I just spoke with the HR director at the Hyatt in South Africa and they started an HIV testing campaign in their workplace this month! She was happy to coordinate with me to make sure the information is being reported correctly, etc.
In addition to working on testing kids in schools, I am working on the workplace testing aspect of the overall campaign. The goal is to test 2 million workers in their workplaces by June and it's probably the part of the overall plan that is furthest behind.
Here's some info about why businesses should test (beyond it being the right thing to do) and why it's so important to the overall campaign.
For anyone doing business in South Africa, 10 – 40 percent of the workforce is likely to be infected with HIV. Mining, metals processing, agribusiness and transport sectors are most affected by the pandemic, with more than 23 percent of employees infected with HIV/AIDS.
Companies are directly affected by lower productivity, greater absenteeism, vacant posts, the need to retrain and rehire workers, reduced productivity due to staff inexperience or illness, loss of morale among employees, poor labour relations, less reliable supply chains and distribution channels.
On a general level, HIV/AIDS is affecting business by causing markets to contract or prohibiting them from growing. HIV increases poverty which lessens the demand for goods and services. Additionally, a high number of students drop out of universities because of their own infection or to care for an infected family member. This has a negative impact on buidling an educated workforce in South Africa.
Businesses are in a unique position to tackle this crisis because business has direct access to those most affected.
If a company is willing to test, we hook them up with an NGO to do the testing, the pre and post test counseling and referrals to health facilities so that workers who test positive can get the appropriate follow up treatments.
Good for the Hyatt and nice to end a Friday with good news.
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