If you have hearing loss, you know it isn't straightforward to communicate with another person. They might not understand how difficult it is for you to follow conversations when there is a lot of background noise. The American Association for Speech and Hearing (ASHA) recognizes that. For over 75 years, they have marked the month of May as Better Hearing and Speech Month, a time to raise awareness about communication disorders, minimize stigma, and promote understanding and support. This year, they are focusing on the theme Communication at Work.
The effect of hearing loss in the workplace
Hearing is vital to successful communication within the workplace. Most jobs require communication skills in communicating with the general public and with colleagues. The wrong discussion could also be critical to occupational safety. The ability to listen and hear well helps workers to understand job instructions, increase productivity, and maximize teamwork effectiveness. Misunderstandings can lead to organizational errors, missed deadlines, and dissatisfied customers.
According to the Better Hearing Institute study, people with chronic hearing loss can see their average income decrease. The damage to the over 34 million impacted Americans is estimated at $176 billion.
What you can do to enhance communication
Under the best of situations, it can be challenging to apply for a job, find a job, and keep a job. If you're a college student finding a role for the first time, trying to change careers, returning to the workforce after an absence, or being concerned about holding a job, you may find job issues more difficult if you have a hearing loss.
The best way to respond is to have the right tools and knowledge of what works for you when it comes to facilitating communication between you and your co-workers.
Let others know about your hearing loss.
Advocating for your hearing loss starts with letting others know of your issues, and what can be best done to facilitate communication.
Get a hearing aid:
Hearing aid technology has come a long way in the past decade. Digital processing systems ensure that sounds are picked up, processed, and synchronized at incredibly fast speeds. At the same time, wireless technology lets you stream sounds directly to your hearing aids from your phone or other electronic devices, often using Bluetooth technology.
Identify the most challenging hearing settings:
Predict and try to minimize common hearing issues. Do you spend more time in meetings or on the phone? Do you have a lot of remote video calls? What would you do to relieve the burden in each of these situations?
Engineer the right environment:
Make sure the lighting and seating arrangements are optimal. Lighting and minimal background noise are also crucial. Location-wise, it's best to be seated as far as possible from the office copy machine, kitchen, or other noisy locations.
How can your employer help?
Providing an inclusive work environment ensures high levels of connectivity, energy, efficiency, and productivity, which is good for both the employees and the company.
Here's what employers can do to help:
Help create the right workplace:
Employees should work with you to provide a welcoming environment, which means providing quieter workstations to eliminate unnecessary noise from the office.
The right technology:
Whether an employee acquires hearing aids or not, modifications may be required to ensure successful workplace communication. One type of equipment that could help an employee with hearing loss as part of the accommodation is an assistive listening device such as an FM system, an induction loop system, or an infrared system. Such types of devices support listening by allowing you to hear a speaker's voice through their microphone directly into your ears. This can be very useful for work conferences or keynote speeches.
What can your co-workers do?
If you have hearing loss, you can help improve communication and provide practical techniques for your colleagues to use when working with you.
Ask them to talk clearly:
Often, people seek to communicate with individuals with hearing loss by speaking louder and slower, but this isn't always effective.
Ask them to show their face:
If you use lip-reading to fill in gaps during a conversation, seeing your co-worker’s face makes it easier to understand them.
Ask them to relay critical information:
It's helpful to get your co-workers to recollect essential points at the end of a meeting or phone call, or even better, write a summary email.
