In recent years, the number of new workplaces has been increasing, m.in hotline service – workplaces where there are serious, harmful and burdensome factors of the working environment, m.in noise. On the basis of the conducted research, it is concluded that noise at the helpline service stations (when operators use telephone headphones) may be a harmful factor (causing the risk of hearing damage) and a burdensome factor hindering the performance of work and causing non-listening adverse health changes.

The research indicated the need to take action to reduce noise at the hotline service stations and improve the acoustic climate of the rooms. For this purpose, the methods presented below have been developed, which can be divided into technical and organizational.

Technical methods cover the following issues: reduction of noise emission of sources, limitation of noise transmission (on roads of its transmission), reduction of reverberant noise through acoustic adaptation of rooms, reduction of external noise and noise from internal installations.

Organizational methods include such elements as the proper placement of workplaces, the use of breaks in work, the creation of oases of silence, the reduction of working time in noise (e.g. employee turnover), the separation of areas of positions for conversations of a higher degree of difficulty, proper preparation of the operator for work at hotline stations and for the use of verbal communication devices. As part of organizational activities, employees should undergo periodic medical examinations.

Technical methods

• Customer communication equipment should be able to adjust the level of listening to the caller’s voice at the lowest possible level, ensuring an understandable transmission of information.
• The sensitivity of the microphone should be adapted to the specifics of the hotline service, i.e. ensure the best quality of the information provided without the possibility of recording conversations in the background.
• The wiring should be periodically checked from a technical point of view to avoid accidental acoustic disturbances (e.g. crackling). In addition, for ergonomic reasons, it should also allow the employee to conduct conversations with the customer in a standing position.
• In the case of helpline stations located in office rooms of the „open space” type, the position of the room manager and the room for conducting confidential conversations should be located in the sound-insulating booth, or should be separated from the area of the room where the hotline stations are located.
• When purchasing computer equipment and equipment for helpline operators’ workstations, the information on noise emissions given in the technical documentation, certificate or declaration of the manufacturer and their compliance with the requirements of the standards should be taken into account and the equipment with the lowest noise emission level should be selected.
• The position of the hotline operator should meet the requirements for a workstation for working with a computer.
• Ensuring better acoustic comfort in the workplace space should be achieved by using partitions, screens, partition walls and upholstered panels, separating individual workstations. These elements should be made of insulating and sound-absorbing materials.
• In the room where the hotline service stations are located, an acoustic adaptation of the room surface should be made, aimed at reducing reverberation noise, resulting from reflections of sound waves from the partitions limiting the room. Adaptation can be achieved through the use of sound-absorbing materials and systems (e.g. ceiling damping, wall and floor covering, use of damping plates and acoustic screens). For administrative rooms and open space customer service offices, the recommended reverberation time should be 0.40.8 sec. It is recommended to place sound-absorbing systems on the ceiling in the first place. In large work rooms, more complex solutions may be necessary (e.g. wall-absorbing wall murals and floor coverings, panels made of materials with a high absorption coefficient).
• The rooms in which the hotline service stations are located should be protected against external noise penetrating into the room outside the building (by using external and internal partitions of the building with adequate sound insulation) and against noise from installations and devices constituting technical equipment of the building (m.in by vibro-insulation of these devices).

Organizational methods:

• Noisy workstations, associated with the individual characteristics of employees or loudly working equipment, should be separated from others or be located in a separate room.
• Positions where the employee’s activities require conversations, with a relatively high degree of difficulty (e.g. in a situation where the employee has to provide the interlocutor with an answer requiring logical and quick thinking, efficient search for the required information in the database or obtaining information from another department) should be placed in separate areas of the hotline rooms.
• Employees should take advantage of breaks in work and rest, e.g. in separate rooms with a larger space than the average position, with adequate sound insulation and acoustic adaptation.
• Workers should periodically receive training in health and safety (taking into account the requirements for helpline and computer workstations) and on the risks associated with exposure to noise and other onerous factors of the working environment.
• Workers should be informed of the results of noise measurements.
• Employees should undergo initial and periodic medical examinations and be able to perform audiometric examinations.

Source:https://www.ciop.pl/CIOPPortalWAR/appmanager/ciop/pl?_nfpb=true&_pageLabel=P30001831335539182278&html_
tresc_root_id=300001826&html_tresc_id=300001828&html_klucz=19558&html_klucz_spis=

Projekt otrzymał dofinansowanie z Norwegii poprzez Fundusze Norweskie 2014-2021, w ramach programu „Dialog społeczny – godna praca”.