There’s a difference between keeping information and managing it. A business keeps thousands of paper or digital records of transactions, employee records, projects, and other activities. Managing records includes implementing policies and procedures to ensure that records remain available during the period they are needed. But how long will records be needed? Keeping records and managing them can be complicated. That’s why a records retention consultant can be invaluable to your business.
Your records are the lifeblood of your company. Records provide everything you need to prove compliance with legal requirements, monitor your production levels, and manage your employees, individually and as teams. However, records do not help you unless they exist in your organization when you need them. And, when records are no longer needed, you need them eliminated, so they do not hurt you.
Not being able to access the correct data at the right time can cost your company time and money. These are the most compelling reasons why you should consider hiring a records retention consultant:
- Ensure your records retention program is legally compliant. – IRCH offers current legal research for the United States and other countries to ensure that your program meets the myriad of legal requirements now and in the future.
- Ensure that the retention periods include the right retention factors. – IRCH has decades of experience interpreting records retention laws and correctly establishing legal and user (operational) retention periods for the related records.
- Ensure that the retention schedule is customized. – You don’t want a “cookie-cutter” retention schedule. Instead, you want a schedule related to your records, your industry, and your ways of doing things. An IRCH consulting project provides a customized solution that makes sense for your organization.
- Complete the retention project in a timely manner. – You need the new Records Retention Schedule now to begin implementation and ensure compliance. A “do-it-yourself” retention project, even with records retention software, could take many months to complete, with a painful learning curve. IRCH has the experience to understand your industry needs and draw on its retention experience from working with hundreds of other organizations just like yours.
You don’t have to navigate the ins and outs of records retention and records governance alone. Information Requirements Clearinghouse (IRCH) can help you develop a legally-compliant records retention schedule customized to meet your organization’s needs. During the information gathering stages, IRCH can also assess other issues related to your records management program, prepare recommendations for improvement, and prepare procedures to ensure your records retention program remains relevant and compliant.
Call for a free consultation today.
