This topic will help you learn the legal requirements for
document management policies and understand how to implement the practical
considerations unique to their respective companies. Best practices will be
emphasized, especially litigation avoidance and satisfying legal requirements.
Make sure you are in full compliance with your current
document retention and destruction policies. Many employers lack a document management
policy altogether, resulting in inconsistent document retention and destruction
a sure fire path to litigation and spoliation claims and little to no reliable
protection for confidential information. Another substantial number of
employers rely on generic policies whose sources are unknown, are from a
different industry, or rely on a different state’s laws, just to cite a few of
a myriad of problems with generic policies. The enormity of creating a model
policy unique to a specific employer creates a psychological barrier that
hinders the development and implementation of a much needed document management
policy.
Importance of Document
Retention and Destruction
Record retention in the past was a mundane affair.
File cabinets stuffed with paper served the purpose best. Today, new forms of
information and communication storage as well as data retrieval systems are
more prevalent than ever before.
Some of the major accounting firms have had bad
publicity in the press for questionable record keeping and handling. Many other
companies have shut down operations for the same reason. Records today are
subjected to greater monitoring and regulation. However, appropriate record
maintenance is necessary not only in the context of law but also from the
perspective of efficient business functioning.
The most critical thing to address in context of records
is their safe maintenance. Lost records lead to loss in tax advantages,
business opportunities, and time. In addition, businesses that do not keep
their records safe may face difficulties in situations like hacker attack and
fire breakout when recovery may be impossible.
Role of Human Resource
Professionals
The key to document retention is the extensive
training to human resource professionals in managing, organizing, and retaining
key business information and records. The human resource professionals can make
the right policies and put them in place for appropriate management of records.
However, each and every employee must be guided by these policies with the
adequate sense of responsibility towards safe record keeping.
Document Retention and
Destruction: The Right Way
Document disposal is as important as its retention. It
must be done in a right way. Business must know which records are to be
retained and figure out the least time for which they must be retained. The
trend is growing towards retaining documents for a longer time than it used to
be in the past.
There are some records like corporate governance,
minutes, bylaws, and shareholder agreements that must be permanently maintained
and their copies must be with the business attorneys. There are other records
like leases and agreements that must be kept safe at least until ten years
after their expiry. However, intellectual property documents must be retained
forever. The same goes for insurance policies since past claims can create
issues many years later.
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