As half of well as the huge cost to human life, HIV is a serious economic problem too. Nearly 11,000 business leaders surveyed in 117 countries believe it will have an increasingly adverse affect on them, according to a recent report by the global thinktank, the World Economic Forum (WEF). The WEF has urged companies to convert this concern into schemes that manage the impact of the disease on their operations.
Standard Chartered Bank (SCB) is one of those companies adopting a pro-active approach to challenging the perceptions of both staff and clients to HIV and changing staff behaviour that may lead to contracting HIV. SCB has operations in regions that are particularly affected by HIV, including Africa, India and Thailand. Since 1999, the banking giant has had a history of tackling HIV in the workplace. In Kenya, for example, it estimated that 10 per cent of its workforce were off work at any one time due to Aids, either because they were attending a funeral, caring for a sick family member or ill themselves.
The bank responded by launching a peer education programme called “Staying Alive” across Africa. In 2003, a revised programme, “Living with HIV”, was rolled out to all 28,000 SCB employees by staff (“champions”), who conducted HIV/Aids awareness sessions.
In November 2004, 30 champions from India, South Africa, China, Hong Kong, Thailand and Malaysia participated in a coaching programme called “Leading The Way”, run by mindset and behavioural change firm Performance Unlimited.
The programme was run in Mumbai, India, and was split into two modules, which took place in November 2004 and February 2005. Participants learnt how to challenge perceptions of HIV among their work colleagues and externally among clients and suppliers, explains David Ross, founder of Performance Unlimited, who created the course.
“The purpose of the course was to take the champions’ capabilities to a different dimension in terms of how they could influence change in the context of HIV.”
The idea to create the coaching programme arose after a discussion with the chief executive for SCB’s Africa business, reveals Ross. “I was shocked by the extent to which HIV was becoming prevalent in places such as India and China,” he explains. “I told the chief executive that as a business coach I could help people change their behaviours and train them to be coaches.”
The coaching programme uses neuro-linguistic programming (NLP) to teach the participants coaching theory and to generate behavioural change at an unconscious level in a one-to-one coaching environment. Participants also learn how to influence change in groups or cultures. “For example, somebody might doubt their ability to influence senior people outside of the business. As a champion they have a belief that they are not good enough. That is a major roadblock when it comes to influencing people and I use a six-step process to reframe and rationalise their memories,” explains Ross.
The six-step coaching process teaches the participants to identify the behaviours that are hindering their development and equips them with skills to influence individuals to change their behaviours around HIV at an unconscious level.
Alongside Ross were two experts in HIV, one of whom has been living with HIV for the past 22 years. These experts provided information on the medical treatments available for HIV and gave the champions an insight into what it was like to live with HIV.
Bhanumati Cousik is a service manager – south, cards and banking, for SCB based in Chennai and one of the participants in the coaching programme. “The programme aimed at taking us to the next level – both in terms of understanding the pandemic and in sharpening our skills to be a success in achieving the desired outcome, which was to convince people to live a healthy lifestyle and to treat this disease like any other,” she explains.
As a result of her participation in the programme, Cousik recruited approximately 25 champions across India to take up a community role in their respective cities. The techniques learnt during the coaching programme also helped to sharpen Cousik’s presentation skills when giving HIV/Aids awareness sessions. “It helped me present my objectives with greater clarity to any kind of audience, get their complete attention and co-operation on what we had to say, manage objections with aplomb and accept varying points of view, thus encouraging healthy discussion on the subject,” she reflects.
Cousik was able to apply her coaching skills to one-on-one sessions with her staff to help them stay focused on their end objective. “There have been instances where certain failures in a member of staff’s personal life would limit their performance at work. The techniques learnt during the session helped me get them back in action – and give a better output.”
HIV/Aids: Global Factfile
- Estimated number of people living with HIV: 40.3 million
- People newly infected with HIV in 2005: 4.9 million
- Number of Aids deaths in 2005: 3.1 million
- Deaths since first Aids cases were identified in 1981: more than 25 million
Source: UNAids/WHO Aids Epidemic Update 2005. Figures estimated for 2005
The number of people living with HIV in the UK is now around 58,300, including those who have been diagnosed, and an estimated 19,700 who remain unaware that they are infected.
Source: Health Protection Agency, November 2005