Putting the 'People' in People,
Process, and Technology
Susan Cisco, Director, Gimmal
Sue Trombley, Managing Director,
Iron Mountain Consulting
Today’s Topics
 Unified Records Management (URM)?
 Records Coordinator Networks Survey Results
 Emerging Best Practices
 Q&A
What is URM?
• Unified Records Management enables consistent
management of all records and information, physical
and electronic, through their lifecycle, apply policy for
retention and destruction, and simplify RM processes on
a common platform
Renewed Interest in Records Coordinators
• As organizations move forward with URM, they
are asking who will assist with the
implementation of URM
• Traditional “Records Coordinator” role directed
at physical records:
– Coordinate cleanup events
– Assist with applying/releasing retention holds
– Manage off-site storage and retrieval of physical
information stored with third party vendors
• Up-to-date guidance on Records Coordinator
networks is lacking
Records Coordinator Networks
Survey Results
Zoomerang Survey
• Because of their depth of RM knowledge and
experience, the survey population was CRMs
• Identified email addresses for 886 of 911
active CRMs
• Launched survey April 19:
– Delivered 838 surveys to valid email addresses
– Received 97 responses (12%)
Industry Sectors (n=94)
Government, Defense, Public Service
19%
Utilities, Oil & Gas
Banking, Finance, Insurance
Professional Practices (Law Firms,
Consultancies)
Manufacturing, Wholesale, Retail
Chemicals, Pharmaceuticals, Plastics
& Metals
Education, School, R&D
Information Technology
18%
13%
11%
Healthcare
Other
2%
19%
6%
4%
4%
3%
Number of Employees (n=79)
1-100 Employees
101-1,000 Employees
1,001-5,000 Employees
5%
25%
23%
5,001-15,000 Employees
15,001-30,000 Employees
30,001-50,000 Employees
20%
13%
4%
50,001-100,000 Employees
More than 100,000 Employees
4%
6%
43%
Definition of
Records Coordinator (RC) in Survey
“Serves as liaison between their department or
location and records management staff and
provides support for implementation of the
organization's recordkeeping policies,
procedures, standards, and guidelines at the
department/location level.”
What Name Is Used for RC Role? (n=80)
Other
34%
Records
Liaison
20%
Records
Coordinator
46%
When Was RC Network Established? (n=75)
1987 or earlier
1988-1998
19%
12%
1999-2004
2005-2010
2011 to present
20%
41%
8%
61%
• More than half (61%) began in1999-2010
– Scandals of the early 2000s (Enron and WorldCom)
– Sarbanes-Oxley Act 2002
– Amended Federal Rules of Civil Procedures 2006
– Others: FACTA, HIPAA, GLB,…
RC to Staff Ratio (n=76)
ACTUAL RATIO – Staff/RC
977 / 1
IDEAL RATIO – Staff/RC
625 / 1
• Number of RCs at 64% of desired state
– Not a question of talent, but scale
– Budget constraints
– Competing priorities
Is Electronic RM an RC Function?
 Respondents could give more than 1 response
No, physical only
51%
Maintain inventories of business information assets in
electronic format
34%
Check that large record repositories such as imaging
and document management systems are properly
classified for retention
30%
Check that records in shared drives are properly
classified for retention
26%
Activate retention events for event-based retention
periods such as "Termination of employment + x
years" and "Expiration of contract + x years"
23%
Participate in imaging feasibility studies and/or quality
control of scanning operations
19%
Check that email records are properly classified
17%
Act as a Team Site or Site Collection Administrator for
SharePoint
9%
What Functions Do RCs Perform?
 Respondents could give more than 1 response
Liaise with the organization's Records Manager/RM Officer
91%
Check that physical records sent to offsite storage are
properly classified and packaged
75%
Coordinate activities for record cleanup events
71%
Notify Records Manager/RM Officer when there is a need to
revise recordkeeping policies, procedures, & guidelines
70%
Coordinate record destruction activities
70%
Train staff members on implementing the recordkeeping
procedures
61%
Interpret recordkeeping policies, procedures, and
guidelines
49%
Conduct or participate in RM audit activities
47%
Apply/release retention holds
23%
Other (i.e., compliance self-assessment, IM solution
design)
18%
What % of Time Is Spent on RC Role?
