In today’s world, with nearly all information stored electronically, many non-information management people declare, “Keep everything forever—storage is cheap.” They might look at the numbers and opt to just store everything instead of hiring experienced professionals to ‘clean house’…until it’s too late. The consequences of not planning wisely can be devastating to an organization’s reputation and, potentially, unrecoverable.
There are laws, requirements and best business practices that dictate how long records must be retained. These regulations are rarely put into place to protect the company or organization, so it’s in the best interest of an organization to protect itself against litigation. Experienced Records/Document Managers (the high integrity, overachieving ones at least), take a personal oath to, simply, ‘do the right thing’.
The only ethical way to truly protect an organization from potential future legal action is to implement (and adhere to) an approved Records Retention Schedule.
Conducting a records inventory is never an easy task, and it is almost never in the budget. However, being proactive is always the right choice as poor records management practices invite increased risk, liability, and expensive lawsuits against an organization. The only ethical way to truly protect an organization from potential future legal action is to implement (and adhere to) an approved Records Retention Schedule.
Records Retention Schedules can be simple to extremely complex. They can be limited to administrative records (e.g., HR, Accounting, Facility Maintenance, etc.) or may include every layer of an organization (e.g., drawings, schematics, diagrams, forms, meeting minutes, photos taken on personal cell phones of notes on a whiteboard, or even handwritten notes on a lunch menu). It is a financially wise decision for any organization to think and act seriously when it comes to ALL of their Records and Document Management practices.
To be clear, a Records Retention Schedule generally can’t be created until it’s known what kinds of records an organization has. Only a skilled and professional Records/Document Manager is qualified to know all the tricks of the trade to find this information.
To illustrate this scenario, I’ll share a quick story about a time I was doing a physical records inventory onsite at a place… let’s call it the Engineering Factory, just for fun. To be clear, a Records Retention Schedule generally can’t be created until it’s known what kinds of records an organization has. Only a skilled and professional Records/Document Manager is qualified to know all the tricks of the trade to find this information. The very nature of a physical records inventory requires looking through all cabinets and drawers (and all other accessible storage places like closets, basements, and attics).
On this particular day, I was looking through the drawers of A LOT of file cabinets full of records at the Engineering Factory. Not being an Engineer myself, in some instances I wasn’t entirely certain what I was looking at. I asked a few staff members as they passed by on the way to the kitchen to grab a cup of coffee, and no one seemed to want to answer my questions or simply didn’t know. A few passersby could be described as one of two diametrically opposed characters that every Records/Document Manager needs to be aware of when creating a Retention Schedule: 1. The one who believes “These are all important documents, and we must keep them forever!” and 2. The one who feels “They are all old/obsolete. We can throw them all away.”
So how did I actually get someone, anyone, to take the time to contextually explain what these records were?
Here comes another trick: I went to the kitchen, grabbed a giant recycle bin, and dragged it back to the file cabinets. Next, I walked over to the copy machine, gathered some random papers from the recycle bin, and brought them back to the area where I had been working—a wide-open hallway with a lot of foot traffic. Then I opened a cabinet drawer as far as it would go, and every time someone came walking down the hall, I pulled an entire folder out of the drawer and tossed it into the recycle bin.
Low and behold, every single person stopped and asked what I was doing. One after another, they took time to explain exactly what these documents were, or they immediately went to find someone who knew something about them. It not only quickly became a team effort, but the newer staff gleaned valuable information from senior staff about the history of the Engineering Factory. The cabinets that everyone walked by every day on their way to the kitchen held countless gems of little known and historic knowledge.
Retention Schedules must be approved to ensure all regulations and best business practices are met.
In closing, I’ll end this story on a few important points: 1. No records or documents were harmed in this assignment. 2. You (almost) never actually destroy records while conducting an inventory. 3. Retention Schedules must be approved to ensure all regulations and best business practices are met. 4. Then, and only then, do you schedule a bonfire—and don’t forget the marshmallows!
