Camden Employee Vaccine Mandate Nets 99% Participation

Camden became the first major apartment industry company to institute a mandatory vaccination policy when it told its 1,700 employees in August that they must be vaccinated by Oct. 11 to maintain their jobs.

Last week Camden Senior Vice President of Human Resources Cindy Scharringhausen said that 99% of the Houston-based company’s workforce has complied with the vaccination program.

She said that only a small handful of employees chose to leave the company based on the policy.

Now nearly three weeks after the company’s mandate, roughly one to three Camden employees per day miss that day’s work because he or she tested positive for COVID-19 or were exposed to the coronavirus. Because exposures cover different time periods and run concurrently, exact “average” figures are tough to calculate at this time.

Scharringhausen said that prior to the policy, the company had 20 to 40 employee absences per day related to COVID-19 during the absolute peak of the pandemic. She said that prior to the policy, the company had 20 to 40 employee absences per day related to COVID-19 during the peak of the pandemic. 

She said that overall, the level of call-outs was not often high or as persistent over the past year; and in fact, since the onset of the Delta variant, Camden had not experienced high absentee rates.

“We had some difficult discussions with some employees as we approached that Oct. 11 date,” she said. “In the end, our leadership decided we wanted to create a safe place for our employees to work and this policy would support that.”

In August, CEO Ric Campo told the Houston Chronicle, “We want to do the right thing. It’s about creating a safe workplace. We decided to take a stand and hope that other companies [would] as well.” To control the pandemic, “you must draw a line in the sand … You have the choice to get vaccinated or go work someplace else.”