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Records Management University

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Welcome to Records Management University, the world’s best and only entirely free course dedicated to serving Records Management professionals. 

With many looking to keep their skills sharpened in this brave new world of Records Management, our digital course is the perfect opportunity to keep up with the changes in the work environment.  RMU gives a global view of the benefits and challenges of being a Records Manager and covers many of the less-discussed areas and ideas in RM theory.

RMU is led by the Dean of Records Management Michael Edwards, and our latest addition and Director of Student Affairs Raymond Davis. 

Picked by AIIM International as one of the Top 5 Best Records Management Resources, and with over 7,000 RM and IG professionals already signed up, RMU is an ever-expanding and well-regarded resource.

 

Making RM Education Fun

RMU was founded by Mitch Farbstein. His theory of education is simple:  education needs to be fun, and students need theoretical frameworks with which to apply ideas. 

That approach to education made RMU a truly unique experience. It’s one of the first things people notice about RMU — the classes are just different!  There’s laughter, interesting ideas, and fun conversation.  We continue this legacy today.

A Different Kind of Class

RMU began 6 years ago, and the format hasn’t changed.  Each semester includes 5 or 6 classes that cover all aspects of Records Management, and each semester has a big theme to connect the ideas together. 

The first semester’s theme was Jeeps. (Yes, Jeeps! We told you it is an unusual series.)  Jeeps are unique among vehicles because they are truly modular.  You can modify them to fit your unique needs and personality. Similarly, there’s no such thing as a one-sized-fits-all approach to RM.

Since then we’ve used themes from Famous Explorers to the World’s Most Famous Documents to lay the framework for his discussions around RM theory, technique, and technology.

Viewers find that RMU’s unusual style of teaching makes the viewer genuinely want to keep watching.  For RMU, it’s all about building relationships between the subjects that we are teaching and topics that keep the students interested.

 

This Semester of RMU

This Spring 2021 semester is no exception.  Encouraged to adapt to meet the changes in our global work environment, Dean Michael is focused on the technologies that make Records Management possible.

The topics and conversations will cover everything from the changed landscape of Records Management, to your role in it.  RMU will spend these next 5 classes showing the viewer how to champion a socially distanced world of Records Management. You can tune in this spring.

Classes start soon, register today!

Every RMU session is pre-approved for 1 CRM Credit from the Institute of Certified Records Managers and can claim up to 5 CRM credits per semester.  CUEs can also be applied to ARMA IGPs and AIIM CIPs.

Picture of Shannon Heim

Shannon Heim

Shannon is the Senior Marketing Associate at Feith Systems and Software. With a deep commitment to enhancing digital transformation and transparency for government, Shannon promotes innovative solutions for efficient and accountable operations. In addition to her marketing duties, she contributes her expertise to Records Management University, helping to educate records managers.

COVID-19: Records Management as a function of Business Continuity

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Many companies do not give adequate attention to their Business Continuity plans.  This is likely due to the “normalcy bias” — the assumption that a disaster is unlikely because the chance of any one disaster happening is low, and because one hasn’t experienced a disaster recently.

Why is it flawed?  Mere statistics. To illustrate: the probability of flipping a quarter ten times in a row and getting heads every time is extremely low, 0.09%.  However, if you try it daily for three years, it becomes almost certain that it will happen at least once.

Similarly, each possible cause of outage or disaster is individually unlikely.  But over a long period of time, many unlikely things add up to a certainty.  That some form of disaster (whether hurricane, cyber-attack, or epidemic) will occur is a “when, not if” situation. 

When a disaster does happen, 40 to 60 percent of effected businesses will never re-open according to research from FEMA.  Companies would be well advised to prepare for all identified risks. 

At the time of writing this, we may have just such an identified risk: the novel coronavirus SARS-CoV-2 (or COVID-19).  The Center for Disease Control and the Department of Homeland Security told businesses last week to begin preparing for disruptions due to an increasingly likely outbreak in the US. 

Records Management as
Business Continuity

FEMA lists a comprehensive records management plan as one of three most important recovery tools to deal with a disaster.

Why? It’s simple. An organization’s memory resides in its records.

Business continuity stretches from simple decisions like backups and DR software, to the steps that it takes to get a business back to a normal state.  First among those is the need to understand what normal consists of.  Our repositories are not just as an asset to protect during a disaster, but a system to help us know what needs to get done.

It is more likely now than ever that company leadership will proactively invest in business continuity projects.  If there was a time for Records Managers to make the case that RM is an essential part of a company’s Business Continuity planning, it is now.

An Electronic Document and Records Management System (EDRMS) strategy supports your Business Continuity efforts, getting you back to “business as usual” as quickly as possible. 

If you’re ready to bring Records Management into your Business Continuity planning, here’s some questions to ask yourself:

1. How will our employees access their records if they must work from home?

During a major outage, employees will need to have access to their regular working files to stay productive. Electronic Document and Records Management systems allow your employees to continue working off-site, while protecting your content through fine-tuned ABAC and RBAC permissions.

2. Are manual processes putting us at a higher risk?

During a disaster, employees may be unable to perform their normal duties: manual processes that weren’t explicitly documented are lost without their presence or experience.  A complete records repository means that you can recover these lost processes by examining the files and communications employees produce surrounding them.

Modern ERM systems support the creating of Forms and Workflows on the fly.  During a disaster, being able to structure your processes digitally means faster time to recovery, maintaining continuous operations even with a workforce working out of office.  This supports conducting business and delivering services efficiently, even during disruptions.

