Which Triangle employers are requiring employees to be vaccinated? Well, it depends.

It’s been a week since the U.S. Food and Drug Administration’s approval of Pfizer’s COVID-19 vaccine, but that hasn’t led to a sharp increase in vaccine mandates yet at the Triangle’s largest employers.

While the number of firms asking employees to get vaccinated before they return to the office has risen in recent weeks, most of the decisions were made before the FDA’s approval.

The Pfizer vaccine has been available to the public for months via the agency’s emergency use authorization label.

With the delta variant of COVID-19 leading to a sharp increase in cases in North Carolina, offices across the Triangle, from downtown Raleigh to the Research Triangle Park, remain mostly empty, as many white-collar employees continue to work from home.

In May, the Equal Opportunity Employment Commission unveiled guidance to companies that they could legally require vaccines to re-enter offices — as long as they allowed alternative options for employees unable to get vaccines for medical reasons or religious objections, ABC News reported.

In late July, Gov. Roy Cooper issued an executive order that would require employees of the governor’s office or cabinet-level agencies to be vaccinated or submit to weekly COVID-19 testing, The News & Observer reported. The new policy, which applies to more than 55,000 workers, takes effect Sept. 1, and workers have to submit proof of vaccination by Sept. 8, The N&O reported.

Here is a list of major employers in the Triangle that have announced they will require employees to be vaccinated, and those who haven’t. This list will be updated as companies announce updates.

Who’s mandating

Here’s a list of major employers currently requiring employees to get vaccinated to return to work:

Cisco Systems: Cisco, which employs around 5,000 people in Research Triangle Park, was one of the first companies in the Triangle to mandate vaccines for those returning to the office.

The company said in early August that it will only allow vaccinated workers to come into the office. It is also maintaining a hybrid-model of work going forward.

“July and August are transition months for us where we will continue with what we’re doing today, which is you need to be vaccinated and a critical worker in order to come in,” a spokesperson for the company told The N&O in an email. “We will continue doing this while looking at the data and vaccination rates in various parts of the world, given we’re a global company.”

Citrix: After not initially mandating vaccines for employees, Citrix told The N&O it plans to implement a vaccine requirement for employees to come into the office.

The company, which maintains a large office in downtown Raleigh, made the announcement earlier this month that starting Oct. 1, all employees and contractors will need to be vaccinated to enter its offices, spokeswoman Karen Master told The N&O in an email.

The mandate will apply to its employees in the U.S., India, U.K. and Canada.

CreditSuisse: The investment banking company, which has a corporate campus in Research Triangle Park, is only allowing fully vaccinated employees in a scheduled return to office work. CreditSuisse delayed its return to offices until Oct. 18 due to the delta variant, according to a company memo.

Non-vaccinated workers will be required to work from home then and must continue working remotely until they get vaccinated or a federal or local vaccine guidance changes. Vaccinated employees who came back to the office over the summer should continue to work on-site, the memo said.

Duke University: Duke, whose health system is one of the largest employers in the entire region, has been one of the most aggressive local institutions in requiring employees to get vaccinated.

Duke has told all of its faculty and staff that they must show proof they have received a COVID-19 vaccine or they will be fired, The N&O reported. They will not be eligible to return to Duke in the future.

The university has reported that more than 91% of Duke’s 22,136 university employees are vaccinated. Employees must show documentation they have been vaccinated by Oct. 1.

Those who apply for and receive a medical or religious exemption will be required to take part in daily symptom monitoring and weekly testing.

Getting vaccinated is a condition for new employees.

Google: Google is just beginning to set up its office in Durham, but has already been quickly hiring.

The search giant has told employees that they need to be vaccinated if they come into the office.

IBM: IBM’s offices in Research Triangle Park, home to some 8,000 employees, still remain mostly empty because of the pandemic.

But when the offices do re-open to more employees, the company said it will only allow fully vaccinated employees back into the office, a spokeswoman told The N&O.

Merck: Pharmaceutical company Merck, which has a facility with hundreds of workers in north Durham, will require all of its U.S. employees to be vaccinated.

The company told The N&O in a statement that as a science-based company that makes medicines and vaccine, they will require their employees to be vaccinated by Nov. 1, unless they declare medical or religious exemptions.

Pendo: Fast-growing Raleigh software startup Pendo also plans to implement a vaccine requirement, spokeswomans Laura Baverman told The N&O.

“We actually made that decision prior to FDA approval, though,” Baverman said in an email. “That said, team members unwilling or unable to be vaccinated can continue to work from home.”

Office work remains voluntary for Pendo employees, and the company reports that offices are operating at less than 20% capacity.

