Tips & Advice

While archiving is sometimes low on the priority list, we can all appreciate its role, particularly when you need to retrieve that critical document in a hurry.

Keeping a simple and effective Archiving Policy that staff adhere to is so important, sometimes essential, in running a smooth operation.

It’ll help you find material when you most need it, minimise accumulation of material you don’t need to keep and help ensure you meet your legislative requirements.

We’ve collated a few steps to help you on your way to creating an Archiving Policy that works:

Step 1. Identify who is responsible for archiving, and commit to documenting a procedure.

Step 2. Identify the document types that are generated and kept by your organisation, and for how long (retention schedule).

Step 3. Determine how records are to be physically stored. Boxes on shelving, compactus, offsite, or better still in an Archive Management Storage System! The efficiency of your system and ease of access to records are key considerations.

Step 4. Develop a form for submission of new archive material. This may be as simple as a one-page printed form to be attached to boxes, or something more elaborate like a Google form that then populates responses into an archive spreadsheet. Details this form should capture are things like:

• Author or staff member adding material
• Date of submission
• Document type and date (or date range of documents within box)
• Retention period
• Destruction date
• Contents of box

Remember, the quality of this data will heavily influence your ability to find records in the future, and destroy them when the time comes.

Step 5. Establish a system for managing the archive catalogue. It’s best to avoid the scenario of having a room full of labelled boxes and no idea of where anything is located.

The first step is to number/label your boxes that correspond with an external catalogue of the metadata captured in the form (explained in step 4 above). This catalogue may simply be a print out of the archive forms, arranged in order of box numbers.

Better still, an electronic catalogue of the contents of your archive material will make life much easier when it comes to finding records and making the decision to destroy them. This could simply be a spreadsheet, with the row headers corresponding to the form questions.

Step 6. Define access procedures. Access to archives should be restricted, and a note should be made of when records are removed and re-lodged.  

Step 7. Establish how to handle the destruction of records. Once retention schedules are set for particular document types, determine the process for destruction. Important questions to ask include:

• Who is responsible internally?
• Will destruction be outsourced to an accredited contractor?
• How will destroyed records be documented?

Step 8. Review. Set a regular review date to assess how archiving is going.

• Is the policy being followed?
• Are we keeping the right documents, are we keeping too much?
• Is our physical method of storage working well?
• Are we keeping up with destruction schedules?

Follow these steps, and you’re on your way to having a best practice Archiving Policy that’ll help keep things in order. Contact us for more advice and to find out how we can help.

Where to start

Have your records become a headache? A creeping problem that gets bigger every year, making it seemingly harder and harder to tackle?
Sometimes you just need to make a start. Here are some tips on making the most of your new-found enthusiasm for archiving!

Keep in mind, the end game is being able to find documents in the future, and having confidence to destroy records when you’re ready and when legislation permits.

1. Oversight
   

   Do you have an archive room where anyone is permitted to fill an archive box and dump it on a shelf? A common problem is having many ‘accumulators’ of archive material but no one person or team to oversee document management as a whole. Assigning responsibility will help ensure proper procedures are established and the system is adhered to.

2. Categorise into document types
   

   Separating your archives into the various document types used in your organisation will make documents easier to find in the future, and easier to destroy when that time comes. Make a list of the key document types and archive appropriately.

3. Catalogue
   

   The best time to give archive documents meaning so that you can find them in the future is at the time of archiving. This can be as simple as handwriting the key information on the boxes – document type, contents, destruction date. Or, better still, number all your boxes and create an external catalogue, even a simple spreadsheet. This should contain the box identification numbers along with all the key information you need to find the right records down the track and destroy them when due.

4. Destroy
   

   Too much valuable space is wasted by old records that should be destroyed. Every industry will have legislated retention periods for particular document types. If your archives are grouped into these document types, and destruction information is assigned to the boxes, you should have confidence to securely destroy those records when the time comes. If there is some information deemed too important to destroy, identify these documents and archive them separately.

5. Have a system
   

   Spend a little time developing a procedure for archiving in your organisation, and communicate this to everyone who fills boxes with paperwork for safe keeping. This can be as simple as a basic one-page template affixed to every box. Keep an eye out for our next blog on simple steps to establishing a proper procedure – sign up below to receive updates.