Thread: Using a voice recorded during meetings

Hi,

I just wanted to get your advice/thoughts/experiences of using voice recorders to keep a record of disciplinaries/grievances.

I currently take written minutes in all meetings and often struggle to keep up. Then when it gets to typing them up that can be a struggle as well.

Does anyone currently use voice records to record meetings and what are your experiences of it?

Thanks

*sorry typo in the title voice recorder*

Hi Cat-HR,

I've had experience of recording disciplinary hearings. We had a few complex disciplinary cases at the Company I previously worked for so we made the decision to invest in recording equipment. We would normally only record disciplinary where the allegation was for gross misconduct.

We had a good recording system which had several microphones which we would position to ensure everybody present at the meeting could be clearly heard - it would be a bit of a problem if you listened back to the recording after the hearing and you couldn't hear certain voices!

Recording the hearing allowed me as HR to be more involved with the hearing and provide more support than simply note taker. Although typing up the notes could be time consuming (although you wouldn't personally have to type up the notes as anybody could transcribe the recording) , we could prepare a very accurate transcript of the hearing. One of the dismissal hearings ended up in a lengthy tribunal. The Employment Tribunal was very impressed with the quality of minutes and praised our use of sound recordings.

If you choose to record disciplinary hearings, you would need to ensure that your employees were aware that you intend to record the hearing and if the right to record a hearing isn't expressed in your policies/procedures, you would need to seek their consent first. Recording without the employee's knowledge and consent may constitute a breach of his or her right to privacy. The recording would also constitute personal information for the purposes of the Data Protection Act.

I hope this helps

Thanks very much for your help, I might suggest it with my manager

Hi Cat, Out of curiousity, have did your manager take it, are you going to trial it?

It would certainly help with note taking!

Interesting topic, how did you get on?

Are you using the recorder now?