Loss of Hearing in Staff Requires Them to Be Supported by the Organizations They Work for
Wednesday, January 4th, 2012
A charitable organization based out of the UK which deals with Hearing Loss has requested companies to assist their workers who have hearing problems to be able to continue working.
They have gone on to declare that there are certain patterns that displayed to the staff that the work culture is not really concerned about those with hearing loss and this degenerates further over a period of time.
The report that was put forward by Action on Hearing Loss was named ‘Unlimited Potential?’. It went on to throw light on how every third worker who was questioned stated that they had retired because concerns with their hearing. Every seventh person said that they had no other alternative then to go ahead and change their workplace as hearing loss affected it. In addition, 40% of the interviewees said that hearing loss had a great impact on their levels of confidence and most of them did not let their supervisors know of their disability in case of loss of hearing.
The survey was done by the charitable organization and it was a revelation about how workers were not privy to information about their legal rights and what could be termed as discrimination if they had a hearing disability. The Equality Act 2010 had a plan to ensure that organizations had a dedicated plan in front of them in order to help workers with the hearing loss continue to be able to work for them. In addition, there was the project called The Government’s Access to Work. AtW, which gave out financial aid to enable workers with such hearing loss to have the necessary tools to help them adjust and work better.
Chief Executive, Jackie Ballard for Action on Hearing Loss went on to say that as many as 3.7million workers of a working age group are suffering from hearing impairment. The type of work culture that they encounter goes a long way in deciding whether they will continue to work in the place or will move jobs. There should be clear policies in place for these kinds of workers.
Companies need to be sure that they are giving the correct instructions to employees with regard to health and safety issues. The IOSH Working Safely course, accredited by the Institution of Occupational Safety and Health, can assist companies in training staff to be aware of the proper health and safety procedures for all kinds of workplace situations.