The priority of the Ansa McAl Group of Companies Ltd during this pandemic has been the safety of its employees.
To ensure this, the group human resources; health, safety and environment; and leadership teams have worked together to educate and vaccinate employees, as well as to have strict workplace protocols.
Chief human resources officer, Amy Lazzari told Business Day the group does not believe in mandatory vaccination so its approach is to sensitise the staff and to make the vaccines easily available.
So far, the result has been a 77 per cent vaccination rate across the group in the region, and
an 82 per cent rate in Trinidad and Tobago.
“In the beginning when vaccines weren’t as widely available we worked very actively with some of our local employer groups like TTMA (Trinidad and Tobago Manufacturers Association) and the Chamber (of Industry and Commerce) to get vaccines in the right manner and to co-host vaccination drives, registering our employees to go.”
When vaccines became more widely available, Ansa hosted many vaccination sites and gave employees a day off as well as transport to get vaccinated.
[caption id="attachment_929843" align="alignnone" width="698"] Ansa McAl's vaccination promotion includes offers to customers at subsidiaries such as Standards. Photo courtesy Ansa McAl -[/caption]
The group also hosted education sessions with doctors, Ministry of Health officials, led leadership and counselling sessions, and had one-on-one conversations with those who needed further assurance, advice, or questions answered. It also created a series of videos featuring staff members giving their testimonials, union representatives, and medical professionals, some for public consumption on traditional media, on the group’s social media page, and some for use in-house.
These include A Small Dose of Hope Can Bring Us Together, Pandemic Portraits produced in collaboration with CNC3, and Let’s Give Ourselves a Fighting Chance.
Lazzari said, “We didn’t want to pull the wool over anyone’s eyes. They had lots of questions. There are pros and cons to taking the vaccine, so we were very real in our approach, with science and doctors and medical professionals being made available.”
There was also Take Your Life Back, a nationwide promotion in which people could submit a picture of themselves with their vaccination cards for a chance to win a kitchen makeover courtesy Standard Distributors Ltd.
Group health, safety and environment manager Nixon Gangoo added that each company in the group hosted one-on-one sessions and companies that had slow vaccine uptake offered incentives.
[caption id="attachment_929842" align="alignnone" width="1024"] Ansa McAl Centre in San Fernando. The regional congolmerate continues its promotion to encourage employees and customers to get vaccinated against covid19. - Photo by Lincoln Holder[/caption]
He said there were flyers giving information on noticeboards and through electronic means on reasons to get vaccinated, answers to frequently asked questions, company cov
