Why should I have a retention schedule?
A document retention schedule serves as a legal roadmap for determining how long records must be kept and when they can be securely destroyed. In short, it clearly outlines which documents — whether physical or digital — need to be maintained and for how long.
If you're ever unsure what qualifies as a record at Kansas State University, be sure to review PPM 3090 or consult the Records and Information Management Month flowchart, "Is it a record?"
A retention policy also helps to ensure that businesses comply with state and federal laws.
Six reasons to establish a retention schedule
Reduce clutter: Too much clutter in the workplace can reduce productivity and increase stress. When you organize your information, you only save what is truly useful. A document retention policy also helps businesses reduce their on-site and off-site real estate footprints and costs. Likewise, the same policy can help reduce your digital footprint.
Increase efficiency: Over-retaining records or destroying them too soon can result in numerous legal issues. A document retention policy will detail how to organize documents for storage, retrieval and record-keeping, making locating and retrieving records much easier.
Save money: There are costs related to maintaining unnecessary records. Employees waste time and money looking for documents, and there are storage costs for office space, filing cabinets, hard drives and cloud storage.
Ensure compliance: Failure to comply with state and federal privacy laws by destroying or not maintaining records before the end of a required retention period can result in penalties. Your document retention policy should reflect all relevant compliance rules and other regulations.
Strengthen access control: Several laws, such as the Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act, or HIPAA, or Family Educational Rights Privacy Act, or FERPA, contain specific provisions for who may access information and how it may be used. Generally, information should be made available only on a need-to-know basis.
Improve security and data protection: One of the most valuable components of any document retention schedule is destruction. An organization should shred and delete any records containing confidential, personal or financial information when needed. Also, organizing your documents according to a schedule will help ensure that all sensitive material is stored securely.
If you want to learn more about retention schedules, consider registering for one of the Records Management Training sessions that are being held throughout the month. Manhattan Shred Day will take place from 9 a.m. to noon on April 23. Records Management Training 101 will take place from 2 to 3:30 p.m. on April 24, via Zoom. Shared Drive Clean-Up Trainings are available upon request.
Faculty and staff can sign up to attend the training sessions through HRIS Self-Service. More information, including registration details, is available on the Libraries' event webpage. Additional information and best practices can be found on the K-State records management webpage.
For questions regarding records retention and disposition, contact Danielle Hall, university records manager, at libsc@k-state.edu.
— Submitted by Lexi Liby