Creating a Records Management Policy That is Right For Your Institution.

Creating a Records Management Policy That is Right For Your Institution.

Establishing a solid records management program is a challenge for any institution. It has to be planned carefully from start to finish. All organizations benefit from consistent, thorough, and well-maintained records, but records management is rarely given priority status. Most managers of institutions do not spend enough time on creating, completing, updating, maintaining, protecting, and even purging or destroying their records at the appropriate times.

Regulatory compliance, and the fear of litigation that accompanies it, have provided the necessity for records management to move up the organizational priority list for many institutions. Factors for establishing a successful policy are outlined below, along with software considerations to make implementation easier.

Records Management Policy

The key to a successful records management programme is a well thought-out records management policy that is accompanied by consistent records management processes. A clear policy establishes rules that inform staff what to create, manage, purge, and destroy, and helps record managers, as well as the agencies with whose rules they must comply, to know when infringements have occurred.

The need for compliance is true whether records are stored electronically or are still on paper. A sound policy sets clear expectations for records management, and helps staff to follow procedural expectations consistently.

Even the act of creating a policy can help with legislation, in particular compliance, because it demonstrates that an institution has made sincere efforts to ensure compliance and implement internal controls. The policy will give management the tools they need to effectively oversee one of the most critical assets an institution owns: its collective corporate records

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 Defining a Record and its Lifecycle

The ISO (International Organization of Standardization) defines records as "information created, received, and maintained as evidence and information by an organization/institution or person, in pursuance of legal obligations or in the transaction of business". The form of a record can vary from a paper document to an email, voicemail, fax, image, or notes about the documents. Each record should have important information, or metadata, about the record that accompanies it. Who created the record? Where will it be stored? Who is allowed to access it? How long must it be stored? When should the record be purged from the files? When should it be disposed of or destroyed?

During the first and shortest part of the record cycle, an organization/institution is typically concerned with managing an active document and its contents, including who has accessed, viewed, annotated, or otherwise taken action on the material. The remainder of the lifecycle is focused on record storage (records that are temporarily or permanently inactive), controlled access, maintenance, purging, and disposal.

Record Storage: Establishing A Clear Path for Easy Retrieval

The first step in records management is the effective classification of records and a storage system that enables quick, easy, and secure retrieval of information when it is needed. Regardless of the method of capturing your information, electronic storage of your documents, images, and historical records can make records management easier. However, it only works to its maximum potential if information is classified thoroughly and intelligently.

In a digital world, a clear indexing plan takes into consideration the diverse sets of people and departments that need to locate records, and the terms by which they need to search for them. By taking the time to create a solid record classification or indexing plan, your staff, auditors, and regulatory agencies will be better served, and you can reallocate staff skills to more important tasks than searching for records.

Recently, the access to information act  (2002) has made it imperative for companies/institutions to be able to provide whatever information is relevant to an issue during investigations and other regulatory response projects that require specific data. Legislation now gives courts of law the power to demand data as evidence, regardless of the cost to the companies/ institutions that are required to provide it. Emails, text files, data stored on PDAs and other devices, backup tapes, databases, videotapes, voice files, and other materials are all subject to these regulations. A comprehensive and efficient records management system with easy retrieval helps companies/institutions avoid the crippling problems that can arise when information is required

Controlling and Auditing Access: Creating Clear Guidelines

There is a need to control who views, reads, annotates, and acts upon documents during the active portion of a record's lifecycle. Institutions/ organizations are at risk if access is not properly controlled and monitored. Easy and effective auditing of the policy is critical. Breaches of security can and do occur, but they can be prevented easily in a digital solution that is configured to control who is authorized to take specific actions. Equally important, the system should be capable of providing thorough audit reports. If certain portions of a form should be accessible to everyone, but specific portions require viewing or annotation restrictions, good document management software programs can address this need. If documents travel through an automated workflow process during the active part of the record lifecycle, reporting tools can provide the information needed to demonstrate compliance with internal policies, as well as external regulations.

Record Maintenance

Once a policy for records management is in place, many of the maintenance challenges are eliminated. By establishing a clear plan for storage, indexing, and access, the numerous actions that surround a record during its lifecycle are easier to manage. If your organization has moved beyond basic digital storage to include automated workflow, there are multiple benefits. Changes to documents or record updates to a policy or application can be configured to launch a routine process automatically, delivering a document with instructions for action, generating customized letters or calls based on data stored within a record, and much more. While the cost savings and increases in efficiency are enough to encourage any savvy records manager to consider this carefully, the reporting tools that help to monitor action and maintain compliance make it an important consideration.

Record Retention: Knowing When to Purge Records from the System

Since most records gradually lose their relevance to an institution’s current business over time, purging helps to reduce the plethora of irrelevant material through which the staff has to search for pertinent data. Record retention schedules guide the user to eliminate information that may no longer be relevant to a an institution or organization from a legal point of view. Purging appropriately (as soon as it is logical and permitted by law) keeps data relevant and accessible, and removes what is no longer needed. Workers are no longer distracted by data that is not pertinent to their institution or organization. Purging promotes efficiency, while simplifying searches for information.

Summary
Records management is a never ending process. It helps to have a clear policy and effective tools that integrate with each other, both within each department that holds records and even across the institution.

Don't wait for an emergency to give you a sense of urgency to establish a strong records management program. With a solid plan, and tools that take advantage of reporting, storage management,and email management,.

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