owner-managed companies not concerned by AIDS
While the main concern is loss of productivity, many business owner do not link it with HIV/AIDS threat.
This is the finding of a study by the South African Journal of Economics that was commissioned by the Joint Economic Aids and Poverty Programme (Jeapp).
The study results reveal that 62% of the 80 owner-managed businesses surveyed have never even considered HIV/Aids as a business issue, with business owners ranking Aids as ninth among a list of 10 concerns such as crime and the cost of labour.
The top concern among business owners, was the productivity of their workers.
Harlan Cloete, director of Siyakhana Training Consultants, says though securing more clients is their number one priority one can never really rule out Aids as a threat to one’s business.
He says since he has learnt that the spouse of one of his employees became HIV positive he has started to actively promote HIV/Aids awareness in the workplace.
But because we are a very small company we do not have the time or money to implement the HIV/Aids awareness programmes and policies that bigger companies have in place,” explains Cloete.
But Tim Quinlan, research director at the Health Economics and HIV/Aids Research Division (Heard) at the University of Natal, says their experiences have proven that it is very hard to conduct research of this nature on owner-managed companies, because their HIV statistics are non-existent.
He says many business owners can’t afford to run an efficient human resources department. As a result, their human resource records are appaling and don’t necessarily reflect the number of people who resign because they are too sick to work, he says.
Some 5,4 million South Africans are living with HIV/Aids according to recent United Nations estimates, but the epidemic is having little or no effect on business owners.
This is the finding of a study by the South African Journal of Economics that was commissioned by the Joint Economic Aids and Poverty Programme (Jeapp).
The study results reveal that 62% of the 80 owner-managed businesses surveyed have never even considered HIV/Aids as a business issue, with business owners ranking Aids as ninth among a list of 10 concerns such as crime and the cost of labour.
The top concern among business owners, was the productivity of their workers.
Harlan Cloete, director of Siyakhana Training Consultants, says though securing more clients is their number one priority one can never really rule out Aids as a threat to one’s business.
He says since he has learnt that the spouse of one of his employees became HIV positive he has started to actively promote HIV/Aids awareness in the workplace.
But because we are a very small company we do not have the time or money to implement the HIV/Aids awareness programmes and policies that bigger companies have in place,” explains Cloete.
But Tim Quinlan, research director at the Health Economics and HIV/Aids Research Division (Heard) at the University of Natal, says their experiences have proven that it is very hard to conduct research of this nature on owner-managed companies, because their HIV statistics are non-existent.
He says many business owners can’t afford to run an efficient human resources department. As a result, their human resource records are appaling and don’t necessarily reflect the number of people who resign because they are too sick to work, he says.
posted by Dr Philippe Maslo at 13:46
0 Comments:
Post a Comment
<< Home