While it can be easy for companies to think of records management as a mere clerical function, many miss out on its real value: records management supports business continuity, compliance and efficiency.
Business records are documents created and managed by businesses that provide evidence for business activities and transactions. Examples include financial reports, employee files and business contracts. Effective records management ensures that business records can be found when you need them; if you don’t have effective records management in place, it can prove difficult to find records during an audit or when responding to a legal request.
Every record has a lifecycle that it goes through. For documents, records and other pieces of information, this means the record was created, used, stored and then eventually destroyed or archived. Records management is the administration of records throughout its lifecycle. Records management includes the management of retention schedules that help determine how long records should be kept and when records should be destroyed or archived.
With regulatory requirements increasing across many businesses, records management is an increasingly important function for organizations. Records and information governance includes the regulations, laws and policies organizations follow that ensure information is properly managed in the organization. Professionals with knowledge of information governance and records management can be found in many different sectors, including private and public.
Records Management Is More Than Administrative Efficiency.
Records management ensures information is properly managed and supports business continuity and compliance requirements by providing businesses with information that can be used to effectively make decisions, report on the business and plan for the future.