Flu is usually the top cause of sick days in the UK and affects many businesses up and down the country. You can protect your employees and your business from disruption during flu season with our corporate flu jab service.
The flu is an illness caused by an infection from the influenza virus. Flu is most commonly spread through coughing and sneezing and infects the nose, throat and sometimes the lungs.
In the UK, flu season usually lasts from December to March. It can begin as early as October if we have cold weather, as the flu virus spreads faster in cold and dry weather.
Flu is highly contagious (especially in the winter months) and it spreads easily from person to person, including in the workplace. Most people recover fairly quickly from flu without lasting complications. It can occasionally hit even healthy people hard and stop them working for around a week.
Flu is usually the biggest cause of sick days in the UK, accounting for an average of 4.4 days off from work each year. As well as costing the UK economy an estimated £29 billion every year, the flu costs businesses an average of £522 per employee annually.
Your business can face significant disruption if your employees fall sick at the same time.
It’s best to make sure your employees are vaccinated at the start of the season, in early September. It takes around 10-14 days for your body to become immune to the flu, so getting the jab early reduces the risk of falling ill.
The flu jab is a safe and effective vaccine that protects against the flu. The vaccine contains a small amount of the inactivated flu virus. This isn’t enough to cause an infection but is enough for people to develop antibodies to kill the virus, which makes them immune from the infection.
The flu jab is given as a single dose.
Yes. Your employees will need a new flu jab before each flu season. The influenza virus that causes the flu rapidly mutates and evolves into new strains. Each year the vaccine is tailored to the new strains of the virus. It is likely that new strains will have emerged the following year, so a new flu jab is needed before each flu season.
To order your corporate flu jab e-vouchers:
- Email us at flu@well.co.uk to enquire about our 2024/25 prices and agree the number of vouchers you would like
- You will receive your client voucher code and support with how to share it with your colleagues and/or employees
- Colleagues will access our e-voucher platform using your client voucher code and receive a unique flu voucher code
- Book an appointment at one of our 750 pharmacies using our online booking system, or look for a Well pharmacy offering a walk-in flu service
- Your colleagues will present the unique colleague flu voucher at the pharmacy, complete a quick clinical assessment, and receive their flu jab.
Our e-voucher service has lots of additional benefits:
- Quick and easy – we remove the hard work of sharing vouchers through quick email access
- Up front pricing and invoicing – you will know how much you’ll pay up front
- Central visibility – you will have easy viewing of voucher usage. You’ll know how many have been used and how many are available
- Template email support – our suggested email templates promote the flu jab service, explaining the benefits and answering FAQs, encouraging your workforce to protect themselves and others from the flu
- Posters and promotions – we provide you with printable PDF posters to put around your workplace. Simply display the poster and QR code for colleagues to scan and book their flu jab!