Navigating hearing loss with your employees

Businesses use many strategies to support success in today’s competitive marketplace and age diversity is among them. This approach allows all generations of workers to share their knowledge and skills to support the company’s greater good. This rich talent pool includes older adults with many years of workforce experience who consistently make up a large portion of it. 

While aging employees comprise a large segment of today’s workforce, so does the 25 to 54 age group, which made up nearly 64 percent of the civilian labor force in 2023 according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics.¹ Despite age differences, what these groups have in common is the potential for hearing loss. Although the chance of hearing loss increases with age, people of all ages can experience some form of it, and many of them are in the workforce.² Some 12 percent of all workers have hearing difficulty and another 8 percent have tinnitus, which is strongly associated with hearing loss.^3,4 When left untreated, hearing loss can harm employee health and productivity.

These issues, especially health conditions, can be costly for employers, making it essential to offer employees hearing health benefits to support holistic health and prevent unexpected medical costs.

Sounding the alarm on age-related hearing loss
Given the number of older adults in the workforce, addressing age-related hearing loss is paramount for employers who want to take every step to support employee health and productivity and prevent potentially serious consequences.

 The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) states that untreated hearing loss can⁵:

• Hinder communication and make it difficult to maintain relationships with others.
• Cause concerns for personal safety and the safety of others.
• Untreated hearing loss is associated with anxiety, depression, cognitive decline, falls, and medical adverse events. All of these issues contribute to poor health outcomes.

“In cases of age-related hearing loss, both ears can be equally affected, and the loss can happen gradually, so people may not even realize that their ability to hear has declined, they may not know what they are missing or they are using extra effort to understand communication,” said Catherine V. Palmer, PhD, Director of Audiology for UPMC. “An employee who has diminished hearing but doesn’t know it can miss out on important parts of conversations related to safety, especially in a noisy area. They also may not be able to hear alerts or warnings in the workplace,” she added.

Meeting the hearing health needs of all employees is a must
It is also critical to remember that other forms of hearing loss can affect people at any age across industries and pose the same challenges as age-related hearing loss. For example, occupational hearing loss can be prevalent in work environments like factories where loud noise from machinery that can damage hearing may be commonplace. The National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health (NIOSH) reports that 22 million workers are exposed to hazardous noise yearly.⁶ Additionally, employees who regularly listen to sound at high volume also place their hearing in harm’s way. The CDC estimates that 17 percent of adults 20–69 years old (approximately 26 million) have suffered permanent hearing damage from excessive noise exposure.⁷

Reduce the risk of hearing loss
Palmer stressed that employers should add hearing health to their repertoire of protections. “It is incumbent upon employers to treat hearing health with the same gravity as any other form of health and safety protection in the workplace. If your work environment dictates processes, protective gear, or other measures to help keep employees safe, you wouldn’t second guess any of these needs. Hearing health protections in the workplace should be treated the same,” Palmer said.

Employers can take steps to help reduce loud noises in the workplace. While they may not always be possible, NIOSH recommends that employers and employees take these steps to reduce the risk of hearing loss at work⁸:

• Eliminate loud noises by removing sources, such as loud machinery.
• If you can’t completely remove the source, try substituting quieter equipment. You can also consider moving people away from loud noises or putting all loud equipment in one room. Setting time limits to reduce exposure to loud equipment is another method to help isolate employees from noise hazards.
• If employees can’t avoid dangerous noise levels, they should use personal protective equipment like earplugs or earmuffs to keep noise exposure below 85 decibels for periods longer than eight hours.

Knowing what every employee needs to be healthy and productive is paramount for employers who want to remain competitive. An aging workforce, occupational hazards, and lifestyle habits could impinge on healthy hearing habits. The right supports, including robust health insurance benefits, could help with this journey.

Other ways UPMC Health Plan can help
UPMC Health Plan partners with Amplifon Hearing Health Care to offer benefits to cover hearing aids and associated services for your employees. You can offer employees the option to take the Amplifon online hearing test to help them screen their hearing. If they have suspected hearing loss, the next step will be to schedule with an audiologist who can provide a comprehensive hearing evaluation and work with the employee to select the right hearing aid technology to address their hearing loss, listening needs, and lifestyle. Through the Amplifon benefit, the audiologist is able to select the hearing aid that is appropriate for the individual and Amplifon covers the needed audiological services to fit and program the hearing aids specifically for the individual along with needed follow up care.