I have already posted on our website details of the lengths we go to to make sure that we recruit only the best people who have the characteristics we feel are best suited to working autonomously for our clients.  If you haven’t yet read the case study, a link is here. 

Our online application form acts as a filtering system for the “wrong” type of person applying to work with us.  Before we take any application further we also make sure that they can read, write and spell business English.  Occasionally I am appalled and shocked at the standard of some of the documents returned back to me.  Firstly, because it is obvious they don’t understand what an apostrophe is and, secondly, they don’t have the commonsense to figure out a way of cheating on my document.

Here’s a completed test which was received by me today.  CLICK HERE TO DOWNLOAD WORD DOCUMENT.  If you’re involved in recruitment you might find this test document useful too.

This reminds me of what happened to one of our clients last year, in February 2009, when London came to a standstill because of the snow. 

Our law firm client thought they had everything sorted and business was as  usual because their solicitors could dictate from their blackberrys from home and had no need to travel.  The upset came when they realised that their secretaries couldn’t get into the office and it caused them a huge backlog of work and tremendous pressure to meet deadlines. 

We had an outsource module added to the client’s digital dictation system so that the dictation from the solicitors could be sent to our service with a click of a button, by-passing employed secretaries and resulting in documents being produced more cost effectively and timely. 

So far in 2010 we’ve already broken a record of having one of the longest cold snaps for decades.  The local authories have ran out of grit to keep our roads safe.  It looks like things will be getting worse. 

What contingency plans do you have in place for your staff not being able to make it into work?

Now is the time to take full advantage of technology available.  Using remote secretaries who are home-based means you don’t have to worry about getting into the office to have your work done.  Access online is straight forward and our remote services can fully integrate into your in-house digital dictation system. 

If you don’t have any digital dictation yet, then what are you waiting for?  Use our free software and work from home instead.  Call us now on 0151 227 9150 to set up your free account and don’t let the severe weather conditions interrupt your business.

However, if urgent work is required, please call our customer hotline 0845 053 1626, and our team will act on your requests as soon as possible. 

We would like to wish all of our clients, collegues and friends a very merry Christmas and healthy and happy New Year.

Paul is used to having his own secretary provide support and I was quite concerned at how he would adapt to using remote secretaries and outsourcing. But I needn’t have worried. The ease of use, speed of response and quality of documents produced has exceeded our expectations and Paul has settled in straight away.

Now granted, you probably don’t need to worry about having enough secretarial cover during peak holiday weeks in the summer or at Easter if you have solicitors and fee earners absent too.  So let’s be generous and halve the figure say you need a temporary secretary for three weeks a year. 

A temping agency will cost you about £500 a week.  And the quality of the output from the temp depends on how lucky you are with the person assigned to you.  How many terrible experiences with temps have you or your colleagues had? 

To outsource typing from a very busy fee earner can cost anything up to £200 a week and there are plenty of case studies which you can rely upon to support this.

So outsourcing dictation for those peak busy times will keep you on top of your work, you won’t have any backlog, you don’t ever have to deal with “terrible temps” and it will save you about £1,000 per year per secretary.

If you want to know how it works, it’s very easy.  Simply call us and ask for our free software and we’ll also arrange for free set up and installation.   

If you want bigger savings, the you should look closely at your workflow - what type of work are your secretaries doing and can your processes be refined using your case management systems.  In most cases secretaries are spending at least 50% of their time typing.  And if you outsource that element of a secretary’s job you can slash your secretarial overhead.  If you would like to discuss in a free consultation please call us.

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1. WHO’S COVERING THE SICKNESS AND HOLIDAYS?
The holiday season (or the flu season) can be massively disrupting to your business if you don’t have skilled temporary staff to call on. If you work in a quieter rural area then chances are you will struggle finding a temp who’s available when you need them. And once you’ve got them trained up on your systems (often about 2 days) then it’s time for them to move on. You’ve probably wasted half a week of your time training the temp and you’re still left with a backlog of work by the time your usual secretary arrives back. Some larger firms don’t even use temps. They hire an additional secretary to provide the year round cover they need. What an expense! Your outsourcing company doesn’t require you to send a minimum amount of work or sign up for a specific contract period so you can make use of the service just when you need to. PAIN RELIEF CAN BE FOUND HERE

2. A BACKLOG OF WORK
If your dictation is taking 2 days to turn around then you have a backlog. And it’s costing you money. Files are not up to date leaving you at risk of negligence and, let’s face it, the faster you can work through the files, the faster cases are settled, and you get paid quicker. Why put up with it? PAIN RELIEF CAN BE FOUND HERE

3. NOT ENOUGH INTERNAL RESOURCES FOR A ONE OFF JOB
Dealing with an unusual heavy workload with limited resources can cause backlogs to your usual workflow. You need to have a database typed, perhaps a lenthy document which can take a secretary 2 days to reproduce, or lots of recordings but it’s too much for one secretary and you need it quickly. Making use of a team of outsourced secretaries for those one off jobs is a very cost effective way of keeping up to date with your workload. Document Direct has hundreds of registered secretaries and it’s a straight forward process for us to manage “bulk” transcription/copy typing and return it to you in the fastest time (usually the same day). PAIN RELIEF CAN BE FOUND HERE

