The Top 5 Reasons Why You Should Hire An Independent Minute Taker

With more employees working from home than ever before comes more meetings. Speedy Minutes has seen a 60% increase in queries within the past 18 months alone. Where there's a meeting, you will always need some sort of record of what happened. With a need to keep costs down, some managers may choose to do their minutes in-house, but I will further explain why this can become problematic. This is where hiring an independent minute taker can be a huge asset to your business. There are many reasons why you may consider adding one to your payroll, from expertise, saving time, impartiality, and being calm and reliant.

Learn more about minute taking service Speedy Minutes here.

1. Impartial and Confidential

Firstly, and arguably the most important, is that an freelance minute taker is impartial and confidential. Yes, this is more than one reason, but I believe these reasons go hand-in-hand!

A minute taker does not have any loyalties to your company and has no interest in taking sides or tactfully omitting information to save face. Not only does this make the minutes a fair and unbiased account of the meeting, but it also removes any potential conflicts of interest. This can prove invaluable in a particularly contentious meeting, such as an Employee Review meeting, as an independent minute taker has no ties or conflicts to either party.

An independent minute taker is legally bound to confidentiality, and you can be assured that any matters of the meeting will go no further than the minute taker and client. Eliminating any potential sinister "office politics" and keeping your data entirely safe and secure.

2. Being Present

When I say being present, this may conjure up images of a little Buddhist monk meditating on top of the mountain... or maybe something you heard in a workplace wellbeing presentation. Both of these are quite nice, but this isn't quite what I mean!

If you've ever had to participate in a meeting and take the minutes simultaneously, you know this can be quite a challenge. This is where having a fully present independent minute taker comes in handy. Outsourcing your minutes means your minute taker will be completely focused and present in your meeting. They will have no distractions, their mind won't be frazzled from typing and talking at the same time, and they will be completely dedicated to serving you quality minutes.

3. Experience

When outsourcing your minutes for the first time, you may be apprehensive about how the minutes will be and if the minute taker will understand your industry. These nerves and concerns are completely understandable. An independent minute taker should have the qualifications and experience to hit the ground running, no matter what industry. As a CPD-accredited minute taker myself, I am trained and have experience working in all manner of industries. Even ones I don't understand! Independent minute takers are typically adaptable, shrewd, good listeners, and capable of capturing the essence and main points of the meeting. Our job is to identify and summarise the main points of the meeting, and we do not have to be experts in your industry to do just that.

Here at Speedy Minutes, we have served over 100 meetings and counting, so you can rest assured we have the experience needed to capture your minutes.

4. Saves time

Many employees can already find themselves overstretched at the best of times. Being tasked with writing minutes for a meeting you're already part of can seem like a huge task on a pile of ever-growing tasks. Because of this, doing minutes internally can take some time, and in that time, the internal minute taker may forget what happened. It also may cause a delay on action items or key decisions from happening, as the minutes will not be circulated till after some time.

Hiring an independent minute taker can save an exponential amount of time. Here at Speedy Minutes, our turnaround time is 1-3 business days - depending on minute taker availability. No more waiting around on an employee to finish doing the minutes, with no set turnaround time in sight.

5. Consistency

When outsourcing a minute taker, you can be assured that the format, language, and delivery will be the same every time. Having a consistent accurate record of the meeting that took place will prove indispensable if your business ever needs its minutes audited or verified.

At Speedy Minutes, we work to a stylised template and aim to provide a detailed quality summary of your meeting. We pride ourselves on being consistent, and so do our clients, as 90% of clients return.

To outsource your meeting minutes to Speedy Minutes, get in touch here.

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