Repeatable Disposition Strategy for Offsite Records - Research Proposal Example

Name: Instructor: Course: Date: REPEATABLE DISPOSITION STRATEGY FOR OFFSITE RECORDS INTRODUCTION Proper record storage in very mportant in an organisation as it ensures efficient record management over time. It also ensures survival of the records as well as their availability whenever they are needed. Records on their own are unique, unmatched, incomparable and serve as important assets to the organisation. They therefore should be carefully managed. Organisations need to keep hold of certain records ahead of the current use in accordance with the operational, legal, regulatory and financial requirements. Majorly the main determinant of record retention period is the conent of the record.There are different facets of records management that affect storage. These aspects include disposal , appraisal indexing and classification.Organisations can choose to store their records either onsite or offsite depending on various aspects.Offsite storage is the piling up of business records that are inactive in a place other than the business normal place. Offsite storages can be important in cases where firms have limited office space or are seeking data security. Storage of offsite records is safe, environmentally friendly and and a secure data storage option. Moreover offsite storage readily meets catastrophe recovery , security requirements as well as protected and safe discarding of the records. The effectivess of information managemet has always been an uphill in most organisations. Many orgabisation have legacy data that is largely uncategorised, and seldom retrieved. STATEMENT OF PROBLEM A financial firm has been storing its records offsite for convenience and security purposes. However, over the years the firm has performed limited review of the offsite records. Lack of offsite record disposal has also led to accumulation of a large number of records. BIS developed A risk record management approaches for the firm that led to large scale disposal. The approach involved priotizing the various resources according to the risk level the firm would incur if the records were lost. This approach was challenged due to a number of reasons. First the firm lacked reliability in labeling of the records. Inconsistency in record labeling posed a number of risks to the organization such as inability to locate records required for disposal as well as damaging of records that would be useful to the organization. Lack of record classification as well as regularity in labeling made it difficult for the company to identify those records that would sustain legal and regulatory issues. OBJECTIVES The main objective of this disposition strategy is to give assistance and direction on the conception and running of records and information and to shed light on employee responsibilities in regard to record management Creation of records In regard to record creation this strategy aims at making information available on the different types of records that need to be created, detained and managed so as to support the organization as well as legal requirements. It is also aimed at shedding light on the importance establishing the need for record creation, record categorization and labeling right from the point of creation. Apart from categorization the person creating the document should clearly indicate how long a particular document will be required to be in use. Employee responsibility Give guidance on the definition of employee responsibility in regard to information record management. The strategy creates awareness that all employees are responsible as far as information management is concerned. The strategy further defines specific responsibilities for particular workers. Sensitize on the importance of training employee in information management and communication of the information to the employees. Management of information records Provide guidance of the effective handling of the created records. What are the fundamental means of information management? The strategy aims at helping organizations to develop appropriate and functional retrieval and filing systems. Avail information on the types of filing and retrieval systems that can be used. To provides information on how he organization can ensure data protection continually. AREAS OF CONSIDERATION Compliance To dispose off records in a legal manner organisations need to seek permission from the conerned authorities.this process is important in ensuring that only those records that are no longer useful are disposed.Compliance assits the organiation to limit illegal destruction of records. Inconsistent and illegal document destruction leads to accountability and legal impediment. Compliance can result in efficiency through getting rid of unnecessary information records. security Data protection and privacy issues are issues of great concern among the record managers. Record managers play a significant role in regard to protection of organization data record. The manager’s role has advanced to include responsiveness of security and privacy concerns. The requirement to ensure that certain information regarding individual is not retained has led to focus on record destruction and retention schedules. For instance the USA is the most regulated country in regard to record keeping requirement. These regulatory laws can create compliance difficulties for both private businesses and government agencies because they no easy to locate, understand and apply. Litigation Most organizations implement data record management strategies purposely to reduce litigation risks and probable penalties. A continually functional management information system can possibly reduce accountability caused by document disposal. This can be possible through methodical regular disposal in the progression of business. Efficiency productivity Time taken looking for misplaced and misfiled information is largely non-productive. Excellent record management system can ensure that information retrieval is highly enhanced. Controls measures should be exercised to ensure that acesss of information records is restricted. ALTERNATIVE COURSES OF ACTION 1. Identification of the activities and functions of each program and find out the appropriate records needed to file the functions and activities 2. construct enough records to document the activities and functions 3. The records should be maintained in such a way that they are accessible to all those who need to use the records. 4. Documents should only be destroyed with authorization. Records that have been authorized for disposal should not be kept. 5. Official records should be stored separately 6. Very important records should be protected with the importance they deserve. 7. Records that contain highly sensitive data for instance confidential business and security classified should be protected. 8. Identify the documents that need to be kept for each function performed 9. Employees to be assigned responsibility for the legal file and this should be assessed as performance standards 10. Filing should be done on a regular basis ANALYSIS OF THE COURSES OF ACTION Identification of functions and activities is very significant in ensuring that only the appropriate files are created. At this point in time it is important that the user determines the need for the record creation as well the category where it should be placed. Construction of enough documents will ensure the documents are well filed and limit mixing of the documents. This will facilitate data accessibility and retrieval. Availing the record to those who need to access the will avoid non-productivity as the employees will take less time to retrieve the information they need. It is very important for organization to comply with the relevant authorities when it comes to the destruction of documents. This is very important as it enables the organization to avoid legal problems associated with non compliancy to legal authorities. Separate storage of official data facilitates easy access of the information and protects the information from unauthorized access. Those records that contain sensitive data should be protected. Protection limits information loss and prevents free access to the sensitive information that otherwise should be confidential. CONCLUSION The primary aim of this paper is establish the causes of lack of record categorization and labeling in the financial firm offer applicable recommendations. There are several factors that cause Lack of unswerving record categorization in an organization. Lack of information on the side of the employee may lead to inconsistency in record categorization. Another possible cause is lack of well formulated classification policies in the organization. Additionally, poor implementation of categorization policies by the record managers can limit record categorization. Ignorant employees are thus more likely to neglect record categorization comparable to knowledgeable employees. Recommendations 1. The firm should define a comprehensive classification program to be used for record categorization 2. This program should be available to all the stakeholders in the management of record within the organization. In fact, all the employees should be sensitized regarding the policy program. 3. The firm should invest in education programs to educate its workers on the benefits and risks of record categorization 4. Employees should be made aware of the fact that it is their responsibility to ensure all records created are categorized accordingly 5. Each employee should have a well defined role in the management or records. This management role should be part of the employee performance standards. 6. All the record kept by the company should be categorized according to their level of access 7. The firm should preserve list of staff members who are authorized to access confidential records. 8. The organization identify information record as either dead or inactive on a regular basis 9. Those records that have outlived their period of stay should be disposed in accordance with regulatory directives from the concerned authorities. Read More