Don't lose your voice in the workplace
Over recent years much has been made of musculoskeletal disorders or MSDs and the impact they have on the workplace. The latest figures from the Health and Safety Executive (HSE) cite 439,000 work related cases of MSD in the UK alone. Yet is there enough positive practice being implemented to ensure suffers can remain in work and better yet achieve their full potential?
Philippa Bevan, an MD of her own company, knows only too well the realities of suffering from MSDs and the impact it has had on her health and career. Yet despite the challenges she faces on a daily basis, she is adamant that she will not lose her voice in the work place and argues that with the right assistive technologies in place, the impact to thousands of office based workers like her could be dramatically reduced.
Philippa Bevan's Story: "I've been working as a marketer, in various guises for over 20 years, and in that time I've probably notched up on average around 10,000 words a week. Then 7 years ago I developed carpal tunnel syndrome, a condition caused by the compression of the nerve that controls movement to the hands, arguably brought on by me pummelling my keyboard day after day. First of all it brought about numbness to the hands and fingers, which evolved into severe pain, made worse during and following my pregnancy with my daughter. The condition quickly inhibited me typing for long periods of time, something I was reliant on in my day to day job, but it also affected me doing the simplest of things like writing, holding the phone, getting dressed or even feeding my daughter.
So in 2010, I undertook the carpal tunnel release procedure on both hands, an operation which involves removing the pressure on the medial nerve. It was successful but following a brief period of normality, my body appeared to have other ideas and I developed symptoms of ulnar nerve damage, the nerve that runs through your elbow, resulting in numbness in some of my fingers and pain in the elbow. This was a major blow and has left me not being able to type for any useful length of time with my left hand. I knew then that I needed to change the way I worked.
In June last year I started to use TalkingPoint as it combines voice recognition with workflow management to allow me not only
to dictate instead of type, but to "drive my PC by voice" - and I can't believe what a difference it has made. To my physical wellbeing there has been an essential improvement, but perhaps an unexpected bonus has been the positive impact it has provided in terms of my improved efficiency, productivity and creativity levels in work.
For me, TalkingPoint is an assistive technology that responds to my voice and undertakes my IT workflow requirements, without the need to click the mouse or press keys, has fundamentally changed the way I work. Integrated with the voice recognition engine within Windows 7, TalkingPoint's workflow system allows me to open up all my documents, use voice commands to find regular items I use such as software packages, to search for and select files as well as create and manage my email. Most significantly, I use it to create, input and populate all my written forms of communication.
Everything I do now comes straight from the horse's mouth quite literally and generally sees me on the move or multi-tasking in a more effective way. As I am not restricted to being sat at my desk typing, I can often be seen pacing around as far as my wireless headset will allow, or sat in the boardroom with papers and academic journals around me citing references and quotes to be included in the latest research project. All the while, TalkingPoint is listening for my commands and dictation and then waiting for me to amend and proof my work when ready. It's like my very own PA.
Not only has this provided obvious benefits to my condition, in terms of significant reduction in pain to my hands, as well as back and neck. I have also seen an unexpected improvement in my efficiency levels. To provide an example, I regularly produce lengthy, data heavy, analysis reports, which on average used to take me six hours to produce. Now with the aid of voice recognition I do it in half the time. In fact since using the technology I recently took on a project that I had to turn around in three days. I succeeded. Something I am sure I would not have achieved without voice recognition, or certainly not without undertaking unpaid hours to do so.
I also think TalkingPoint has improved the quality of my work. A stark admission perhaps but I have definitely noticed a stronger level of content at first draft stage, and I certainly have far fewer drafts and re-writes now. The immediacy of voice recognition, capturing your musings and interpretations quickly, has undoubtedly helped achieve this as it removes the age old problem of your fingers trying to keep up with your thought process. I have always been a quick typist, but even I lose my train of thought when my head is galloping away with an idea or when you have to slow down to think about spelling or grammar.
With my condition at its worse, I was very close to quitting the career I both loved and had worked hard for. I'm not alone. A report by The Work Foundation in 2012 suggested that despite MSDs being the leading cause of sickness absence in the UK, the support available to individuals is often insufficient to keep them in work. An observation which impacts upon an individual in terms of wellbeing, earnings and progression in work but also on the employer, in terms of loss of production and to the greater economy.
However, there are ways employers can help staff who suffer from these conditions reach and maintain their full potential. Investing in assistive technologies is definitely one way to ensure that despite suffering from an MSD condition like myself or indeed losing eyesight or limbs, UK based office workers can be supported to continue in work and do not have to compromise in the quality of that work. Seems a better alternative to losing a valued member of staff and paying to recruit and re-train a new one?
For me, voice recognition technology has secured my business and my livelihood and comes with added health benefits. But it also turned out to make me better at my job. A more powerful voice in the workplace... now who would have thought it?"
