By Daniel Morgan-Williams, Founding Director, Visualise Training and Consultancy Ltd.
A colleague who used to contribute in every meeting has gone quiet. They ask for emails to be sent again. They answer a slightly different question from the one that was asked. They avoid the phone and, by the end of the day, they look worn out. A manager sees someone who has lost interest, and starts to think about a conversation about performance.
Sometimes that is the right reading. But it is worth asking whether the person is struggling to hear. Hearing loss is often gradual, often unspoken and easy to mistake for something else. When it is the cause, treating it as a motivation problem fixes nothing and can do real damage.
Why hearing loss goes unspoken
RNID’s research, Hearing Loss at Work: Employer Insights, published in January 2023, drew on roundtables with 28 large companies and an online survey of 211 people who recruit, line manage or supervise staff. It reports that about one in eight working-age people have some hearing loss. Senior leaders in the study were concerned that formal disclosure rates are very low compared with the estimated numbers, which makes the scale of the issue hard to see. Barriers included how and when employers ask about hearing, fear that disclosure will be viewed negatively, and stigma attached to self-identifying. Only 32% of survey respondents said their organisation encourages open discussion about hearing loss.
An older survey by Action on Hearing Loss, the charity’s former name, Hidden Disadvantage, had 442 respondents in 2013, so it should be read with that date in mind. It found that those who had not told their employer mostly feared it would question their ability to do the job. Both studies point the same way: people hold back because they expect a poor reaction, and the employer is left looking at symptoms.
Managers are often unsure what to do
The same RNID study found that 27% of managers did not feel knowledgeable about hearing loss, and a third were not confident communicating with someone who has it. Only 18% had received specific training, and 30% did not know where to get advice. Senior leaders described managers as nervous about the conversation and the terminology. This is the context in which a performance concern arises: a manager who is unsure what to say, an employee who is unsure whether to speak, and a gap between them that gets filled with assumptions.
Patterns worth a conversation
None of these proves anything, and a manager should never try to diagnose. But a combination of them, especially where it is new, is worth a supportive conversation before anything formal: asking for things to be repeated, missing instructions or messages, answering a different question from the one asked, withdrawing from group conversations and noisy settings, avoiding the telephone, relying on email for everything, or seeming exhausted by the end of the day. Each has other possible explanations. The point is to ask, not to guess.
What the guidance expects
Acas guidance on performance problems says employers should try to understand why someone’s performance has dropped before taking any disciplinary action, and that where an employee is disabled, reasonable adjustments may resolve the issue. RNID explains that an employer must act where it knows, or could reasonably be expected to know, that an employee has a hearing condition. The Equality and Human Rights Commission’s Employment Code says an employer must do all it can reasonably be expected to do to find out whether a worker has a disability. If the signs are there and nobody has asked, an employer may find it hard to say it did not know.
How to ask without accusing
Have the conversation privately and informally. Describe what has been noticed in neutral terms, then ask an open question: has anything been making the work harder recently? Do not ask whether the person is going deaf. Make it clear that the aim is to find out what would help. If hearing comes up, thank them, ask what would help, and agree a next step. Medical details are not required, and whether colleagues are told anything is the employee’s choice.
What helps, and how to find out
RNID gives examples of what employers commonly consider: changing meeting room layouts and lighting to support lipreading, communication support or assistive technology, and moving someone to a quieter area. These are examples, not a checklist, and the right answer depends on the person and the role. Where the picture is unclear, an occupational health referral or a specialist workplace assessment can replace guesswork with a plan, looking at the person’s role, environment and equipment together and giving the employer practical recommendations to act on.
Some changes can start at once, such as agreeing how information will be shared in advance, changing where someone sits in meetings, or following up spoken instructions in writing. Others take longer, and interim arrangements show the person that something is being done while the full solution is arranged.
A simple check before going formal
Before a performance concern becomes a formal process, HR can ask four things. Has anyone asked the employee whether anything is making the work harder? Has hearing been considered, without assuming? Has occupational health or a specialist assessment been considered? And have any adjustments already recommended been put in place, with time to use them? If the honest answer to any of these is no, the formal route is probably premature.
This article is general information, not legal advice. Whether a particular adjustment is reasonable depends on the circumstances.
If you or someone in your team is deaf or has hearing loss and would like expert, tailored support to stay productive and comfortable at work, visit our hearing loss workplace assessment page to arrange a hearing loss workplace assessment.
Frequently asked questions
What are the signs of hearing loss at work?
Common patterns include asking for things to be repeated, missing instructions, withdrawing in meetings or noisy places, avoiding the phone and seeming very tired by the end of the day. None proves hearing loss, and all have other possible causes, so the right response is a supportive conversation, not a conclusion.
Should a manager ask an employee if they have hearing loss?
It is better to describe what has been noticed and ask whether anything is making work harder than to ask about a specific condition. That lets the employee explain in their own words.
Can an employer start a capability process if hearing loss may be involved?
Acas guidance is that employers should first try to understand the reasons for a drop in performance, and where an employee is disabled, reasonable adjustments must be considered. Taking advice from HR or a legal adviser on the circumstances of the case is sensible.
How can a workplace assessment help?
A hearing loss workplace assessment looks at the person’s actual role, environment and equipment and sets out practical adjustments, which gives the employee the right support and the employer a fair basis for reviewing performance.
Related resources
- Before You Start a Capability Process, Check the Adjustments: Sight Loss, Hearing Loss and Performance
- Communicating with Deaf Employees and Employees with Hearing Loss
- Accessible Meetings for Deaf Employees and Colleagues with Hearing Loss
Sources
- RNID, Hearing Loss at Work: Employer Insights (January 2023)
- Action on Hearing Loss, Hidden Disadvantage (survey conducted June 2013)
- Acas, Problems with an employee’s performance
- Equality and Human Rights Commission, Employment Statutory Code of Practice
- RNID, Supporting your staff who are deaf or have hearing loss
Photo by Cherrydeck on Unsplash.