Member Service Highlight: Company Management Consultations

Virgin, Nike and Dell Work with GBC to Encourage Staff Engagement on HIV/AIDS

In collaboration with GBC, Virgin and Nike recently hosted educational meetings on HIV/AIDS for managers in New York and Amsterdam, respectively, while Dell is planning a similar consultation for its managers in Austin, Texas next month.

With the eventual objective of educating all employees on HIV/AIDS issues, both companies initiated this series of management consultations, with the goal of empowering their managers to lead future HIV/AIDS efforts throughout global business operations.

While GBC has coordinated these trainings in conjunction with each of the three member companies, a number of other leading member companies have stepped in to provide peer guidance and share their best practices experiences.

Such member-to-member sharing has enhanced the quality of the trainings, making them a more collaborative effort, as was seen at the October Nike training in Amsterdam. At that training, Dr. Henk Rijkborst of Heineken presented some of the highlights of his company's best practices in South Africa and discussed the cost-benefit of providing treatment for employees in its local operations.

Bernard Luten, of Unilever, discussed the importance of simple education and awareness programs among staff in low-prevalence but high-risk countries like Russia. Standard Chartered Bank's Vanessa Green also led a "de-stigmatizing activity," normally used by her company's HIV champions -- the participants all urged that Nike should find a way to replicate such a program.

As a result of its company management consultation, Nike is working with GBC in drafting minimum standards for the company in both high-burden and low-burden settings.