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.

Working with HIV

NAT 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. 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 at work and contains recommendations for employers.

HIV and Recruitment: Advice for Employers

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.

The Equality Act, which came into effect in October 2010, prohibits the use of pre-employment health questionnaires before the offer of a job has been made. NAT have developed a new guide for employers and job applicants living with HIV to help ensure that the recruitment process treats people fairly and is free from discrimination.  You can read our resource, HIV + Recruitment: Advice for Employers here.

HIV and Work: Advice for Employers

People living with HIV are also protected against discrimination while in employment.  The Equality Act builds upon the existing protections that were in place under the Disability Discrimination Act, including new provisions against harassment.

Our new resource, HIV@ Work: Advice for Employers, explains how avoid unlawful discrimination and provide support for staff living with HIV.

Our fact sheet 'Sick leave and disability leave' provides further information on disability leave, a reasonable adjustment that employers may want to put in place to support their staff living with HIV in the workplace.

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.

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.