It is good to be aware of his functional listening problems. I take more care to work through issues one-to-one to make sure he is on board.

I try to always give a written briefing that is going to be tabled later so he can read it before it is discussed.

When you forget about it and take issues to him that he has not understood that reminds you – I have not worked that through with him.

If you are in a meeting and you do not get the support you expected (from him), you think hang on I have not worked this through with him. Before (I knew about functional listening problems) I would get frustrated and think - why has he not come on board with this?

(Workplace manager)

Recruitment and Retention

All workplaces want to select the right candidate for a position and then retain them for as long as possible. The process of interviewing a candidate for a position can be very stressful for people with hearing difficulties. Paying attention to the following areas may mean that you choose a very good employee who you may have overlooked or thought not suitable.

Be careful about 'first impressions' as people may present very differently when they are not confident

First impressions of people with hearing loss are very likely to be inaccurate. Until people with hearing loss are confident about what's going on and how things work, they're often reticent to actually say much, or show what they can do.

A plain language written job description and an informal two way interview and orientation process

Have a plain‑language job description and an informal two way interview and orientation process where applicants can ask about the work before the formal interview. Otherwise the applicant might be put off by some of the jargon in the job description.

One Aboriginal woman who was working in a disability area said when she first went for the job she looked at the job description and thought, 'I could never do that. Look at all the big words.'

When she found out what the job involved, she realised she had been doing it all her life, looking after her family members. The job was incredibly familiar but the language made her think it was something she couldn't do.

Give questions to be asked before the interview

It is good to give the interview questions before the interview so people can come prepared. The applicant will feel less anxious and worried about whether they're going to understand the question and be able to put their answers together quickly and coherently enough so that they will impress people.

Avoid telephone interviews

Avoid telephone interviews where possible. When it can't be avoided, pay close attention to the acoustics of that interview situation, otherwise people with a hearing loss will be greatly disadvantaged. They are already disadvantaged because they won't have the visual cues to help them understand what is said.

Video clip about hearing loss

Stephen Torres-Carne works in an agency providing mediation and legal services for Aboriginal people.

Having a 'meeting buddy' can really help a person with hearing loss to participate more fully in the meeting. In this video clip Stven explains how this works and the benefits that flow from this process.

Duration: 3.45 minutes
File size: 4MB

Click on the video camera icon and a new window will open to play the video. Requires Quicktime or Windows Media Player