Beat the clock in the: event-based retention countdown.

AuthorTrombley, Sue

When complying with records retention rules is too difficult, a "keep everything" culture that impedes successful information governance often arises in organizations. Make compliance easier by following these recommendations for dealing with a significant contributor to that difficulty: event-based retention rules.

Every records retention schedule contains retention rules that require an event to occur before the retention clock starts. For example, it might start when an employee is separated from the organization or a contract is concluded or a particular model of appliance is no longer in production.

Decades of consulting experience with hundreds of organizations have shown me that at least 50% of their retention rules--or even more, depending on their industry--fall into this category. And, most struggle to find an effective way to "flip the switch" that begins a record's destruction eligibility countdown. In fact, the "2013-2014 Information Governance Benchmarking Survey" by Cohasset Associates, ARMA International, and AIIM revealed that 67% of organizations believe that their records and information management (RIM) program would benefit from fewer event-based retention periods.

Since writing a white paper two years ago about the challenges of managing records with event-based retention rules and providing potential options for tackling the complexities they pose, I have collaborated with a group of leading RIM and information governance (IG) professionals to consider the practical application of those options in the workplace. This article presents possible solutions gleaned from those participants' collective experience and points of view. Readers will need to consider their organization's risk profile, ability to commit resources, and attitude towards "keeping everything" to determine if one or more is applicable to their situations.

Why Disposition Matters

At its core, the search for finding defensible methods to handle event-based retention rules is to ensure the timely, consistent, and compliant disposition of records, whether they are paper or electronic and wherever they may reside. Appropriate disposition is critical for several reasons:

* It is neither cost-effective nor prudent from a risk perspective to hold on to records, or their underpinning data, indefinitely, which often happens simply because retention and disposition dates cannot be determined.

* Further, in many jurisdictions, particularly the European Union, there are strict requirements to destroy private information about employees and customers as soon as it is no longer required for the business...

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