What is Records Management Program?

The purpose of a Records Management Program is to establish policy for the creation, use, retention, preservation and/or destruction of company business records.

[Company]'s Records Management Program includes:

• Policy and Procedures
• Roles and Responsibilities
• Records Retention Schedule 
• Information Governance (IG) Portal

Why have an RM Program?

• As your information grows, it’s in all formats and scattered across your organization – making it difficult to find and even harder to secure.
• Responding to discovery and litigation requests takes increasingly more time and money.
• New laws and regulations continue to heap rules on how you protect and manage your information, while the penalties for mistakes are more severe than ever.
• And on top of it all, your basic storage costs continue to grow. You need better control to manage your costs and risks.
• You could outsource the storage of your records and backup media, without worrying about its security.

The major benefits of the program are:

• A consistent way to classify records across the entire organization
• To ensure records are kept only as long as legally and operationally required

Program Components

Records Retention Schedule:

The Records Retention Schedule is established so users don’t have to guess about retention requirements.

• Functional classification facilitates consistency
• Similar records are managed in the same manner across departments
• Defined retention periods for all record classes

Policies and Procedures:

Policy and procedures were developed to make sure everyone is managing records the same way across the organization.

• Consistent, enterprise-wide practices and standards for all records created, received, distributed, and maintained
• Clear roles and responsibilities

IG Portal:

The IG Portal is the central employee resource for records management. The records management policy, procedures, and Records Retention Schedule are located on the intranet site.

• Centralized resource for your Records Management information
• Provides tools and search methods for all employees