Capital One employees returning to office will have to be vaccinated

Capital One Financial is joining a growing list of U.S. companies that will mandate COVID-19 vaccinations for all employees who plan to return to work in offices.

In a shift away from plans announced six weeks ago, the McLean, Virginia-based company will now require workers to be fully vaccinated before they come back to the office, CEO Richard Fairbank told employees Wednesday in a memo. All contractors, vendors and other visitors at Capital One campuses and offices will also have to be fully vaccinated, Fairbank said.

Employees who are unvaccinated will be allowed to continue working remotely through at least the first quarter of 2022, Fairbank said. But, he added, the company has not made a decision about its long-term policy on vaccination requirements, and it is possible that vaccines will be required for everyone, excluding those with medical and religious objections.

Capital One is also pushing back its office reopening date from Sept. 7 to Nov. 2, according to the memo. The $425 billion-asset company still expects to operate a hybrid work environment in which offices will be fully open Tuesdays, Wednesdays and Thursdays, while Mondays and Fridays will be remote work days, Fairbank said.

Capital One’s pivot shows how quickly the pandemic is changing plans set only weeks ago. Driven by the surge in COVID-19 cases stemming from the highly contagious delta variant, some of the nation's largest companies, including Microsoft, Google and Tyson Foods, have set vaccine requirements for employees in hopes of curtailing both infections and business disruptions.

“From the beginning of this pandemic, Capital One has prioritized the health and safety of our associates and our communities. It’s why we moved early and quickly to remote work. And it’s why we have been careful and cautious about reopening,” Fairbank wrote in the memo. “Unfortunately, we have watched the delta variant tear a hole through the steady course of improvement in COVID-19 outcomes that we had been experiencing.”

The vaccine mandate at Capital One comes one day after Citigroup said it will require vaccinations for all employees working at the company’s New York City headquarters, as well as at offices in Chicago, Boston, Philadelphia and Washington, D.C. Employees in those five locations are expected to work in the office at least two days a week.

In a LinkedIn post, Citi Head of Human Resources Sara Wechter said the new vaccination policy, which goes into effect on Sept. 13, is an effort to “ensure a safe workplace” in light of “the increased number of employees returning to these buildings and the delta variant in the U.S.”

Citi workers in other markets are not required to return to the office at this time, Wechter said.

Other big banks are encouraging employees to get vaccinated, but they have not publicly announced mandates to date. JPMorgan Chase last week reinstated mask-wearing rules for vaccinated employees after previously saying that such rules would only apply to unvaccinated workers.

At Bank of America, the majority of vaccinated employees are being brought back to the office after Labor Day, but there are no current plans for unvaccinated workers to return.

Wells Fargo’s plan to return workers to offices is being delayed from September to October as a result of the rising number of COVID-19 cases. Wells has said that employees do not have to be vaccinated against COVID-19 to return to the office, but they also cannot use their unvaccinated status to keep working at home.

At Capital One, vaccinated employees will be encouraged to come back to the office, but will not be required to do so, at least during the company’s initial reopening phase, Fairbank said.

He expressed disappointment over having to readjust the company’s strategy once again.

“All of us have missed our friends and colleagues and my hope was that all of us could experience a fall reopening together. I had been encouraged by high vaccination rates among our associates and hoped that, combined with on-site protocols, we could ensure a safe September reopening without a vaccine requirement,” Fairbank wrote. “However, the highly-contagious delta variant has put a damper on our aspirations.”