What you should be telling employees about monkeypox right now – Fortune

So far, there are no workplace-specific responses required for monkeypox, and neither the CDC nor OSHA have declared the outbreak an occupational hazard. For now, employment lawyers advise companies to keep tabs on government guidance as the disease progresses.

“When it comes to infectious diseases, we always advise employers to track what the CDC recommends and go forward with that,” Adam Young, a partner and workplace safety and health attorney at Seyfarth Shaw, tells Fortune. “At this point, the CDC has not declared this to be an occupational hazard—outside of healthcare—that employers need to be responding to.”

But that doesn’t mean employers should keep workers in the dark on how they’re assessing monkeypox’s spread, preventative measures, and what it means for the workplace.

“The first step is to make sure that the workforce is properly educated on what the symptoms are. That’s going to be incredibly important for keeping monkeypox out of the workplace and containing and mitigating the threat,” says Michelle Strowhiro, a partner and employment law attorney at McDermott Will and Emery. 

Communicate basic information about the disease, including its symptoms and how it spreads, and distribute existing resources. SHRM has shared a memo template for HR executives, and Fortune recently published an article debunking several myths about monkeypox.

Employers should also address sick leave for infected employees. According to the CDC, the incubation period for monkeypox is roughly one to two weeks, and illness typically lasts between two to four weeks. A monkeypox infection can be four times longer than the average seven days of sick time employees receive annually.

Companies that offer hybrid options might want to lean on remote work for infected employees who feel well enough to continue working. On the flip side, infected employees might need to take medical leave, entitling them to accommodations under the Family and Medical Leave Act (FMLA).

While the surge in monkeypox cases might understandably feel like déjà vu, there is a silver lining for HR executives: much of the muscle built in responding to COVID—from sick leave policies to vaccine mandates—will be helpful in creating a fleshed-out monkeypox response.

“Now’s the time to evolve [your] COVID-19 policy into a greater safety policy that includes monkeypox, and covers the symptoms of monkeypox and protocols of what to do if you have symptoms or test positive,” says Strowhiro.

Employers should also be vigilant about stopping workplace harassment or bias stemming from misinformation, especially toward gay or bisexual men. Though most confirmed monkeypox cases have been in men who have sex with men, anyone is susceptible to infection. HR executives responding to anti-LGBTQ misinformation on monkeypox can mirror their responses to COVID-19 misinformation and harassment against Asian and Asian American employees.

HR professionals are already trained to handle sensitive and confidential medical information, but they should make the company’s policies expressly clear. For instance, how it plans to notify colleagues who were in close contact with an infected person. HR heads should also be transparent about what companies won’t disclose, such as the infected employee’s name and any privileged information.

Finally, people leaders should ensure their responses are rooted in science. Young recommends referring employees with additional questions to agencies like the CDC. “To the extent [that] we’re providing information, we want to base it on the most solid scientific information being put out by reputable government sources,” he says.

Paige McGlauflin
paige.mcglauflin@fortune.com
@paidion

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Today, the learning platform Skillsoft announced a new partnership with Coursera that integrates Coursera for Business courses, video clips and resources into Skillsoft’s enterprise platform. Companies with a Skillsoft account will now be able to offer employees access to its skilling content. A longtime player in the corporate edtech space, Skillsoft is positioning the integration as a way for employers to reskill and upskill talent in an effort to address the current skills shortage in the workplace.

The partnership also speaks to a bigger trend I’ve observed more recently in L&D: “learning in the flow of work.” More companies are looking for continuous, low-friction ways for employees to learn as they go, without having to register for disparate courses on disparate platforms. Skillsoft’s chief people officer, Kristi Hummel spoke to Fortune about how streamlining the learning process can boost skills training:

“Multiple service platforms can become confusing and get in the way of providing the best possible employee experience. We know development is more effective when it is embedded within workflows. It needs to meet learners where they are and via modalities that provide individualized experiences for varying subject matters. Leaving this untethered through multiple platforms can be cumbersome for employees and quite frankly does not provide the rich analytics for the enterprise to effectively understand and benchmark progress in workforce transformation.”

—Kristi Hummel

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Health care data analytics platform Arcadia appointed Chris D’Arcy as its CHRO. Tech advisor Brillio appointed Camie Shelmire as its new chief people officer.

Have a move? Let me know: amber.burton@fortune.com

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‘Pret Index.’ The second-quarter earnings calls have spoken and…drumroll please…the economy still favors remote work. Companies that hinge on commuters and foot-traffic in busy urban centers felt workers’ continued absence in last quarter’s earnings. —Jane Thier

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Tune in. In this week’s episode of the Leadership Next podcast, Fortune senior editor Ellen McGuirt speaks with Instacart CEO Fidji Simo about her one-year anniversary at the helm of the grocery delivery company. Simo sheds light on the challenges of C-suite leadership as the pandemic shifts expectations and priorities. Listen time: 30 minutes.