The Effect of Workplace HIV and Aids Programme Policy Awareness on Employee Benefit

This Article is largely informed by reflective experiences and insights gained during a field-based research project titled THE STATE OF WORKPLACE HIV AND AIDS PROGRAMMES IN ZIMBABWE: A CASE STUDY OF COMPANIES LISTED ON THE ZIMBABWE STOCK EXCHANGE. The PhD Thesis research project, undertaken in Zimbabwe between June 2012 and July 2014, explores the operational architecture and dynamics of workplace HIV and AIDS policy and wellness program interventions in Zimbabwe. The exploratory study is located and anchored in the context of Strategic Human Resource Management (HRM), employee wellness programming and Staff welfare as Business strategies. The study investigated workplace HIV and AIDS programming motivations, applications, enablers, constraints and prospects especially considering apparent Zimbabwe national realities like: the epidemic is threatening to decimate the productive age groups of the Zimbabwean population, the country has relatively high national prevalence and incidence rates and businesses have generally been struggling due to adversarial national economic conditions. Motivated by a desire to contribute to on-going policy and programming debates on how to sustain programming momentum and increase workplace HIV and AIDS interventions employee benefit in Zimbabwe, the Article fuses study findings with evaluative reflections on workplace HIV and AIDS policy and programming implementation dilemmas largely emanating from a non-performing national economy essentially characterized by rampant job looses (high unemployment rates) as a result of a distressed Companies align and adjust to turbulence in the business operational environment. It focuses is on some fundamental policy and programming issues mitigating against increasing employee beneficiation in workplace HIV and AIDS programming interventions especially considering that main NARP survival threats are numerous business closures induced by difficult operational conditions. The Article interrogates thematic focus issues around improving and enhancing the availability, affordability, accessibility, sustainability and relevance of workplace HIV and AIDS interventions to their intended benefactors, the Company workforce (employees) especially in the context of national economic turbulence, diminishing business commitment to social capital development, declining social programming investments, deteriorating social service provision mechanisms, failing traditional social security forms, deteriorating working conditions social services delivery amidst collapsing social security schemes. The ultimate purpose of the Article was realizing the following practice enhancement objectives: 1. To contribute towards the development of effective workplace HIV and AIDS policies 2. To share with senior corporate managers some policy-related insights gained from my study on workplace 3. To motivate business management leaders to develop comprehensive workplace policy frameworks 4. To sharpen business capacities for policy formulation, implementation, development and evaluation skills 5. To provoke critical assessment (evaluation) of the application of the concept and notion of employee welfare