Tips for globalizing a U.S.-based records retention schedule.

• Author: Corey, Tom

U.S-based organizations that try to globalize their U.S.-focused records retention schedules by simply extending them to include international requirements will fall short in meeting their compliance obligations. Discover the problems this approach creates and how to avoid them.

For years the processes of creating, implementing, and maintaining records retention schedules for organizations with an international footprint were U.S-focused. The schedules addressed U.S. requirements and were designed to minimize the impact of the litigious U.S. business environment. Addressing the records created and maintained by international offices often was an afterthought or considered the responsibility of those offices.

But the increased use of electronic records management systems that cross borders and the passage of stricter data privacy and recordkeeping laws are forcing organizations to address international recordkeeping requirements when creating and maintaining a single, unified retention schedule.

Organizations often begin by trying to implement their U.S. schedule for their international operations. While at first this might seem like a cost-effective approach, it leads to problems the organization must address. What follows are examples of these problems with their potential solutions.

Problem 1:

Meeting Widely Varying Requirements

International retention requirements vary greatly, with both minimum and maximum requirements for certain records.

Factors to Consider

Though picking the maximum retention requirement as a default is a common practice in the United States, this doesn't work for a global schedule. Variations in retention requirements for similar records are within years in the United States, but may vary by decades in other countries.

For example, U.S. state wage and hour records retention requirements range from one year in Georgia, Kentucky, Louisiana, and New Mexico to--at the other end of the spectrum--six years in Hawaii, New Jersey, and New York; the U.S. federal requirement is three years. So, choosing six years as the retention period for U.S. employee payroll and time card data is not overly burdensome.

However, international retention requirements for payroll and personnel records range from a maximum of two years after termination in countries with strict privacy policies, such as the Netherlands, to as many as 50 years in Bulgaria, Lithuania, Poland, and Romania. Therefore, choosing a 50-year retention period would not...