Posted By Pete Moran I have a friend who works in a small, busy call centre. In order that waiting calls are picked up as soon as possible, the employer has fitted a loud alarm bell. This rings continually until a waiting call is picked up. Staff are complaining of fatigue due to this noise as workers do need to leave their stations for various reasons. This seems to me to be a most unreasonable state of affairs exposing workers to needless noise and added stress. Has anyone else out there encountered a similar set-up? Many thanks .....

Posted By Jonathan Barratt Hi Pete. I worked as a telecoms engineer some time ago, and there were a couple of occasions where loud-sounders (e.g. 80D bells, horns etc) were installed, only to be subsequently removed within a few days because the level of noise was simply too high for staff to tolerate. Devices like this are fine for workshops, factories etc, but not a call centre environment. Although considerably more expensive, something like an LED wallboard, or a large wall-mounted plasma screen giving incoming queue stats, wait times etc tend to work best in this kind of environment, assuming there is some kind of automated call distribution in place? Hope this helps, Jon

Posted By Paul J Williams I have had some experience of call centres from an enforcers view point and, as the Lead Authority for a major insurance company, I led a Safety Management Review of call centre operations. Audible reminders like this are a big no no and are guaranteed to increase stress levels. May I take the opportunity to draw your attention to HELA circular 94/1 (rev) which deals entirely with call centres, I think this issue may even be referred to in the guidance.

Posted By Pete Moran Thanks to everyone for their advice on this subject which I have passed on.