The First Step

Truer words were never spoken when it comes to Records Management. I have been on many appointments where the department or company has years of back files physically stored. After drilling down to find out why it has been so important to keep so many old files, many of these companies have revealed to me that they have no other means of disaster recovery. Nor do they have any idea of what they have in storage, or any record of who has been in the records, or if any of the documents are misfiled. One location had close to 150 25-inch boxes stored above the office. Company executives were becoming concerned that they might fall through the ceiling some day.

You may have heard me say this before, but, like the journey of a thousand miles, records management starts with taking that first step. It's like realizing you haven't worked out or eaten right-suddenly you find yourself walking that first mile and saying "gosh, that felt great!"

Well, in records management, we always tell people to start small. Take terminated employee files, for instance: unless your company has had huge turnover in the past several years, chances are you have about 15- to 20-thousand pages of records on file. If you were to image those records and tie them to a database, you would have your audit trail, a backup, and be able to shred the paper records. It's like cleaning off the top of your desk. Man does it relieve the stress!

From there, you should understand that the process of records management is not to wait 10 years until the pile of boxes again looks like a tsunami. Instead, break your records management steps down throughout the year. Take those first steps and the process becomes fairly simple.

Need help with "fairly simple"-call me and I'll explain. 816-221-0123

Mark A. Zecy