Employers’ views of the “Healthy Hub Roadshow”: a workplace HIV testing intervention in England

Abstract

We explored employer uptake and perceptions of workplace human immunodeficiency virus (HIV) testing delivered to employees as part of Healthy Hub Roadshow, a multi-component general health check. Intervention included health checks with tailored advice delivered to 776 employees at 20 events hosted by 11 different workplaces (29 approached, 38% employer uptake). Delivery partners were third sector organisations with significant expertise in HIV testing and support. Health checks included optional HIV test (using 4th generation Insti finger prick rapid tests), Body Mass Index (BMI), blood glucose, blood pressure, and cholesterol. Mixed-methods evaluation included post-event online survey and qualitative interviews with participating employers. Declining employers were invited to complete an online feedback survey. Workplace HIV testing was positively received by all participating organisations, although 78% (14/18) of declining organisations did not provide their reasons for non-participation. Factors of importance to employers included the perceived trustworthiness of delivery partners, being able to provide engaging opportunities for employee health, offering HIV testing as part of a wider health check, and having visible top-level managerial support. Concerns about hosting the events were rare and related to having limited budgets for future events, and the potential loss of productivity related to attendance during work time. Employers indicated that they would not actively seek out workplace HIV testing as part of health promotion efforts, but they were highly receptive to its inclusion in workplace health and wellbeing provision by credible external delivery partners. In conclusion, workplaces are an untapped arena for HIV awareness raising and testing in the UK. Employers should be encouraged and supported to offer opt-in HIV testing as part of a wider workplace health and wellbeing provision for employees.

Test@Work Texts: Mobile Phone Messaging to Increase Awareness of HIV and HIV Testing in UK Construction Employees During the COVID-19 Pandemic

“…The general health topics aligned with those included in a previously developed toolkit for employers on workplace health promotion and HIV testing [26]. The decision to promote HIV awareness and testing alongside other aspects of health was based on prior participatory research showing that participants prefer this approach since it helps to normalise HIV and test ing [48] due to perceived stigma around HIV that persists both in society and the construction industry [38,53,54]. Nineteen of the messages contained web links to evidence-based resources related to the message content since information coming from credible sources can promote positive behaviour change [55].…”

“…The distribution of messages across weeks can be found in Supplementary File 1. Participants in the focus group showed no preference for message frequency or delivery times and so the distribution pattern was informed by a previous study [48] and discussion with two construction workers who were not participants in the study. Text s were sent during between March and June 2020 in two separate groups, each group started their 10 -week period on a different date according to when they were recruited at a workplace health event.…”

“…They invited participants to indicate whether they had undertaken a HIV test since the workplace health check event (Q1: yes/no), whether they found the text messages useful (Q2: yes/no), whether they learned anything new from the messages (Q3: yes/no), and whether they would make any changes or take actions to look after their health as a result of the messages (Q4: free text replies). These items were successfully used for data collection in a previous text messaging health promotion intervention delivered to via the workplace setting [48]. For Q4, replies were assigned a value by the project team on whether the response was positive or negative in tone.…”

“…Despite workplaces being a useful platform for health promotion, employers do not tend to include health testing in their health promotion offers, and when they do, this rarely, if ever, includes sexual health or HIV testing and awareness [45,46]. Only a small number of UK studies have reported on text messaging interventions aimed at raising awareness of HIV and increasing uptake of HIV testing (migrant African communities: Evans et al [47]) and only one of these was delivered through the workplace setting [48].…”

WHIRL Study: Workplace Health Interprofessional Learning in the Construction Industry

“…Although large organisations are more likely to participate in workplace health promotion initiatives due to scale, space and resources, there is an ongoing need to encourage the engagement of small businesses in workforce health initiatives more broadly [ 34 ]. Specifically, general health checks in the workplace have shown to be well-received when delivered [ 35 , 36 ], although they are rarely included in corporate health and wellness programmes in UK organisations of any size [ 37 ].…”