If you are operating a company, you’ll be well aware of the management hodgepodge that arises with different departments trying to work together in sync. If we talk about Records Management, it becomes even more crucial for these different departments to work assiduously.

With the proper processes and employee training, each department can achieve Records Management excellence over time. Though, to begin mapping the goals for the same, a business has to know about the frequently occurring mistakes within each department.

In this post, we will tell you about the Record Management mistakes different department make in an organization.

Let us dive right in!

Human Resources Department

HR Department is one of the most significant wings in any company because of its key-roles and multi-dimensional responsibilities. HR Department is not just responsible for recruitment & payroll functions but also for engaging employees, enforcing policies, on-boarding-de-boarding of employees, promoting positive work-culture and a myriad other functions. With these responsibilities and tasks comes a large pile of documents and data. These records might be prone to the following mistakes;

1. Uncategorized Candidature Records

Recruitment is an active function of the HR department. So, it comes across a large number of Records (like CVs, recommendation letters, etc.) on a daily basis. While most of the HRMs carefully preserve the records of Shortlisted candidates, those belonging to the rejected ones get discarded carelessly. Legally, this would amount to non-compliance by the business, and might also result in Identity theft.

2. Improper Employee Classification

HR Department must have any information pertaining to any employee readily available. Though, if the records of the employees working at various positions are not classified properly, things might become tedious instantly. Hence, all the employees must be sorted as per the following classification- Full-time vs. Part-time, Regular vs. Temporary, and Exempt vs. Non-exempt.

3. Payroll and Compensation Records

While this is one of the core function of this department, HRMs often end up committing mistakes. Especially, considering that managing payroll records is directly related to compliance, one must be diligent when undertaking the curation of these records. If the HR Department fails to do so, audit might reveal so and litigation support will become weak.

Finance Department

Without the Finance Department, any business would be only sustainable for as long as the inevitability of crash hits it. Finance department is almost like the veins in our body. It controls and directs the revenue into the right channels. Thus, to speak, any error in maintaining Financial Records can have drastic effects on the entire business. Be wary of the following mistakes;

1. Having no Backup

It is the finance department that is audited stringently because of its proximity to the money-matters. Hence, it makes sense ‘not to keep all the eggs in one basket’ and get multiple backups of the Finance records, preferably off-site. In case a business loses all its records and data, the backup can help it stand-up again on its own feet.

2. Poor Tax Records Curation

This is probably the reason why many businesses end up paying more in taxes than they actually owe. This mistake can be attributed to common underlying factors like manual data entry, not tracking contractors vs. full-time bookkeepers, etc.

3. No Digitization

Accounting is a precision-oriented domain. However, many companies like their accounts department to work traditionally. This is where digitization of the records is much needed. Digitization not only simplifies and speeds up the accounts management processes, but also reduces errors arising from manual Data entry.

Sales & Marketing Department

Due to the nature of the job of Sales & Marketing teams, aligning them with all the technical aspects of Records management can be quiet a task! However, the sales and marketing department must be briefed well to avoid these mistakes;

1 .Not Classifying Client Records

Sales teams must be asked to classify the records for each client as per the client retention category. Monthly retainer client records must be differentiable from Ad hoc clients.

2. Not Tracking Budget

It can cost a lot to a business if it does not keep a proper track of its exact spend. Marketing teams often manage multiple campaigns at once where each has a separate budget. However, the cost might overshoot or undershoot from the estimated numbers. If the marketing team does not keep a track of budget spends, the returns can diminish quickly. It can even disturb the accounting operations.

All the businesses can imbibe the learning from the above-mentioned RM mistakes to avoid any pitfall in the future.