Hiring managers want to know if candidates have been vaccinated against COVID-19, even when their companies do not require vaccination as a condition of employment. That's the central takeaway from a major new survey of 1,379 hiring managers published by career-development experts ResumeOK.

According to the survey, it greatly benefits an applicant when they include their vaccination status on their resume. In companies that would be mandated to enforce the COVID-19 vaccine at work, 74% of hiring managers said that they prefer a candidate’s vaccination status to be included in their resume.

Furthermore, of all hiring managers surveyed, 35% said that they’ll even automatically disqualify candidates who fail to mention their vaccination status, while another 39% said that they prefer to see the candidate’s vaccination status in their resume.

86% of companies with more than 100 employees reported a preference for vaccinated employees, while 55% of smaller companies claimed that vaccination status does not matter. This may reflect a recent shift in priorities. While the federal vaccination mandate for larger companies faces legal challenges and is currently on hold, hiring managers have tended to be conservative. Of the hiring managers who prioritize vaccination status, only 32% reported doing so before the federal mandate was announced; 68% reported that the prospect of a federal mandate influenced their decision.

Other key findings include:

• In the IT and hospitality industries, candidates are more likely to be shortlisted if they have added their COVID-19 vaccination status to their resume.

• Other industries that favor vaccination status disclosure are healthcare (79%), advertising and marketing (77%), finance (71%), retail (68%), and education (67%).

• 73% of hiring managers say that the vaccination mandate has made hiring more difficult with only 27% of hiring managers stating that they have a large pool of candidates to choose from and that the mandate does not affect recruiting.

• Only 23% of candidates have started writing their vaccination status on their resumes.

• 20% of hiring managers said that vaccination status is not part of their hiring decision, but that’s only because the candidate would be asked about it at a later stage.

In a recent EPTW Poll of the Week we asked our readers how their organization plans to proceed regardless of the outcome of OSHA's COVID-19 Vaccination and Testing ETS in the courts.  Our readers remain conservative as well:

• 70% will wait for the final court ruling before implementing the requirements.
• 16.5% said it does not apply to their organization.
• 11% said they will implement requirements of the ETS regardless of the court order.
• 2% already have a vaccine mandate.

Let us know if you look for vaccination status on resumes in this week’s poll.

Source: resumeok.com