In the past few years people in all parts of the organization are beginning to appreciate what effective electronic records management can mean to their business. It might be as simple as finding what you need quickly, or more complex like cost effectively producing records and information to satisfy an auditor, or something in between. How can you capitalize on this new awareness of electronic records management and help your company succeed?
The answer is to turn this awareness into knowledge. Here are a couple of ideas for improving the knowledge of your staff:
1. Publicize your company’s policies – chances are your company has many policies that describe how employees should handle records. Too often employees think this just means paper records. Remind them that these policies apply to records in any format. If that email or Word document is a record, protect it accordingly.
2. Build the skills of your staff – when managing electronic records there are many groups that play a role. No longer is records management just for the records group. Legal, IT and business professionals need a basic understanding of records management principles. They should know what a record is, what a retention schedule compels them to do, and how a file plan facilitates the management of records. And they just may need to know the ins and outs of selecting and deploying a records management solution.
3. Certify! – Before giving someone the role of managing a portion of your company’s records, be sure that person has a basic understanding of your company’s policies and more than just a passing knowledge of records management principles. An easy way to do this is to build into the role a certification requirement. The certification may be an external certification they earn, or an internal certification your company provides. Here are some certification examples to consider:
Certification | Recommended Requirement for: |
CRM Certified Records Manager | Company Records Managers |
ERMM Electronic Records Management Master (4 day course) | Company Records Managers Business Unit Records Managers |
ERMS Electronic Records Management Specialist (2 day course) | IT staff Records ECM project teams ERM project teams Records Specialists |
ERMP Electronic Records Management Practitioner (2 day course) | Business unit supervisors Legal staff Records Technicians Records Focal Points/Coordinators Records Analysts |
Please leave a comment or email me at rrusso@accesssciences.com if you have another certification to recommend or are interested in learning more about how Access Sciences can help equip your organization with ERM Master, Specialist and Practitioner certifications.
