This page is for anyone with responsibility for recruiting or employing other people, small businesses, large corporations and chief executives, board members and senior managers of public bodies.

As a responsible employer, you want to recruit and retain an effective, high-quality workforce, and provide a fair, professional and supportive environment for staff. You also want to ensure that you are not breaking the law.

We've produced a range of resources to help you do just that.

Since 2005, people living with HIV have been legally protected from discrimination in the workplace and during recruitment. As well as understanding the legal issues, it's important to appreciate that most people living with HIV can lead perfectly normal working lives, are entitled to privacy and do not present a risk to people around them.

If you're not sure about the facts then find out more about HIV here.

HIV and recruitment
Recruitment is a crucial step into work and often people living with HIV can face discrimination during the recruitment process - sometimes even when none is intended.

NAT have developed a guide for employers and job applicants living with HIV.  This guide helps ensure that the recruitment process treats people fairly and is free from discrimination. For employers, there is advice on how to ask questions about topics such as disability and gaps in employment.

The new Equality Act prohibits the use of pre-employment health questionnaires before the offer of a job has been made.  We will be updating our employment resources to reflect this change in advance of implementation of the new Act in October 2010.  Until that time our advice in ‘HIV and Recruitment’ remains current.

You can read our HIV and Recruitment Advice for Employers here.

Small businesses
Feedback from people living with HIV indicates that discrimination often occurs in small businesses. To help small businesses avoid unintentionally discriminating against people living with long-term conditions, such as HIV and cancer, we have produced You Can't Always Tell- A Guide to 'Unseen' Disabilities for Small Businesses.

This resource provides clear, practical advice to help small business owners ensure that they are providing a fair and equal working environment for employees who may be living with one of these conditions and that they are not breaking the law.

You can read our Guide to Unseen Disabilities for Small Businesses here.

HIV at work

NAT have recently commissioned an extensive piece of research looking at the employment experiences of people living with HIV. The overall picture presented by the study is a positive one: people living with HIV who took part in the research were generally satisfied with their working lives and able to play an important part in the UK workforce, often with no or minimal additional support from their employers. Over half (58%) felt that HIV had no impact on their working life, and where people do need to make adjustments these are simple and inexpensive to accommodate.

And yet, important areas for improvement remain. Disclosing your HIV status at work remains difficult and discrimination still goes on (20% of people who had disclosed had experienced some form of discrimination). The summary report Working with HIV provides a useful insight of the experiences of people living with HIV at work and contains a number of recommendations for employers.

Other helpful resources - including information on Disability Equality Schemes for public bodies
HIV and Recruitment Resources - Further sources of information, advice and resources on HIV and Recruitment.

HIV at Work - A resource pack which helps employers to understand HIV-related stigma and discrimination and develop strategies to challenge it.

HIV and Your Disability Equality Scheme - A practical guide for Chief Executives, Board Members and Senior Managers of public bodies who are developing or reviewing their Disability Equality Scheme. The guide offers practical advice on addressing HIV-related equality and discrimination issues within Disability Equality Schemes. The guide is also available in large print.

HIV and Your Disability Equality Scheme in Scotland - A practical guide for Chief Executives, Board Members and Senior Managers of public bodies in Scotland, developed in partnership with HIV Scotland.

HIV a'ch Cynllun Cydraddoldeb Anabledd - A Welsh language version of the guide HIV and Your Disability Equality Scheme.

Getting the message across: Working with the advertising agency Saatchi and Saatchi, we have developed a series of award-winning video and audio resources to raise awareness about HIV-related stigma and discrimination in the workplace and to challenge current attitudes. These are a useful resource for training or to stimulate discussion.

Invisible man   Rave Reviews   Whisper

If you are living with HIV then you can find information about recruitment and employment here.