What is the one thing you can do to avoid HSE enforcement for noise at work?

The single most important thing you can do is focus on noise control. 

Controlling your employees’ exposure to noise is not about continually measuring noise levels nor is it about a total reliance on hearing protection. It is about looking for ways to improve your processes and procedures so that you avoid the noise in the first place, then purchasing and adapt equipment so that it as quiet as practicable. This probably sounds like an incredibly difficult thing to achieve but ask yourself some question. 

• When was the last time looked at the HSE website to see if there is any advice on how to reduce the noise from the processes or machines you use? 
• Do you ask your suppliers about the noise levels for the machinery or tools you are about to buy and are they quieter than the thing you are replacing?
• Have you ever looked at your processes and asked is there a quieter way of doing that?

These are easy questions to answer because they cost you nothing to ask and by answering them you are already moving towards demonstrating to the HSE that you are taking steps to control your noise risk. 

If you are looking to kick start your efforts on controlling noise then the HSE and the Institute of Acoustics will be running a joint event in September 2019 that is going to show you how to think about noise and help you see that it is not always about putting noise in the too difficult/expensive box. 

More details to follow:-