4. ASKING PEOPLE TO WORK OVERTIME - AND PAYING THEM!
Managing people and overtime rates for “out of hours” work can leave you exasperated. There’s a reason why you need to work late in the night or at weekends — because you’re busy and have to deliver a quality service to your clients. So your staff should be helping you, not hindering you and making your job harder. But not everybody wants to work late, earn overtime and have their weekends disrupted. Document Direct’s outsource typing service is available 24 hours a day, 7 days a week. We’re non-threatening to your existing staff, we simply wait in the background for the day that you need to use us. PAIN RELIEF CAN BE FOUND HERE

5. RECRUITMENT, TRAINING AND RETAINING
Would you rather recruit a fee earner or a secretary? If we unravel the job specification and look at each task that we ask our employees to do and look at specific processes, it’s possible to see just how easy it is to take the typing part of a secretary’s job and outsource it. Once that’s done, putting your resources (people) to better use is easier. Secretaries are no longer just “typists”. They’re asked to be personal assistants, office manager and unqualified fee earners. Quite frankly, they’re too expensive to type. PAIN RELIEF CAN BE FOUND HERE

6. FINDING SKILLED STAFF
Love it or hate it, but none of us can live without it. Technology. It’s the most rapid changing industry and it affects us all. So when it comes to finding a secretary who has the skills to keep up to date with the last versions of software it can cause huge headaches. After all, unless you already employ an expert who knows what skills to recruit, how do you know what questions to ask? At least with outsourcing your documentation you’re assured that you can keep up with your competitors and work on their documents with the most up to date word processing techniques. Poor word processing and presentation of your documents to a competitor firm says a lot about the skillset of your workforce and speaks volumes. PAIN RELIEF CAN BE FOUND HERE

7. TOO MUCH WORK AND NOT ENOUGH HOURS
If you need more time why waste time travelling to the office? Why not work from home or on the train while commuting? Using a digital dictation system will give you valuable hours when you realise you don’t have to travel to the office to send work to your secretary. In fact, you can be anywhere and send your work from a mobile phone. And you can send your work at any time of the day when you’re accessing a 24/7 remote service. Would that give you the flexibility you need to use your time more effectively? PAIN RELIEF CAN BE FOUND HERE

So would you like to have one or two headaches removed? Ask for our Free Trial and give yourself some pain relief. 

The first wave of swine flu is likely to occur between August and November - peaking late August to late September.  Peak weeks could see employee absence rates for illness reach 12 per cent of the workforce - in addition to normal holiday absence.

Document Direct is receiving a large number of enquiries as firms consider implementation of contingency plans for secretarial cover.  Those companies who already have digital dictation systems installed are now looking at how their systems can be integrated with outsourcing partners. 

Innovative technology such as BlackBerry dictation means it’s easy for professionals to continue working from home or away from their offices but further business interruption occurs when secretaries can’t make it into the office to do the typing. 

The virus is spreading rapidly through the UK, with 55,000 new cases reported last week and experts predicting that 30 per cent of the public will be eventually infected.

Companies need to start preparing for soaring absentee rates before the peak of the virus hits the UK’s business community.   Phil Bird, Managing Director for the PC Support Group says:

Swine flu can vary in seriousness and in a number of cases, particularly towards the end of the illness, sufferers will be able to work although due to being contagious may still not be able to return to the workplace, extending their absence.

For many smaller companies this loss could even lead to them going out of business if they don’t plan ahead.

With such potentially serious consequences it is crucial for employers to start planning and implementing emergency strategies now. As a priority, they need to make arrangements for staff to work from home in the event of high levels of infection, in order to minimise disruption to their businesses.

Document Direct has solutions to provide temporary secretarial cover to help during holidays and sickness absenses that are very easy to implement. If a firm already uses a dictation system it is simply a case of re-routing the destination of the author’s dictation.  If a firm does not have any dictation system in place then our software is available at no charge.  

Contact us for more information about digital dictation systems and outsourcing.

Document Direct is compatible with the majority of digital dictation systems (DDS) and sound file formats.  That means we can work with Philips, Olympus, BigHand, Winscribe and many other formats now available.  But which system is the best for you?  We’re almost 4 years old and have amassed a great deal of experience when it comes to working with the different systems, types of hardware and the various costs associated with them.  There are many benefits to switching over to digital.

• The dictation can be transcribed faster by fewer secretaries which reduces your secretarial overhead and increases workflow
• Opportunities are created for flexible and remote working, you (and your staff) are no longer office bound 
• Hard cash is saved when overhead can be slashed by outsourcing

So why are there still so many firms who don’t yet have a DDS?  We’re in a situation now where firms need to save money but they can’t afford to invest in a DDS.  Add to the fact that most people don’t like change and are fearful of new technology so they will procrastinate even more in making a decision.  But each of these objections can easily be overcome. 

We recently set up a solicitors practice, using free software, so they could choose to send their dictation to their in-house secretary or their favourite outsource typing agency.  The only cost to the firm was for the handsets (and they vary vastly in price).  The solicitors practice no longer needs to worry about secretarial cover during the holiday season.  With a click of a button, their work is outsourced at a much lower cost than using a temping agency.  Their work was backlogged by as much as three days.  Now that we’ve helped them clear their dictation they’re working through their files faster.  This can only be a good thing when it comes to holding onto work in progress and billing. 

Would you like more information about implementing a digital dictation system in your firm?  If so, contact us now.