Usually, before an employer takes on new staff, they put certain things into perspective. These things don’t just hinge on how much the person would earn annually, but also whether or not the prospective employee has the kind of health status required to successfully discharge the responsibilities set for them.
Also, no employer wants to take on staff that is down with some transmittable diseases for the safety of other staff. For these reasons, employers usually have mandatory tests that must be completed by every new recruit before employment letters are handed out.
Here are two of the major health challenges that employers are wary of.
1. HIV
Although most companies say they are equal opportunity employers, as much as 95% of those that do pre-employment medicals will not employ a candidate with HIV. HIV means that the cost of insuring that employee with HMO will be high, the employee might have high rate of absenteeism, etc. Most companies save themselves these by rejecting such candidate.
2. HEPATITIS B & C
As much as 60% of companies will not employ prospective employee found to have hepatitis during medicals. The major reason is, cost of insuring such employee by HMO will be high. Some companies however do go ahead to employ the candidate unconditionally. Some employ the candidate but put condition that the health insurance benefit available to the employee will not cover hepatitis. In other words, they will not pay for hospital expenses relating to management of the employee’s hepatitis.
So those are the major issues that employers would have with a potential employee’s health. It’s sad, but that’s the reality of getting a job these days. It helps a great deal to get regular health checks and quick treatment if need be.