed all franchises too as well.

@Sel - don’t be a snowflake. If they get the equivalent of -$60-100 a month ahead of you, do you really feel permanently disadvantaged? SMH.

@Grounded Road Warrior Hospitality employees largely being vaccinated alongside a general population that will also largely be vaccinated is not a matter of if, but when. Marriott's incentive is clearly not some kind of scheme where they're using pay in some kind of malevolent conspiracy to get people vaccinated against employee beliefs of some supposed dark side to being vaccinated. It is more so an incentive to get people who feel like they can take their time in getting the shot to go ahead and quickly find time to do it (even it if means taking a day off).

@Sel, D. In many states (if not all) hospitality employees of any kind whether healthy or with some pre-existing illness are able to get vaccines. There's no favoring of diabetic/elderly/minority coworkers.

@Samo Vaccines have been open to hospitality employees in many, if not all, states for a while now. And no one is forcing anyone to get the vaccine or forcing anyone to hand over their medical records. This is simply an extra incentive for people who want to get the vaccine or were thinking about getting it. When they do, all they have to do is hand over a card that specifically documents their vaccinations. No other medical records need to be shared to communicate that a vaccine has been received.