Records Management

The ISO 15489-1: 2016 standard defines Records Management as “the field of management responsible for the efficient and systematic control of the creation, receipt, maintenance, use and disposition of records, including the processes for capturing and maintaining evidence of and information about business activities and transactions in the form of records.” Record is a document or content that an organization needs to keep as an evidence for an important transaction, activity or a business decision for regulatory, compliance and governance purposes. Not all documents are Records. Only a subset of documents that an organization needs to preserve as evidence are called Records. Paper records may be stored in physical boxes on-premises or at a storage facility. Digital records may be stored on storage media in-house or in the cloud.

Record Lifecycle

All information and records go through a lifecycle. Knowing what stages records go through helps with identifying the most important activities that need to happen to protect and properly organize the Organization's records.

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• The first phase - Create/receive - starts when records are either received from an external source or created internally. The objectives of this initial stage are:
  • Create complete and accurate records that provide evidence of the organization’s functions, activities, decisions, transactions, procedures, etc.
  • Identify and apply an appropriate security classification
  • Distinguish between records and non-record copies or working documents, to be able to appropriately segregate them in the filing system
  • Place the record in an organizational classification scheme (or file plan) either in paper (e.g. in a filing cabinet or a binder) or in electronic version (e.g. on a shared drive or in a system) to ensure that it’s preserved within its context
• After the first phase records immediately enter an Active phase of the lifecycle. It means that they are often used, shared between colleagues, retrieved to support day-to-day business and referred to. The objectives of this stage are: Create complete and accurate records that provide evidence of the organization's functions, activities, decisions, transactions, procedures, etc.
  • Identify and apply an appropriate security classification
  • Distinguish between records and non-record copies or working documents, to be able to appropriately segregate them in the filing system
  • Place the record in an organizational classification scheme (or file plan) either in paper (e.g. in a filing cabinet or in a binder) or in electronic version (e.g. on a shared drive or in a system) to ensure that it's preserved within its context
  • Preserve the integrity of the record, which means ensuring that it has not been altered after completion
  • Maintain its usability which means making it available for all colleagues who need an access to the record to do their job
  • Facilitate identification and preservation of records with permanent retention
• The active phase of the lifecycle may be short for some records (e.g. payroll records' active phase usually is only about two months) and long for others (e.g. a MoU between a field mission and a Host country government may be in its active stage for the entire duration of the mission’s operations). All records, however, move through the lifecycle and with time the retrieval rate often diminishes. At some point, they reach a stage when they are not needed anymore in the primary office space but must still be kept for evidentiary, legal, financial, or historical purposes, as dictated by the retention schedule. This is when they enter an Inactive phase of the lifecycle. During this stage, we should free up space in our offices to new records, but we need to ensure keeping inactive records handy. The objectives of this stage are:
  • Identify the records that are not required to be stored in the primary office space (paper) or systems/shared drives (electronic)
  • Organize and list them
  • Transfer them to the local Records Center (for field missions the local Records Center within mission area; for HQ offices the ARMS Records Center)
  • Retrieve only those records that are needed from time to time
• Finally, at the end of the lifecycle, records enter the stage a decision is made (usually based on an approved retention schedule) on what happens with records that entered the final stage of their life. It's called a Disposition phase. In the United Nations, there are two available disposition actions: either Archive or Destroy. It means that some portion of the records, usually about 5% of the total records' holdings of an office or a mission, that due to their historical value have a permanent retention, will be transferred to ARMS while the rest will be destroyed at some point. The objectives of this stage are:
  • Identify records with archival value (permanent retention), list them, organize them and sent them to ARMS
  • Identify records due for disposal/destruction, list them, gather necessary approvals for the destruction and proceed with an environmentally friendly destruction process

Benefits of Records Management

Whether a business handles sensitive medical records, historical archives, or financial records, how they handle their physical and digital documents affects their bottom line and achievement of objectives. Here are the reasons a records management solutions prove to be a success for any business.

• Lower operating costs: A proper records management system will decrease the time and labor associated with searching for lost records when there is not an organized system in place. Records keeping and administration already take a large amount of money to maintain with filing systems, office space, and staff.
• Ensure productivity and efficiency: When staff is searching for misplaced information, that time spent is non-productive, and could be used in a more valuable way. An organizational upgrade to record keeping methods enhances information retrieval while simultaneously improving the efficiency and flow of all office activities. Whether a business has a digital or physical document management system, an effective index will deliver the right information to users exactly when they need it.
• Comply with Regulations and Reduce Legal Risks: The United States places heavy regulations on records keeping. Keeping track of these laws can pose a large compliance challenge for many businesses. The only way to reduce the risks of potential compliance penalties and litigations are to have a consistently implemented document management system. This reduces the likelihood of being liable for records disposal, and having to pay legal fines.
• Better Decision Making: Big data is booming in the modern business world. Data is seen with extremely high value. Records created today hold vital background data that can be used in the future to make important business decisions. Managers use this data to plan for the future, but if it is not accessible or correct, there is no way to apply information found in data to their decision making.
• Maintain a Proper Working Environment: A messy office is an opportunity for a variety of problems. Files and boxes stacked everywhere create a less than ideal working environment. Customers see this as unprofessional, and staff sees this as a hazard. Even the best, most organized system will not help if there is not enough space for it. Investing in high density storage or going digital with documents will help organize more information into a smaller space.
• Data Security: Every organization has vital records that if lost, would cause major costs to the business. Natural disasters happen without warning. Weather, fire, and termites can damage and destroy irreplaceable records. With safe physical storage with a digital backup, a business can ensure they are protecting their vulnerable records from catastrophe. It is also important to protect the privacy of sensitive documents, such as medical records, legal records, and other vital documents. Exposure of this information can damage a brand, and can cause an array of legal problems.