How Will HIV/AIDS Affect Your Business?
Most people are aware that HIV/AIDS is a serious health problem in many parts of the world. They are less clear about how and where the epidemic is developing and what impact this will have upon their business operations. This site was developed by Constella Futures and the Global Business Council to help you identify areas of your business that are vulnerable to the direct impact of HIV/AIDS and offer advice on how to minimize these effects through the development of an effective company HIV/AIDS policy.

Implications for Economic Development
HIV/AIDS has enormous implications for world health and global economic development. UNAIDS estimates that at the start of 2001, 36 million people were living with HIV/AIDS. Until now, Africa has been the worst affected region in the world, but other regions are increasingly feeling its effects. In Asia, for example, over 6 million adults and children are now infected.

The Effects of HIV/AIDS on Business
HIV/AIDS will have an increasing impact on businesses. One of its first impacts is that it increases operational costs. As employees become sick the cost of providing health care rises. Death benefits increase, and recruiting and training costs grow as the company tries to replace lost personnel. At the same time, it reduces company income by lowering worker productivity and increasing absenteeism.

Uncontrolled, HIV/AIDS will also damage businesses in ways that are harder to quantify. One of the epidemic's most damaging features is its impact on morale. HIV/AIDS usually affects people who are young. Watching increasing numbers of colleagues die before their time is depressing and difficult. Often, workers are afraid of colleagues who are infected, not least because they fear they too might be affected by it. The result is an atmosphere of tension, suspicion, and recrimination within the workforce.

This loss in morale is not, however, inevitable. Even with an increasing number of infected and affected workers, proactive businesses have been able to discuss HIV/AIDS issues, reduce the stigma associated with infection, and ensure that workers remain productive.

AIM-B
AIM-B is an economic and demographic model designed to help companies analyze how HIV/AIDS is affecting their business and how it will affect them in the future. The model can help to develop estimates of prevalence of HIV and AIDS within a workforce, and project how it will develop over the next decades. It can also model how the costs of health care and benefits will be affected over the coming years.

The following interactive on-line questionnaire represents a small part of AIM-B and gives businesses an indication of the financial impact HIV/AIDS is now having on their business each year. A more comprehensive analysis of HIV/AIDS current and future impact is available from Constella Futures, which also advises businesses on how to analyze and manage the risks of HIV/AIDS, and to launch effective, sustainable prevention and care programs.

How To Use AIM-B
This model is designed to help human resource managers and medical personnel assess the effects of HIV/AIDS on particular sections of the workforce.

The model works by calculating averages within particular groups of employees. You may choose to input data for the entire workforce within a particular country. However, wage levels, benefits and recruitment costs often vary greatly between different sections of the workforce so you may prefer to calculate averages within particular sub-sections, such as managers, skilled workers, or unskilled workers.

You may find it necessary to repeat AIM-B several times for different groups of employees until you build up a complete picture of HIV/AIDS impact on your workforce.
How many of your employees may be infected with the HIV virus?
This section asks you to estimate how many people within a particular group of employees are likely to be infected with HIV. As we explained above, the group may be the entire workforce of a particular country, or sub-sections such as 'managers' or 'unskilled workers'.

You may have some indication of prevalence in your workforce from company records or local research. If not, the pull-down list gives the averages within particular countries. These averages are based on UNAIDS estimates from 1999 and apply to the general population aged 15 - 49. It is important to note that prevalence within particular workforces may differ from that found within the population as a whole. In many cases, for example, high-income, urban males have higher-than-average rates of infection with HIV. Thus, these estimates should be seen as a guide only.

You are then asked for the average annual salary of the workers in the chosen group.
How many workers are in the group you wish to analyse?
What is the average annual salary of this group?
Type of currency
What percentage of your workforce do you estimate is infected? Enter percent:
OR
If you can't estimate the prevalence of HIV at your business, please select the country in which your workforce is based.
Recruitment Costs
HIV/AIDS is an unusual chronic disease because its impact is greatest on young adults in the most productive years of their life. Most people who die of AIDS-related illness die in their late 20s and 30s.

As HIV+ workers become sick and die, the costs of finding and recruiting new staff will begin to escalate. This section asks you to think about how much it costs to recruit a new employee. Your estimate should include:
  • Costs of advertising for new staff
  • Agency fees (if appropriate)
  • Administration
  • Staff time spent selecting and interviewing candidates
  • 'Down-time', when the vacancy isn't filled
  • Administration to fill the post
What is the total cost of recruiting a new worker? 
Leave blank or enter numbers only (no spaces, commas, text, etc.)
Training Costs
Once recruited, how much does it cost to train new employees? Your estimate may include some or all of the following:
  • Fees to external trainers
  • Associated costs (travel, lodging, hire venue, etc.)
  • Lost output during training (note: include lost output for trainers/supervisors as well as trainees)
What is the total cost of training a new worker? 
Leave blank or enter numbers only (no spaces, commas, text, etc.)
Death Benefits

What is the total cost to the employer when an employee dies? Your estimate may include all or some of the following:

  • Death benefits payable to the deceased's family
  • Funeral costs
  • Transport to the funeral for workers and their families
  • Compassionate leave for co-workers
  • Transport of the body to the family home
Total cost payable? 
Leave blank or enter numbers only (no spaces, commas, text, etc.)
Health Care
A person who becomes infected with HIV can remain productive and healthy for many years. Some people have been living with the virus for as long as 20 years.

When a person develops AIDS, their immune system becomes compromised and they begin to fall sick from opportunistic infections (e.g., TB, herpes, etc.). The length of time a person will live after developing the symptoms of AIDS varies from case to case. However, on average, people live for one year if opportunistic infections go untreated.

What do you estimate is the current additional cost to the company of health care per individual HIV+ worker. You may know this from your existing records. If not, you could develop a broad estimate based on the costs of treating a package of two or three common opportunistic infections, such as TB.

If you do not have this information leave it blank, the model will still make other projections without this information.

Additional cost of health care per AIDS case? 
Leave blank or enter numbers only (no spaces, commas, text, etc.)