By Daniel Morgan-Williams, Founding Director, Visualise Training and Consultancy Ltd.
The workplace assessment has happened. The report has landed in your inbox. You are the line manager, you are not a sight loss or hearing loss specialist, and you have a team to run. What now?
This is the point where a lot of good work quietly stalls. Not because anyone is unwilling, but because nobody is quite sure who does what, the funding question gets in the way, or the report is read once and filed. Meanwhile the employee is still working without the support the report describes.
This guide is for managers who have been handed a visual impairment workplace assessment or hearing loss workplace assessment report and want to turn it into action. It is also useful for HR, occupational health and case managers who support those managers.
Read it once for the person, then once for the actions
A good report usually has two kinds of content. There is the picture of the person: how their sight or hearing affects the specific tasks in their role, and where the barriers are. Then there are the recommendations: equipment, software, changes to the environment, changes to how meetings and calls run, and advice for the team.
Read the first part properly. It is the context that makes the recommendations make sense, and it often explains things you may have noticed but misread, such as someone avoiding the phone, missing a wave across the office, or being exhausted by the afternoon. Then go through the recommendations as a to-do list rather than a document.
Talk it through with the employee before you do anything else
The report is not a set of instructions handed down to the employee. It is a starting point for a conversation with them. Acas guidance is clear that adjustments should be discussed and agreed with the person, and that employers should talk with them rather than make assumptions.
Book a short, private conversation. Ask which recommendations matter most to them day to day, whether anything in the report does not feel right, and what they would like colleagues to know, if anything. Some people are happy for the team to understand their sight or hearing loss. Others want very little shared. That is their choice, and most recommendations can be put in place without disclosing anything they want kept private.
If you are worried about saying the wrong thing, say so. “I want to get this right, so tell me if I get something wrong” goes a long way.
Give every recommendation an owner and a date
This is the single most useful thing a manager can do. Reports tend to stall when everyone assumes someone else is handling it. IT thinks HR is ordering the software. HR thinks the manager is. The manager thinks it is waiting for Access to Work.
Take each recommendation and put three things against it: who is responsible, when it should be done, and how it will be funded. A simple table is enough.
| Type of recommendation | Usual owner | Typical timescale |
|---|---|---|
| Changes to how work is done (meeting habits, sending documents in advance, seating, breaks) | Line manager | Straight away, usually at no cost |
| Settings and features in existing software (magnification, contrast, captions) | IT, with the employee | Days |
| Lighting, glare and layout changes | Facilities | Days to weeks |
| Specialist equipment and assistive software | Manager or HR, with Access to Work where it applies | Weeks, sometimes longer |
| Training for the person or awareness for the team | Manager or HR | Book once agreed |
| Communication support, such as interpreting or captioning | Manager or HR, often with Access to Work | Arrange for specific meetings as soon as possible |
Share the list with the employee so they know what is happening and when. Then put a date in the diary to check progress.
Do the free things this week
Most reports contain recommendations that cost nothing. Sending agendas and documents before meetings. One person speaking at a time. Turning on captions in video calls. Moving a desk away from a window or towards the front of the room. Saying your name when you start talking to someone with sight loss. Changing a font size or a colour scheme in software the organisation already owns.
None of these needs a budget or an application. Doing them straight away makes a practical difference and shows the employee that the report is being taken seriously.
Do not wait for Access to Work to start
Access to Work is a government grant that can help pay for things like specialist equipment, assistive software and support workers such as BSL interpreters. It is worth applying for where the employee is eligible, and the application is made by the employee.
Two points are often misunderstood. First, GOV.UK states that Access to Work will not pay for reasonable adjustments, which are the changes an employer must legally make. Second, applications can take time to be decided. So Access to Work sits alongside the employer’s own duty rather than replacing it, and waiting for a decision is not a reason to leave everything else on hold.
A sensible approach is to split the report into what can happen now, what the organisation will fund, and what is waiting for Access to Work. Keep the employee informed on the last group, and ask whether there is anything interim that would help in the meantime.
Watch for the common reasons reports stall
In practice, the same few things tend to hold reports up. The report is sent to someone who did not commission it and does not know what to do with it. Equipment is ordered but nobody sets it up or arranges training, so it sits in a box. A procurement or IT security process blocks software, and nobody tells the employee. The manager changes and the new one never sees the report. Or the employee does not want to make a fuss, so says nothing when things go quiet.
Each of these is avoidable with an owner, a date and a check-in. If something is blocked, tell the employee and say what is being done about it. Silence is usually read as nothing happening.
Review it, and keep a record
Adjustments are not a one-off. Acas advises that employees should talk with their manager regularly to review their adjustments and keep a record of what has been asked for and what has been put in place. That record helps everyone, especially if the employee changes role or the manager moves on.
Check in a few weeks after the main items are in place. Is the equipment being used? Has the training happened? Is anything not working as expected? Sight and hearing can change over time, and so can jobs, systems and offices. If something significant changes, a further assessment may be worth considering.
What this means for HR, occupational health and case managers
Commissioning the assessment is only half the job. The return on it depends on what happens in the weeks after the report arrives, and that usually rests with a line manager who has many other things to do. A short handover helps: who the report has gone to, who owns the actions, and when someone will check progress. Where a return to work assessment is part of a wider rehabilitation plan, building the report’s recommendations into the plan’s milestones keeps them from drifting.
It also helps to make sure managers know they can ask the assessor questions about the report. A recommendation that is unclear is much easier to resolve with a five-minute conversation than by guesswork.
Summary
A workplace assessment report only helps when it turns into action. Talk it through with the employee, give every recommendation an owner and a date, do the free things straight away, run Access to Work alongside rather than waiting for it, and check back regularly. None of this needs specialist knowledge. It needs someone to take charge of the list.
This article is general information, not legal advice. What is reasonable depends on the circumstances of each case.
If you or someone in your team has sight loss or hearing loss and would like expert, tailored support to stay productive and comfortable at work, visit our workplace assessments page to arrange a visual impairment or hearing loss workplace assessment.
Frequently asked questions
Who is responsible for putting a workplace assessment report into action?
The employer is responsible for reasonable adjustments, and in practice the line manager usually coordinates the actions with HR, IT and facilities. Giving each recommendation a named owner and a date is the most reliable way to make sure nothing is missed.
Do we have to wait for Access to Work before making changes?
No. Access to Work does not pay for reasonable adjustments, which remain the employer’s responsibility, and many recommendations cost little or nothing. It makes sense to start on those straight away while any Access to Work application is considered.
Can we share the report with the rest of the team?
Only with the employee’s agreement. Talk to them about what, if anything, they want colleagues to know. Most changes to how a team works can be introduced without sharing personal details.
What if we cannot put a recommendation in place?
Talk to the employee about why, and look at whether another adjustment would meet the same need. Acas notes that employers must still make other adjustments that are reasonable. Record what was considered and decided.
How often should adjustments be reviewed?
There is no fixed rule. A check-in a few weeks after the main items are in place, then regular reviews, for example in one-to-ones, works well. Review sooner if the person’s sight or hearing, their role or their workplace changes.
Related resources
- From First Conversation to Report: A Workplace Assessment Case Study for Line Managers
- Access to Work Delays: A Three-Step Plan for Managers
- Communicating with Deaf Employees and Employees with Hearing Loss