For General Motors SA (GMSA), with 3 400 employees diverse in age, gender, race, culture and educational qualifications, effective communication is at times a daunting task.
But in the company's Port Elizabeth operations it has managed to do more than just communicate. It is an example of international best practice in workplace HIV/Aids communication.
Its positive results are thanks to a strategic and comprehensive HIV/Aids programme plan that was implemented in June 2001.
It encompasses prevention, voluntary testing and counselling, and treatment, including antiretrovirals, as part of a comprehensive disease management programme administered by the company's medical aid scheme.
In 2002, a voluntary HIV-prevalence study was conducted across the Port Elizabeth operations. It found that the prevalence rate was relatively low at 5,7% and that the company's education programmes were being effective.
Some of the initiatives that GMSA has implemented to date include a one-day HIV/Aids awareness training programme for all employees; training 40 employees as peer educators to provide counselling in the workplace and surrounding communities; facilitating community-based counselling and discussion groups; and staging industrial theatre for employees and their families.
Toward the end of 2003, the company premiered the internationally acclaimed HIV/Aids documentary A Closer Walk to an SA audience. It will soon be screening it to all employees and as many community groups as possible.
"The film has proved to be successful in portraying the alarming reality of the disease and is an important tool for spreading awareness," says GMSA human resources director Jeffery McGuire.
Earlier this year, the company carried out a rapid test pilot project where staff members, including the group director, volunteered to be tested. After being counselled individually, they were able to take an HIV test through a finger-prick method, the results of which were made available in 10 minutes.
"The counselling aspect is imperative as it gives employees, irrespective of their status, hope for the future. Individuals who are HIV-positive are empowered to receive the proper treatment and care, and are therefore able to continue living a normal life. Those who are negative are able to embrace the process as the entry to prevention."
The positive response from the initial pilot group elicited an overwhelming response from the larger workforce, so much so that voluntary counselling and testing is now available to all GMSA employees based in Port Elizabeth during normal working hours.
At GMSA, internal communication aims to do more than just inform employees of events at the company. The idea is for employees to take ownership of the company's HIV/Aids programmes and to participate in the act of communication itself, says McGuire.
Initially, interest is generated by sending out announcements through the company intranet, and posters and notices put up in busy nodes inside the company.
Often competitions are run and prizes given to generate employee excitement about an event.
There is also a strong emphasis on ensuring that employees are active participants in communicating their own messages about the disease. This is done to ensure that there is greater horizontal and less top-down communication on HIV/Aids, says McGuire.
Awareness of the company's HIV/Aids programmes is raised by submitting press releases, featuring the relevant employees, to the local media. Many of these are published and copies of the newspapers in which they feature are given to employees to boost morale and to demonstrate that their efforts are being recognised.
Opening channels for dialogue across the organisation and within the community has also proved to be effective.
Several HIV/Aids peer educators have also been recognised as "GM heroes" and are interviewed in the company newsletter and have their photographs placed on a hall-of-fame board. This too is directed at ensuring that employees take ownership of the company's HIV/Aids activities so they will be sustainable.
