Many organizations are unsure of what they should or shouldn’t be keeping and by default, many just keep everything. Believe it or not, saving everything puts your organization at greater risk than if you had thrown the record away. If your organization is ever involved in litigation or a regulatory inquiry where you have to produce information, not only do you want to be able to quickly and securely access it but there is potential for the information you didn’t need to cause harm.
Record destruction is almost more important than retention. If you keep it, the court can find it and you can be held liable. However, according to a recent AIIM survey, 47% of organizations said they had records retention policies in place, but 51% were still relying on the manual deletion of records. In today’s complex business environment, a comprehensive records management policy with processes that are consistent, repeatable, and auditable is a crucial component to the overall success of any organization.
Since many business documents must be retained in accordance with federal regulations, we have compiled a list for you of some of the most commonly kept documents.
