While the business has been encouraging staff to get vaccinated, it has put its money where its mouth is by allowing employees to take as much time as they need during work hours to get the jab.

Employees are simply able to attend their appointments without having to book annual leave or use their sick leave and return to work when they are ready.

Nicholson Construction director Steve Allen said allowing staff to get vaccinated during work hours would make it easier for them to access appointments, but also support other businesses in the long-term.

"When we were allowed to be in the office, every Friday we supported a different local business by supplying lunch for all of our staff as a way of supporting business through this time," he said.

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"But we recognised that the best way we can support local businesses is by encouraging our staff to go and get vaccinated because the only way we're going to get through this pandemic is through vaccination.

"The quicker we can get that percentage up, the quicker we can come out into some sort of relative normality."

Mr Allen said with many staff working from home, they also had the flexibility to take the time they needed to recover from any after effects.

"The next day, if they have some sort of less than ideal reaction to the vaccination, then they're at home, they've got the flexibility to sort of flick on and off as they sort of see fit," he said.

HSEQ coordinator Bruce Gavin said he appreciated the support, especially as his role requires him to travel between sites.

"For me, just because I travel around to the sites and talk to a lot of the site-based guys, there's been a lot of positive feedback from the site-based guys and most of the guys are keen to get it. We're working through a bit of hesitancy with one or two others as well," he said.

From homegrown Ballarat companies such as Haymes Paint to multinationals that have made their home in the city, the business community is hoping increased vaccination rates will allow Victoria and Australia to get back to some kind of normality.

Ballarat-based Haymes Paint is actively encouraging their 360-strong employee base across the country to get vaccinated.

Director Matt Haymes said vaccination was key to getting back to normality, but it was not incentivising staff to get the jab.

"We're just really actively encouraging everyone to get vaccinated, to get the information that they need. We're very aware that we as a society and a community can't really get back to any normality until we have the majority of people vaccinated and we're certainly at this stage," he said.

"We're not providing any sort of formal advice or incentives or anything else, we're just encouraging people."

Mr Haymes said while other Victorian businesses, such as SPC in Shepparton, had made vaccinations mandatory, Haymes had not considered taking the same steps.

"I think we'll certainly wait and see. I know there are other businesses like SPC in Shepparton and certainly Qantas and other larger businesses that are making moves to make vaccination compulsory. We'll just play a straight bat for the time being, just with providing encouragement," he said.

"We'll offer maximum flexibility to our team to make sure that none of them would be sitting there watching clocks to say they can't get a vaccine. We would certainly be allowing everyone to go out and get it."

Mars Wrigley, one of the city's largest employers with a factory in Wendouree, is also encouraging vaccination among staff, but has no plans to make it mandatory.

"Since the start of the pandemic, we've had robust COVID-safe measures in place to ensure our associates and the communities we work in are protected and that our operations can continue with minimal disruption," a spokesperson said.

"We encourage associates to get vaccinated as soon as it is available to them to prevent the spread of COVID-19. At present, we do not plan to require vaccination for our associates."

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