Your organization surely hosts a record management system guided by the internal policies. These policies might be in adherence to corporate standards and Data protection (GDPR) guidelines. However, as the previous year shows a spike in the number of exposed data records, identity thefts, and Data breaches, you might want to step-up and forge proactive policies to protect your organization’s interest further.
Here is the list of immediate changes you need in your Record Management Policies in 2019.
Tweak Your Retention Policy
An impeccable Records Management Program is the one which is in compliance with the legal norms and is based on a Records Retention Schedule. Your carefully crafted Record Retention Policy is your key to avert risk and avoid any litigation issue that might arise in the future. The following are the key components of an Effective Retention Policy that you might want to switch to in 2019!
Identify Major Record Groups: Needless to say, your record management policy begins with identifying the major class of records that are relevant to your organization. For example, if you are an online Book Keeping firm, then Accounting & Client records will make up for a majority of your document loads.
Develop a Classification Scheme: It is important that you develop an internal records classification scheme for your organization. The purpose of this scheme shall be to ‘Group’ or ‘Bundle’ the records according to Record Class, Business Functions, Record type, and the associate meta-data. The effectiveness of your Record Classification Scheme is to streamline the ease of accessibility of information at any time!
Legal Compliance: For every type of document, there is a certain time-frame for which you can retain a particular document. After that, you have to shred it properly. Failing to meet such compliance can lead to legal disruptions and brand name deterioration in case something goes wrong. Make sure that your Record retention policies are in accordance with the local and national laws.
Sync with Operational Needs: Your Retention policy must not be an obstacle in your day-to-day operations. You will have to ensure that your departments give the exact duration of time for which a document needs to be retained. The maximum retention time of the document must be slightly higher than the highest quoted time by any of your department.
Record Indexing & Accessibility
This is the step which determines the efficiency of your Record Management System for litigation support, business support, or compliance. Proper indexing of the records is crucial because it decides the speed with which information can be accessed without hassle. Failing to place such a system can result in the loss of productivity and time. In case the information retrieval was significant to a dispute, it can potentially cost your company a lot more!
Thankfully, there are professional records management companies that can take care of your indexing needs. Apart from robust security, they offer professional record curation, authorized access, and end-to-end document retention management.
Accountability
With a proper Accountability process in place, your organization will be able to keep a track of important information like document significance, its destruction timeline, the authorized personnel to access it, and the document’s security. Another significance of Accountability for the records is in Auditing. During the audit, any issue or discrepancy can be easily verified by identifying the associated employee or the staff. However, accountability process is time-consuming and requires a special records management team, a function otherwise performed by the HR department of a company.
Again, you can enhance your return on investment by hiring an Off-site Document Storage specialist that will remain fully accountable during the service tenure. You get hassle-free document management with full reliance and assurance for your data.
Molding your Record Management & Information storage policies according to the above-mentioned pointers will mitigate any unforeseen risk that arises from record exposure and ensure streamlined functioning of your departments. It is recommended that you hire an expert Document Management firm which will prove to be a better investment and highly cost-effective in the long-run.