The company didn’t have a date for when its vaccine mandate will go into place.

Pfizer: The maker of the vaccine recently approved by the FDA employs approximately 3,600 workers in Wake County and operates a facility in Raleigh, according to Wake County Economic Development.

All Pfizer employees are required to be vaccinated, and those who decline or declare exemptions must take a PCR test twice a week, according to spokesperson Pamela Eisele.

Eisele said there is no timeline for when all employees should be fully vaccinated. Because of a hybrid working model, there will be fewer workers returning to offices daily when in-office work returns.

Red Hat: In early August, Red Hat decided to institute a vaccine requirement for employees coming into the office.

As of Aug. 9, employees must be vaccinated before they can return to work or attend gatherings in Red Hat office space, according to a memo to employees.

The company also extended its remote work policy, asking anyone who can work remotely to do so — at least through the end of the year.

SAS Institute: SAS, Cary’s largest employer, was one of the first Triangle companies to require employees be vaccinated.

“Like many companies, we are requiring employees to be vaccinated to return to the office in our efforts to keep everyone safe and healthy as we re-enter the workplace,” spokeswoman Shannon Heath said in an email. “Public health experts are encouraging citizens to get fully vaccinated to protect our communities against the coronavirus, particularly the Delta variant.”

SAS is still giving employees a lot of flexibility in where they work at the moment. But, as cases lessen, it is encouraging workers to come to its campus two to three days per week, while unvaccinated employees are being asked to work remotely.

UNC Health: UNC Health Hospitals in Chapel Hill, Raleigh, Siler City and Johnston County were among the first in North Carolina to require vaccination, The N&O reported.

WakeMed: WakeMed, one of the largest hospital systems in the region, has told its employees they must be vaccinated by Nov. 12, The N&O reported.

WakeMed decided to require the vaccinations for all 10,000 of its employees in late July, shortly after Duke, UNC and several other hospitals across the state announced their own mandates.

Who isn’t mandating

Bandwidth: Raleigh software company Bandwidth said it is closely monitoring the situation with the delta variant, but at this time, it is not requiring vaccines, a spokesperson told The N&O.

The company, which has offices on N.C. State University’s Centennial Campus, said it is giving employees the option of working from home, as long as there is a mask mandate in the city of Raleigh.

Cree: The Durham-based semiconductor maker Cree said it is not requiring its employees to get the vaccine.

“There are no current incentives or requirements for vaccination, but we continue to encourage our employees to do what’s best for them and their families, while making it as easy as possible to access the necessary resources to obtain the vaccine,” the company said in a statement.

Duke Energy: Duke Energy, which has nearly 1,000 employees in downtown Raleigh, has not yet decided to mandate vaccines, said Neil Nissan, a spokesman for the company.

Instead, Nissan said the utilities provider is strongly encouraging employees to get the vaccine by “providing incentives for employees to get vaccinated in the form of health reward points that can reduce monthly medical plan costs.”

Epic Games: Video-game maker Epic Games has not yet made a public decision on whether it will mandate COVID-19 vaccines for its employees.

The company, which is headquartered in Cary, is still working entirely remotely at the moment, and it still hasn’t formalized a return-to-the-office plan.

Fidelity Investments: Vaccines are encouraged, but not required for workers at Fidelity Investments, communications director Janelle O’Haugherty told The N&O.

About 90% of the roughly 4,375 Fidelity Investments employees in North Carolina began working remotely in March 2020. Many of these remote workers are part of Fidelity’s campus in Research Triangle Park.

Lenovo: Lenovo, the computer maker whose U.S. operations are based in Morrisville, said it is “evaluating a vaccination requirement” for employees, according to Shannon Frazier, Lenovo’s executive director of North America human resources.

“We are evaluating a vaccination requirement for employees who plan to return to office, but those details have not been finalized,” Frazier said in a statement. “When our offices do reopen, it will be phased reopening, and we are preparing for an effective hybrid environment.”

MetLife: Vaccines aren’t being mandated by MetLife, which employes over 2,400 people at its Global Technology campus in Cary.

Spokesperson Kim Friedman did not rule out future vaccine requirements, however.

“MetLife continues to monitor the eco-system and is making decisions with the safety and well-being of our employees as top priority,” Friedman said in an email. “External factors, such as federal, state and local guidance factor into our decisions.”

This story was produced with financial support from a coalition of partners led by Innovate Raleigh as part of an independent journalism fellowship program. The N&O maintains full editorial control of the work. Learn more; go to bit.ly/newsinnovate.

This story was originally published August 31, 2021 at 5:45 AM with the headline "Which Triangle employers are requiring employees to be vaccinated? Well, it depends.."