Winner — Investing in Life (Internal Workplace Policy): New Clicks
As HIV/Aids makes inroads into South Africa’s skills base, more companies are waking up to the idea of investing in employees through an innovative and comprehensive workplace programme. The New Clicks Group launched its Employee Wellness Programme (EWP) in September last year, after years of fine- tuning the programmme.
The plan includes an extensive HIV/Aids disease management programme, the result of the evaluation of previous initiatives, and also looks at other companies’ practices and international research findings.
In an HIV/Aids employee impact assessment done by Metropolitan Life, preliminary research indicated the need for a more holistic approach to HIV/Aids management.
One of the key findings from the research was that the disease effects broader social patterns which affect family members — such as substance abuse, domestic violence, sexually transmitted diseases and tuberculosis. The company also realised that leadership buy-in was vital and that communicating behaviour change was a key ingredient for the programme’s success. As a result, a team comprising MDs, senior executives and HR directors drew up the group’s HIV/Aids policy.
Members who don’t have medical aid have access to free, anonymous testing, antiretroviral treatment and preventative treatment. In addition to counselling and support, the programme also offers five free vists to doctors for HIV-related problems, blood tests and multi-vitamins. The counselling and advisory service extends to all staff, including family members, thus also focusing on financial, health, personal and work-related issues.
This innovative service extends to cross-border employees in Namibia, Botswana, Swaziland and Lesotho. The company has tried to involve its supply chain in the project, but has been unsuccessful so far.
After an actuarial study the group executive approved a R3,5-million budget to kick start the programme, based on the view that “it is cheaper to treat than not to treat”.
A distinction is made between manager and staff education. Manager education focuses on people in crisis, while staff education uses audio-visual material to encourage change in behaviour by illustrating risky behaviour and demystifying myths.
Each month health issues directly or indirectly linked to HIV are highlighted. March is Lung Awareness Month and December HIV Awareness Month. Qualsa Healthcare provides a monthly report on the number of employees who have gone through various stages of the programme, such as enrolment, post-exposure prophylaxis, prevention of mother-to-child transmission and voluntary counselling and testing.
A quarterly report details demographic information on the use of services, breaking them down in terms of business units, regions and age groups.
Daniela Rudner, the employee wellness manager, says the HIV programme, particularly voluntary counselling and testing, got off to a slow start, with one staff member initially joining for a month.
The company has between 500 and 600 managers and hopes to have trained at least 10% of these by the end of the year.
“Another reason for the slow uptake could be that, to date, we have had only face-to-face sessions introducing our EWP to all management staff, but not with all our employees yet,” said Rudner in an interview with Aids Analysis Africa Online. “We believe that once employees have had the opportunity to get first-hand information on the type of support the company offers — and believe that it is safe and confidential to enrol — the uptake should escalate.”
The company’s efforts have certainly endeared it to staff. New Clicks Holdings was in the top 10 this year in the large company cate-gory for the Deloitte Best Company to Work For survey. It came in at 93 the previous year. The survey involved 700 group employees, all randomly selected.
The company manages all employees incapacitated by HIV, as well as other diseases. Where possible the role and responsibilities of the employee are adjusted to accommodate continued employment.
Other than HIV/Aids, New Clicks’s wellness policy is broad in its scope, covering issues such as environmental health and safety, leave and attendance, smoking, disciplinary procedures, staff loan policy and unfair discrimination.