(n=74)
1-10%
11-25%
26-50%
70%
20%
4%
51-75%
76-100%
1%
4%
• 90% spend less than 26% of time
– Majority (70%) spend 1% - 10% of their time in
the Records Coordinator role
90%
How Are RC’s Developed?
 Respondents could give more than one response
*
*
Train them on the role of the Records Coordinator
76%
Train them on the principles & practices of records
management for both paper and electronic records
65%
Make Records Coordinator function a part of each
coordinator's job description
31%
Make Records Coordinator function a part of each
coordinator's performance appraisal
26%
Train them on legal issues such as eDiscovery
27%
Empower them with public support from senior
management
26%
No formal training given
18%
Other *
23%
Train them on legal issues regarding HIPAA and HITECH
Regular meetings and hands-on support when needed
What Tools Are Provided to RCs?
 Respondents could give more than one response
Web-based training modules
52%
Lunch & learn meetings
Records management software
Industry association training
48%
39%
17%
Metadata management training and tools
Other *
14%
32%
* 6% mentioned regular internal meetings:
• Annual update meetings
• Monthly network meetings
• Quarterly meetings with Records
Management
Biggest Challenge (n=71)
 Lack of support from executive level
- “Raising awareness at the ‘C’ level that RM is critical to
success; change perception from a ‘chore’ to a critical part
of business continuity & acknowledge performance”
 Mobility of Records Coordinators, turnovers,
transfers
- “Probably our greatest challenge is keeping our
information/directory of records coordinators up to date.
We really do have hundreds of records coordinators … and
the turnover is pretty large.”
Records Coordinator Networks
Best Practices
Biggest Success (n=62)
 “Awareness of records management and the
requirement to dispose of records in a timely and
secure manner has increased dramatically.
Production of video training targeted at different
layers of management has brought RIM awareness
to the forefront.”
 One very large team (5000 employees) created 3
functional teams who oversee 3 major business
functional areas and are working with sites and
departments to implement file plans and gather
more detailed inventory lists.
Biggest Success (n=62)
 “Their [RCs] ability to prepare their departments for
the annual compliance audits and taking ownership
and pride in the audit results.”
 “Willingness to learn, enthusiastic about wanting to
clean up share drives, ready to embrace technology
to streamline recordkeeping.”
 “Building a global 600-person community in a twoyear period, and developing training tools and
communication templates for them to use with their
business units.”
The Commitment/Practice Divide
94%
more budget
80%
have formal policies
64%
provide training
72%
no strategic plan
63%
inconsistently
applied policies
15%
Only
audit & review
Unified Records Management
 Establish a foundation
77% have formal, policy-driven processes to protect private
information from unauthorized or inadvertent access
 Unify physical records
83% report that they are unable to locate hardcopy records when
needed, due in large part to the fact that not all records, across all
locations, are indexed
 Unify electronic records
Only 35% say they can classify and index user-created electronic
records at time of creation or later in their lifecycle
Best Practices
• Put the “I” in Records Coordinator by extending
RC role to electronic records
• Support the RC network with an online
community (blogs, team site), monthly
conference calls, weekly FAQ sessions,
coordinator of the month recognition,
multimedia training, annual objective
templates, etc.
Best Practices
• Make RC role a part of each RC’s job description
and performance appraisal; use of
acknowledgment agreements
• Create a “buddy” system to hedge against
turnover
• Extend awareness of records and information
management to all employees to lighten RC’s
load
Case Studies
• Government agency grew from 1 FTE RC to 12 in
2 years. Constant re-enforcement of risk to
leadership through scenarios, real and imagined
• Increased networking with IT – including input
to technology selection and implementation
26
Case Studies
• Global corporation addressed media neutral
records management through creation of records
coordinator and IT representative pairs for each
operating company/business unit
• Partnership increases RC erecords/technology
understanding
27
Where Do We Go From Here?
 RC strategy
 Focus on unification of paper and
electronic records
 Change management
 Training
 On-going communication
Questions & Answers
THANK YOU!
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