A new year means new plans. Businesses small and large are looking to increase productivity and revenues, all while optimizing the procedures to make those strides happen. Guiding these improvements is information, which means the way you are collecting and storing it should also be analyzed to provide the most secure and efficient methods available to your unique business needs. It can sound like a lot, but rest assured, there are ways to focus your ambitions and we have provided 5 tips on how to better manage the information that your business handles. Let’s take a look at these 5 records management tips:
Tip 1 – Records Retention
It all begins with a records retention schedule. Reviewing the retention dates and policies in place to verify regulatory compliance and accuracy helps to minimize risk. Update retention and destruction rules to not only protect you and your business, but the information that you hold about your customers and vendors. If no retention policy exists, this will be your starting point. Examine the retention requirements necessary for the information you collect, put policies into place, and execute those policies across all departments.
Tip 2 – Assess Gaps
Having an understanding of where your business could be deficient in its records management policies can close the gaps that may exist and significantly reduce the risk of a breach of data. From information security to business continuity, as data continues to grow, so too should your policies to ensure it is secure and accessible should the worst happen.
Tip 3 – Planning for Response
We see them almost every day, data breaches affecting companies both small and large. You may be tempted to think, well no one cares enough about my business information to even want to try to access it. Unfortunately, having this mentality can have detrimental affects on your company. Waiting until the worst happens has you ill prepared to handle the mandates for reporting a breach and never ends well. With fines and your reputation on the line, developing a breach response plan helps ensure you and your business are prepared should one occur.
Tip 4 – Eliminating Wasted Space
With space at a premium and offices increasingly storing paper records that aren’t accessed frequently on-site, optimizing how that space is used becomes vital to allowing organizations to operate smoothly and effectively. Assess whether those records stored on-site could be better served stored off-site, scanned and digitized, or destroyed in order to make better use of the space that is currently occupied by boxes or cabinets.
Tip 5- Transform the Way Documents are Accessed
Speed and reliability are at the forefront of any type of transaction. Therefore, bringing hard copy and digital data together is as important as ever for any type of business. Making the scanning of hard copy documents a priority creates a more seamless connection for employees to access information and reliably respond to inquiries as quickly as possible. Not to mention, it helps future proof their ability to access documents remotely in this hybrid work environment.
Planning for success means having a strong understanding on how best to manage your information. Creating records management policies and processes can seem complicated but analyzing each necessity one by one will lay the foundation for the management of data. Here’s to your success in the New Year!