The mandate means private businesses with more than 100 workers have until January 4 to require staff to get the vaccination or submit to weekly COVID-19 tests and regularly wear a mask. But a court ruling last month that froze the mandate and has led to greater confusion over what is required has left chief human resources officers wondering how they should proceed.

“We’ve been very fortunate and just about 90% of our company is vaccinated at this time,” said Marcus Bryant, chief people officer at FareStart. “But we also know that some of our sister companies may not be as fortunate. If all of their people decline, that’s tons of intellectual knowledge walking out the door. If they don’t want to get a [COVID-19] test and they don’t want to get a vaccine, they no longer work at that company.”

Bryant’s Seattle-based organization focuses on providing skills training and other assistance to people struggling with poverty and homelessness.

In a recent ruling on November 29, a federal judge in Missouri ordered a partial blocking of the vaccine mandate for some health care workers, CNN reports. That order applied to 10 states that challenged the mandate. Prior to that ruling, an appeals court on November 12 upheld a court ruling from the prior week that placed a pause on the mandate.