By Jena McGregor March
16, 2020 at 2:26 p.m. CDT
As a
growing number of companies have adopted broad work-from-home policies amid the
novel coronavirus outbreak,
UnitedHealth Group is telling employees to go to work unless they are part of a
high-risk group, experiencing any symptoms, or face certain other obstacles.
The
guidelines, shared in emails Sunday to its 325,000 employees and managers,
differs somewhat from broad-based policies other large employers have issued
that have asked or strongly encouraged employees to work from home if their
role allows them to do so.
In a
list of talking points shared in an email by the health-care giant’s corporate
communications group to its “people managers,” UnitedHealth said its employees,
who include 100,000 clinicians, are “expected to come to their assigned work
location unless they have self-identified as being at higher risk for serious
covid-19 illness or are experiencing symptoms of respiratory infection, such as
cough, fever or runny nose.”
There
are also carve-outs for workers who are unable to find alternate child care or
who face local community-based issues, such as closures of public
transportation related to covid-19.
UnitedHealth
Group spokesman Matt Stearns said in an email Monday that nearly half of the
company’s U.S. workforce is already in a virtual or work-from-home environment.
The majority of those who aren’t “either provide care or directly assist in the
provision of care,” he said.
“The
health and safety of our employees is paramount to us, and that is why we have
taken steps to ensure people who are at high risk and have child care or
transportation disruptions can work from home," he wrote in an emailed
statement on Monday. “At the same time, the members, patients and customers we
serve depend on the people of UnitedHealth Group to be fully engaged during
this public health crisis, and we are committed to meeting their needs each and
every day.”
In the
email to employees, UnitedHealth’s chief human resources officer, Patricia
Lewis, wrote that “while other less essential industries have implemented broad
work-from-home policies, we are a health-care company, and our business needs
to operate as smoothly as possible during this health crisis to serve others.”
In a
separate memo to employees, the company’s CEO, Dave Wichmann, said “as you continue
to hear about the actions of other companies, please keep in mind that we are
not like the other businesses in your community. … Our health-care services are
essential. We cannot walk away. We cannot close our doors. People are depending
on us. They need us … each and every one of us … fully engaged and doing our
very best work.”
Other
companies in related industries have reported broad policies. CVS Health shared
a company statement with The Washington Post that says, “We are giving our
employees the option to work from home if their role enables them to do so.”
The statement says that “managers of office-based colleagues unable to work
from home will remain in the office to support their teams”; the company said
employees in “stores, mail service pharmacies, call centers and distribution
centers” are most likely to need to remain at their locations.
In an
emailed response to a question about its work-from-home policy, Cigna said,
“Employees who can perform their work from home are strongly encouraged to do
so. The majority of our U.S. employees are telework capable.” Humana also said
in an email that it has been “strongly encouraging employees who are able to
work from home to do so.”
The
U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention said that its
guidance Sunday recommending against in-person events with 50 people or more
for the next eight weeks “does not apply to the day-to-day operation of
organizations such as schools, institutes of higher learning or businesses.” In
other guidance, it has said
that encouraging “staff to telework (when feasible), particularly individuals
at increased risk of severe illness,” is a “minimal to moderate” activity for
workplaces to mitigate covid-19 transmission.
In
Lewis’s email to employees, she also said anyone with symptoms should work from
home and will not be required to take paid time off. The company is also
eliminating “all visitors in our hospitals, clinics, clinical support
facilities and claim and call centers through April 30,” as well as limiting
them in office settings. It announced other social distancing measures that
include avoiding large gatherings, avoiding nonessential travel and “no
handshakes or hugs.”
UnitedHealth
employees who have “self-identified” that they are at higher risk, including
employees older than 60, people who have severe chronic medical conditions or
who have HIV, are pregnant or have compromised immunity, do not have to
disclose their condition, the emails said, and may work from home.
The
company also said it was offering alternate child-care options, either through
the Bright Horizons network or reimbursing employees up to $100 a day for 15
work days; those who still cannot find child care can also work from home.
Jena McGregor
writes on leadership issues in the headlines – corporate management and
governance, workplace trends and the personalities who run Washington and
business. Prior to writing for the Washington Post, she was an associate editor
for BusinessWeek and Fast Company magazines and began her journalism career as
a reporter at Smart Money.
https://www.washingtonpost.com/business/2020/03/16/unitedhealth-group-tells-employees-go-work-unless-they-are-high-risk-group-have-symptoms-or-meet-other-exceptions/
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