Any company planning for corporate relocation should be conscious about document retention guidelines. Proper record management during a corporate move is very important in determining the business’s future workflow. The identification and classification of records can be done as per company guidelines; records can be classified into different categories such as documents that are to be converted to electronic format for storage, those that should be maintained on-site, those that must be maintained in an archive facility, those that must be destroyed, and so on.
Have you thought about what all can be done to improve document management during your relocation process?
Planning Stage before Corporate Move
Analyzing and classifying individual record collections: Identification and classification of records can be done by case-by-case analysis. Records should be evaluated for the following:
- Whether they have passed their retention period and can be destroyed
- Whether records need to be accessed during the move and if so, which of them
- Confidentiality of information in the collection
- What all legal requirements or compliance guidelines must be satisfied for moving these types of files?
- What kind of growth is expected from this collection after the move?
- What all challenges in data access and retrieval can be addressed in the new facility?
Reviewing Record Governance Policies
Thorough research of the new legal jurisdiction is always necessary before company relocation. Once you understand the specific requirements of the new jurisdiction, you can review the existing governance policies, including classification and retention schedules, record policies, and disaster recovery procedures.
Cleansing Documents: While moving the records to the new location, it is important to check and sort those records that can be destroyed and those that don’t actually need to be moved to the new location. Cleansing documents dramatically reduces the cost of move.
How to Manage Records During and After the Move
Employee-friendly indexing and retrieval systems: Records that need to be accessed during the active phase of the move should be packed and labeled in the same manner as that of the old filing system. This allows your staff to retrieve and access records easily. Indexing of records should be done by creating a list of the contents in each container, by including labels to identify the original location, and by performing regular audits to ensure the integrity of the collections.
Security and Access Controls: Those documents that require data security should be maintained according to general legislative and regulatory requirements. Security of the documents should be ensured by implementing effective measures such as tamper-resistant seals for storage containers, onsite supervision of packaging, and monitoring of storage facilities for containers that await delivery.
New Plans in Record Management: As part of the overall move process, consider making some healthy updates to the existing plan. This may include newer and more efficient methods of storage, enhanced and updated records governance policies, and so on.
Proper planning and management of records during relocation is the perfect opportunity to take your records management program to the next level and maintain it over time. However, associating with a professional document management company helps to save time, shorten the learning curve, and reduce the risk factor.
