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Dictation
Organisations seeking to improve
staff productivity often overlook time
spent typing. Executives hired for
their ability to sell, solve problems,
create solutions, train, explain, present,
negotiate and care for customers
continue to treat typing as a core skill.
It makes no sense for valuable
assets to waste time typing reports,
presentations, documents, letters, even
long emails, when they could be doing
what they were hired to do.
Everyone thinks they are quicker, but
in reality the composition typing speed
is about 15 words per minute (wpm) for
the average amateur typist. However,
that same individual can dictate at more
than 100 wpm, producing a 3,000 word
report in 30 minutes compared to more
than three hours if typing.
Talking instead of typing allows
employees to utilise the skills for which
they were originally employed and helps
the business grow. It can be no surprise
that the biggest users of digital dictation
are the legal and healthcare sectors,
where managers have long recognised
the value of keeping skilled people away
from the keyboard – often a good place
to hide and take it easy.
Think digital
Thanks to mobile technology, dictation
is available to everyone, anywhere, with
secure applications for smartphones, iPad,
iTouch and BlackBerry allowing one-
touch recording. Importantly, users don’t
have to worry about getting it right first
time, they can return to any point within
a dictation and re-record passages or
insert new sections.
Digital sound files need transcribing,
but once recorded, users can prioritise
their recordings and specify a time for
the transcription to be completed. Notes
on formatting, pronunciation and spelling
can be added to ensure the finished
transcription requires little amendment
on its return.
If a business has the necessary
internal resources, the dictation can be
routed direct to them for transcription,
or it can be outsourced to an external
transcription service provider, ideally
based in the UK.
Confidentiality matters
Although the transcription process is
completely confidential, it’s important to
consider whether anyone can overhear
or record the dictation, to avoid the
inadvertent disclosure of redundancies,
shop closures, product launches etc..
Typists can be granted remote access
to client systems, ensuring sensitive
data never leaves the client’s servers
and removing doubts over potential
security breaches. Businesses outsourcing
sensitive work should seek service
providers that are ISO 27001:2013
certified – the international standard for
information security management.
Work being outsourced is likely
Talk more, type less
to include data covered by the Data
Protection Act. Any breach is the
responsibility of the business that
outsourced the work, so it’s essential that
businesses check the level of security
provided, looking at the encryption
used for sending and receiving work,
the storage of finished documents, the
location of the typists etc..
Sounds familiar
Despite the hype, for most users, voice
recognition software remains okay for
basic note taking and has a part to
play, but will never replace the latest
transcription services available via
handheld devices, backed by experienced,
qualified secretaries.
Regional accents, background
noise and pronunciation often lead
to problems, to say nothing of the
obvious words that cause trouble for
even the best transcription typists:
council and counsel; affect and effect;
Walsall andWarsaw even. And of course,
unlike an experienced secretary, voice
recognition software does not format the
document according to a user’s specific
requirements.
Increase efficiency
If more UK businesses used dictation
like the legal and healthcare sectors,
supported by transcription service
providers charging by the minute, based
on dictation length, with no contracts,
on a pay-as-you-go basis, they would
increase productivity and achieve greater
efficiency.
The flexibility the process offers
should appeal to any proactive UK
business, allowing executives to make
better use of their time in the office and
utilise time wasted in the car, on the
train and commuting to and from work.
It’s time to work smarter not harder, and
talking more and typing less is a simple
step every business can and should take
in what remains a challenging economy.
DictateNow provides fast, reliable
and confidential digital dictation and
transcription services.With a large pool of
experienced typists, all based in the UK, it
serves a wide variety of sectors, including
legal services, accountancy, medical,
property and the public sector.
Maxine Park, solicitor and co-founder of digital dictation and
transcription service provider DictateNow, argues that businesses of
every size can increase productivity, efficiency and profitability by
talking more and typing less
...in
reality the
composition
typing speed
is about
15 words per
minute for
the average
amateur
typist.
