Dictate in any app · HR

Voice typing in BambooHR

Small-company HR means one person writing every policy, note and review. Typally types what you say straight into BambooHR — hold a key, talk, let go — so you can dictate anywhere BambooHR lets you type.

From the people who build Typally. If BambooHR's own option covers your use, use it — this page will tell you when it does.
Dictate into BambooHR Free — 100 minutes of dictation every month. No card, no trial countdown.
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In short

  • BambooHR's own dictation: None. Notes, policies and review fields are typed.
  • What Typally does instead: works above the app rather than inside it — BambooHR sees ordinary typed text.
  • Best used for: employee notes

Does BambooHR have built-in dictation?

None. Notes, policies and review fields are typed.

Why dictate in BambooHR at all?

A company of eighty has the same documentation obligations as one of eight hundred and one person to meet them. Policies stay unwritten, and the gap only becomes visible during a dispute.

In practice people use it for: Employee notes, policy documents, performance review text, onboarding material, and job descriptions.

How to dictate in BambooHR

Setup happens once, outside BambooHR, and then applies to every program on the machine:

1

Install Typally

Windows or macOS, then sign in. No card for the free tier.

2

Open BambooHR and click where you want the text

Whatever has the cursor receives the text, so click the right place in BambooHR before starting.

3

Press and speak

Hold, talk, release. Long passages are fine.

4

Read it before you move on

Employee records are confidential and subject to data protection law. Audio leaves your machine when transcribed — verify that against your obligations before dictating anything identifying an employee.

What Typally adds in BambooHR

Typally is well suited to the company-level writing HR never gets to — handbooks, policies, onboarding documents, job descriptions — where the volume is high and the content is not about any individual. Keep records about identifiable employees out of it: audio is processed by a third-party transcription service before it becomes text.

What this looks like in practice

An HR manager finally writes the eleven policies that have been outstanding since the company doubled in size, speaking them across two afternoons. None mentions an individual, so the documents are ordinary company writing.

One habit that makes it work better

Dictate the note documenting a conversation on the day it happens. Contemporaneous records are the ones that hold up; reconstructed ones do not.

What to watch out for in BambooHR

Employee records are confidential and subject to data protection law. Audio leaves your machine when transcribed — verify that against your obligations before dictating anything identifying an employee.

Frequently asked questions

Does BambooHR have voice input?

No. All fields are typed.

Can I dictate employee notes?

Consider data protection first. Transcription sends audio to a third party, which may matter for records about identifiable people.

What is safe to dictate in HR?

Policies, job descriptions, handbooks and onboarding material — documents about the company rather than about a person.

Try it in BambooHR

Free plan: 100 minutes of dictation a month, no card. Pro is $7.99/month if you want more.

Try Typally free

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