3. Is our data digitized, archived and backed-up properly for Disaster Recovery situations?
Records Management systems will capture your documents and data, replicating them to disaster-safe storage.  With Disaster Recovery mechanisms in place for Records Management systems, major outages are unlikely to result in significant data loss.
Modern ERM systems allow for easy integration with your LOB servers and platforms, meaning you can support Disaster Recovery objectives even for systems that are not natively DR-ready.

4. How can we stay compliant during disasters?

Having a complete records system makes tying up the loose ends during and after any outages or disaster recovery situations much easier. This includes proving losses and damages for insurance claims with documentation, as well as monitoring for fraud.

During and after a disaster, organizations will need to prove their compliance with regulation and law, all while showing that they took the necessary steps to reduce loss of life or damage to property.  This is essential from both a legal standpoint, as well as a Public Relations one.

The message is clear: 
Records Management is a critical Business Continuity initiative. To ensure your company has a comprehensive plan, make sure they see the critical role of Records Management. The steps you take today will keep critical processes operational during a crisis, reduce process downtime, and reduce the risk your company faces.

Extra Credit Reading:  The Australian Capital Territory produced a significant guide to Records Management and Business Continuity back in August 2008.  It’s as relevant today.

Picture of Shannon Heim

Shannon Heim

Shannon is the Senior Marketing Associate at Feith Systems and Software. With a deep commitment to enhancing digital transformation and transparency for government, Shannon promotes innovative solutions for efficient and accountable operations. In addition to her marketing duties, she contributes her expertise to Records Management University, helping to educate records managers.

What is Records Management?

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The goal of a records manager is to figure out what documents are important for a company to keep. For example, some important documents for a company to keep are the W-2s of their employees. Another important type of document that all companies have are contracts with their suppliers.

Documents which are important to keep are called records. Thus, Records Management refers to the practice of properly controlling these important documents, and Records Managers are the people who do this job.

Additionally, Records Managers have another important task. They need to figure out how long the law requires a company to keep certain types of documents. For example, US Law requires that employers keep copies of all job applications for at least one year. Determining how long to keep a record is called retention, and an important document called a retention schedule is the list of how long each type of record must be kept.

Keeping records for the correct amount of time is important, since improperly destroying records can come with both big legal fines and also long court cases.

Over the years, companies and governments realized that there were other types of information besides documents which needed to be managed. That’s when the term, Records and Information Management was created (“RIM”). Today, Records Managers control and manage all of a company’s information, including information which is and is not a record.

What is the Records Management Lifecycle?

An important concept in Records Management is the Records Management Lifecycle. The records management lifecycle is the entire process that a record can go through, from the day the record is created to the day it is destroyed. Destroying a record is called disposition. Listed below are the 4 parts of the Records Management Lifecycle:

1. Creating Records and Receiving Them From Other Systems

Records have more than one way to get into an organization. For example, if you fill out a job application while in the Human Resources Department, that was created while you were visiting that department. If you apply for a job online, your job application will be forwarded to them electronically. It wasn’t something they created but they received it and it is a record they must keep.

2. Using Records When They’re In The System and Modifying Them During Use

Records can be used by many people. Some records may be used for the information in it. No changes will be made to them. An example would be a sales report. Other records may be modified over time. Your employee file is a prime example. When you become an employee, they start an employee file just for you. During the time you work there, other records may be added to the file. An example would be a job review or a notice of promotion.

3.  Maintaining Your Records and Protecting Them from Unauthorized Use

This part of the records management lifecycle stores records in the correct place. It also protects them from people that should not see them.

  • Maintain – Records are stored in places called a repository. You can have more than one repository to store records. For example, there may be one repository for Human Resource records. There may be another for Contracts. The Records Manager will decide how any repositories are needed.They will also decide which records go in each of the repositories. As records are created, they will make sure the records go to the correct repository. Records will stay here until they can be destroyed
  • Protect – Records need to be protected from people that should not see them.Records may contain sensitive information. Let’s use your employee file as an example. It will contain your name, home address, phone number, email address, social security number, and your annual income. Only certain people should be able to see that information. Access to records is granted by the Records Manager. For your employee file, access could be restricted to Human Resources employees. Employees in Purchasing or IT would not need access. Granting access only to specific employees, protects your organization. It also protects your employees and your customers.

4.  Disposition of Records

The final step in the Records Management Lifecycle is disposition. Disposition is what we do with a record when we’re done using it. Depending on the type of record, what we do with it when we’re done using it may differ. There is destruction, preservation, and accession. Each one disposes of a record differently.

  • Destruction – Records falling into this category will be destroyed. That means paper records will be shredded to a size they cannot be read. Electronic records will be deleted from the system they were saved in. After destruction you will not be able to access and read them again.
  • Preservation – Some records may be kept permanently because the law tells us they must be kept forever. Other records may be kept after their retention life is expired. One reason is for historical purposes. For example, the founding documents of an organization. This could be their company charter or original bylaws. Another reason to keep records is for reference material. Engineering plans are a great example. Engineers refer back to see how something was built. The original records would give the engineer that detail.
  • Accession – Accession means sending records from a government agency to NARA (National Archives and Records Administration). The records legal life in the government agency is complete. The records are sent to NARA. NARA will follow their retention schedule for the disposition of these records.

From these four steps, companies develop rules to control and protect records and information from the beginning to the end of the Records Management Lifecycle.

Picture of Shannon Heim

Shannon Heim

Shannon is the Senior Marketing Associate at Feith Systems and Software. With a deep commitment to enhancing digital transformation and transparency for government, Shannon promotes innovative solutions for efficient and accountable operations. In addition to her marketing duties, she contributes her expertise to Records Management University, helping to educate records managers.