THE most important tool of your business is possibly also the most underrated: your sense of hearing, writes Curtis Alcock, of Broome Reid & Harris Hearing Care in Exeter.

If you employ people, it's your staff's hearing too.

I want to explore how hearing affects your business's effectiveness and what you can do to ensure it isn't compromised.

Hearing connects us to people, whether in person or on the phone. Let's start with your clients, and your relationship with them. They expect you and your staff to hear them first time, accurately. Get it wrong, and they assume incompetence or ignorance and look elsewhere.

There's staff interaction — during meetings, for example. Teams require good communication, which of course relies on hearing. And it's often those seemingly throwaway comments that make the difference.

There's networking, being in the right place at the right time, responding decisively as opportunities arise, or overhearing information critical to your business success. Remember, if the moment's gone, it's gone forever. You need to be there, hearing at the ready.

Finally, there's the bottom-line. Ineffective hearing costs your business money: wrong instructions carried out; a contract lost; incorrect orders; an opportunity missed.

Hearing is our primary method of communication. Yet it's the only sense we have where other people detect deficiencies in it before we do.

If we run the business, we simply can't have this: we need to be in control. And we need to be confident our staff's hearing is up to the task too. If not, they put unfair pressure on their colleagues and compromise our business's full potential.

Of course, it's different when we employ someone we know is deaf or hard of hearing. We can then provide the right equipment and put procedures in place to ensure equal opportunities.

The Government offers businesses support with any extra costs incurred through its Access to Work scheme and helpful laws regarding benefit in kind exemptions for providing certain equipment, including hearing aids.

So our problem as businesses comes with people who either pretend their hearing is perfect, or who simply don't know they're missing something.

Since one in six people over 18 do not have perfect hearing, chances are it's going to affect your business at some point.

And remember, this isn't an age thing. Think of all that social noise damage.

It's very hard to say to someone: "I think you have a hearing problem and it's affecting your job." They take it personally. Yet it's normal to expect staff who work for us to have good eyesight. So what about hearing? How do we ensure it's not the weak link in the chain?

The best way is to implement a 'Hearing At Work' policy, especially if your business relies on accurate hearing or listening — and yours probably does.

We arrange for staff to have routine hearing checks every two years. Not only does it prevent problems before they occur, but it ensures your business is harnessing the potential of your most valuable asset: your staff.