If an organisation desires to have control over its important records and documents then the most effective way is record retention. A record retention schedule ensures that if there are any valuable and quiet important documents which are a proof of the organisation’s activities, then those documents should be carefully stored and protected so that no one other than the member of the organisation could access those documents.
The important documents must have some historical value or concerned with some legal or administrative work. On the other hand if the documents have no such importance then they should be destroyed in a systematic way.
To protect an individual and his organisation a record retention schedule is very important. Some important steps involved in establishing a schedule are given below:
- Formation of a team to implement a schedule-The team for forming a record retention schedule should include members from each level of management. The two broad categories into which a schedule is divided into are:
- The vision statement- This statement will tell the members of the team where should they stand in a few years. It is the ultimate desire of the organisation’s team.
- The mission statement-This statement clearly shows the main purpose for the formation of a schedule. This also tells the organisation how to achieve the vision of the schedule for a long term.
- Keep proper record of the organisation’s inventory-When it comes to inventory then it classifies the documents into different categories like records, non-records, vital records and archival records. These records should carry both physical and electronical documents that the organisation has with them. This is very long process but quiet beneficial before establishing a record retention schedule.
- Lastly, implement the schedule-Once all the records are settled and assembled together then the schedule is ready for implementation.
