Kevin Scott
Eskom health manager Carl Manser spends more than two of every three of his working days dealing with HIV/Aids. Producing and overseeing counselling services, developing education policies and training staff in ethics, human rights and government policy are all part of Manser’s daily routine.
Recent research suggests a fifth of the workforce is HIV-positive, and managing the workplace implications of this costs employers up to eight times their annual salary bill. South African businesses are starting to wake up to devastating premonitions about the future, says Manser, one of the first graduates of a new postgraduate diploma in HIV/Aids management.
Stellenbosch University’s department of industrial psychology, in partnership with the National School of Public Health at the Medical University of South Africa, offers the diploma, which is a world first. Launched last year, it registered 106 students more than 30 of whom were from abroad. So far 140 students have registered this year. A coursework master’s programme that builds on the diploma and is being offered this year for the first time already has 16 registrations.
Most South African companies have little planning in place, says course coordinator Professor Jan du Toit. “They think that if they have a code of good practice and a policy in place they are doing well. That is just where they are making a serious short-sighted decision.”
Du Toit says the programme targets experienced managers and provides them with a good knowledge of how the disease is spread, how it is transmitted and how it can be prevented from spreading. Also examined, says Du Toit, is community participation, strategic human resource management, legal matters concerning those living with Aids and affected by Aids, and research into the effects of HIV/Aids on organisational effectiveness and preventative measures that organisations can take.
“These should all be understood to be able to manage it,” he says. The diploma offers six modules: the problem of HIV/Aids; socio-cultural aspects of the pandemic; HIV/Aids policy development and advocacy; prevention and care for people living with the disease; strategic human resource management in the era of HIV/Aids; and researching, monitoring and assessing HIV/Aids programmes.
“HIV/Aids must be managed in the workplace and it must be seen as a strategic issue for the future of a company,” Du Toit argues.
Manser agrees: “In South Africa, on an operational level, we’re not formally speaking to each other. The course spurred on interaction. The new network of contacts I’ve built up is great. I can call someone from another big corporation and compare different approaches to the disease. The problem is that these networks are not formalised. And that’s what still needs to be done.”