Harnessing the winds of change.

• Author: Vednere, Ganesh
• Position: MANAGEMENT WISE

[ILLUSTRATION OMITTED]

Organizations change constantly. They are subject to reorganization, budget fluctuations, new business processes, new technology implementations, and changing legislation and regulations. Frequently these compel changes to RIM programs. RIM professionals must anticipate and be prepared to lead their organizations through any change that affects information assets.

Change is the name of the RIM game. Information is constantly being updated, transformed, transmitted, and superseded. Information systems are constantly receiving feeds from internal and external sources. Business processes and procedures change to keep up with the pace of business. Organizations are restructured, causing workers to change their roles and responsibilities. In short, information is rarely stationary. As the old saying goes, "The only constant is change."

With RIM, the situation is even more complicated. New record types are created as business grows or transforms itself in various ways. Existing record information is modified when record locations, formats, and other metadata change. Modifications to business applications cause different types of records to be generated. Amendments to laws and regulations change retention requirements. All of this is enough to make one shout, "Stop!" But the pace of information growth does not slow down. In fact, the organization's information domain keeps growing exponentially.

In a RIM program, change has to be managed at both a proactive and a reactive level. Because RIM professionals often find themselves the point people to address unexpected change issues, they have to develop reactive change controls and processes, as well.

Controls for Records Management Changes

Change management entails involving key players and stakeholders and using a structured approach to implement and minimize resistance to change. With any change management process, the primary concern is to understand the change, assess the impact on existing processes, and develop ways to either minimize the impact or update existing processes to absorb that change. These are the various types of changes that often occur within a RIM program.

Policy and Procedure Changes

RIM policies and procedures are subject to change and need to be reevaluated from time to time. Policies and procedures can be updated as a result of major organizational changes, business transformations, annual reviews, audits, legal or regulatory reasons, or any other events that have a material impact on how records are managed within the organization.

Whatever the reasons, every RIM professional should consider developing controls to manage updates to policies and procedures. This requires the RIM professional to:

1. Understand the changes that need to be made.

2. Conduct a detailed evaluation of the impact of those changes on the day-to-day management of records.

3. Assess the changes that may be required to the record inventories, retention periods, electronic records management systems (ERMs), line-of-business processes, procedures, and business applications.

4. Revise training and communications, as many policy changes can be addressed either by employee communication or a more formal update to the training itself. Employees can either take the updated training immediately or in the next round of annual training...