The Managing Government Records Directive (M-12-18) set the deadline to manage all email in electronic format by the end of 2016. Originally,  92 percent of agencies reported that they expected to meet this goal last year, but only 79 percent succeeded in fulfilling that promise.

The next upcoming deadline, which requires agencies to manage permanent electronic records in an electronic format, is set for the end of 2019. Now, 98 percent of agencies promise that they will successfully hit that deadline. However, given the gap between expectations and reality experienced leading up to the 2016 deadline, this estimate is likely too optimistic.

The fact that agencies struggled to manage email records in an electronic format does not bode well for the impending 2019 deadline, which is much more all-encompassing. Email is by no means a new technology, and the rise of even newer communications platforms have introduced relatively novel record formats into the public sector, such as voice messages, text messages, instant messages and social media. This means agencies will have an exponentially harder time meeting the next deadline.

Currently, only 30 percent of agencies have approved records schedules for managing these types of non-traditional records.

So, how can agencies address these issues? Here are some recommendations to get the ball rolling:

Conduct a comprehensive records assessment

As agencies conduct their daily operations, records are constantly being generated and updated. As these records change, so must the records and retention schedules that govern them. But to understand exactly how their management schedules and frameworks need to be updated, agencies must first conduct comprehensive records assessments. After all, how can agencies make full use of their information if they do not know where all of it is located and what controls are governing it?

Agencies need to first review their owned information assets to assess the governance policies and retention periods associated with that information. Ensuring universal policies are applied to all formats agencywide helps to keep inventories clean, and is thus easier to manage and access. By clearly defining and applying fixed and event-based retention policies to their information stores, agencies can ensure that all of their assets are being appropriately governed in accordance with National Archives and Records Administration standards and mandates.

This will help ensure that agency information maps remain up-to-date and that agencies are not incurring unnecessary cost overruns, which occur when records are inappropriately governed or kept past their necessary retention periods.

Upon completing this step, agencies that have not already done so can take this opportunity to submit these formalized schedules and frameworks to NARA, as mandated by the 2016 deadline for submitting schedules for all existing non-electronic records. This is a vital step forward for the 38 percent of agencies that either have not scheduled all of their records or were still conducting inventories and other research as of the latest records management self-assessment report.

Implement meaningful measures and metrics

Currently, 53 percent of agencies have a method for estimating the volume in bytes of permanent electronic records currently being maintained by their agency. The remaining 47 percent urgently need to make it a priority to develop similar methods for estimating their total volume in bytes as well. This serves as a quantifiable measure for first identifying all the information assets under an agency’s control, and then for maintaining that inventory.

Further, 39 percent of agencies responded “No” or “Don’t Know” about having documented and approved procedures for enabling the migration of records and associated metadata to new storage media or formats so that records are retrievable and usable. To improve, agencies first need to complete an assessment of their current metadata and taxonomy structure, ensuring that it is applicable across all types of record formats. In this assessment, their goal is to find gaps where current metadata is missing or the existing taxonomy structure is insufficient.

This kind of analysis requires bringing together records managers, IT personnel and other line of business owners to provide input, update taxonomies and craft an implementation plan for handling new record formats. With retention guidelines in place and metadata analysis complete, agencies will now have a good idea of what their ideal “should be” records state looks like, so they can move on to maintaining that state and improving accessibility through advanced tools like analytics and automation.

Build the case for governance – Who needs to be involved?

Given the amount of dialogue that is required in conducting effective records and metadata assessments, the need for establishing open internal avenues of communication inside an agency should be clear. In the most recent round of Records Management Self-Assessments, agencies reported that 81 percent of Agency Records Officers (AROs) meet with their Senior Agency Official for Records Management (SAORM) at least four or more times a year to discuss agency records management goals. The report states that this is almost a 10-percentage point increase from 2015 and a very promising increase of 15 percent since the question was first asked in 2014. This suggests that the SAORMs are becoming increasingly engaged in records management within agencies. However, on the downside, this means almost 20 percent of SAORMs are not meeting regularly with their AROs – a clear opportunity for improvement.

Additionally, senior records officials need to make sure that they are fully engaged with their agency leadership and capable of presenting a solid business case that fully demonstrates the efficiency, risk avoidance and cost effectiveness gains of a solid records management strategy. This means presenting the expected workflow and financial gains that are typically realized from the improvement of records management processes.

However, it’s not just agency leadership that needs to be involved – agencies also need to rope in their end users who handle agency information on a daily basis, the agency employees. Once the heavy lifting is complete, agencies can ensure their new and improved governance frameworks translate into daily operations formalizing records and information training for all employees. That training should entail regularly scheduled, formal records and information management training to reinforce policies and ensure the same best practices are being followed consistently throughout the agency. This will have widespread, beneficial effects on compliance, ensuring records are being created and handled in accordance with set policies.

Agencies are facing a records revolution that will be coming to a head within the next couple of years. Records officers need to ensure that their agency leadership fully understands the business case for a modernized records management program, from ensuring future compliance, to risk reduction and overall cost savings.

Next, they need to be sure that they are meeting with their SAORMs in a timely and continuous manner. Lastly, agencies need to ensure that all of the above steps are solidified into a formal, permanent framework that will grow in accordance with the expanse of agency records and includes regularly updated training.

By following these steps, agencies can guarantee that policy is consistently translated into execution, readying them for the next wave of government records.

April Chen is a senior product manager for Iron Mountain.

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