Guidelines for Drafting an Effective Document Retention Policy
As you may recall we distributed our client survey earlier in the year. One request that many of our customers asked us for was advise on how to draft a Document Retention Policy. We took your request on board and have drafted these guidelines which we hope you will find useful for your organisation.
A Document Retention Policy requires comprehensive guidelines, which endorse your organisations principles on document management. Implementing a Document Retention Policy demonstrates that your organisation is striving for best practice and adhering to any legal or regulatory obligations. It also represents to employees and third parties the values that your organisation places on document management.
Below are guidelines to help you to develop an effective Document Retention Policy.
• If there is no business reason or legal obligation to retain a document, it can be destroyed. Retention of documents should be for legitimate business purposes only.
• Senior Management should distribute the completed Document Retention Policy statement to all staff in the organisation. This reinforces the importance that the organisation places on document management and also represents the organisation’s official procedures regarding their document management policies.
• A Document Retention Policy must be properly supervised. Ensure that all staff are aware of the existence of a document retention policy, accompanied by easily accessible written guidelines on how to apply it. Training for the proper use of these guidelines should be provided periodically.
• Your Document Retention Policy must contain guidelines on what documents should be destroyed and also the destruction process that the relevant document must undergo.
• Every precaution must be taken to ensure that the exposure of confidential documents is prevented. Ensure that documents are stored in a secure place.
• Ask your solicitor to review your Document Retention Policy. This is to ensure that your organisation holds a legitimate Document Management Policy, which manages documents generated in a legal and appropriate manner.
By implementing a Document Retention Policy you are ensuring that your organisation is being pro-active and responsible in the area of document management. If you would like further information on developing a Document Retention Policy, please contact your local representative or freephone us on 1800 345 348.
Disclaimer: All information contained above is for guideline purposes only & Filestores accept no responsibility for any consequences arising from such.
