Evidence-based recommendations for recorded-meetings policies

Recordings of virtual meetings have become a common part of virtual and hybrid workplace environments. Meeting recordings offer potential benefits (e.g., speedy transcript production, expedited information sharing, searchable information, inclusion of visual and tonal expressions) and drawbacks (e.g., difficulty discussing sensitive issues, employee privacy, limited off-the-record capabilities, and employee concerns over sharing recordings). Given this variance, policies for virtual meetings are a necessity. Managers can successfully implement a policy by cocreating policy preferences with employees in open-ended and nonjudgmental conversations that openly discuss potential benefits, drawbacks, and employee concerns. Topics such as when to record, when not to record, how to gain consent, and who will have administrative and sharing rights should be covered. Areas of less urgency that may yet be part of these discussions include accessibility concerns, the use or rejection of software features, where and for how long meeting recordings should be stored, and such emerging issues as the use of virtual reality and AI tools. Managers should deliver policy preferences to a group of representatives from Human Resources, Information Technology, and the executive team to compose the policy, request a legal review, and to introduce and implement it in the organization.