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Download WhitepaperSummary: Create a document retention strategy for your organization using these top 3 requirements which include; defining a retention policy, keeping documents relevant, and maintaining records.
A document retention plan is one of the top requirements for any organization. Your employees are constantly finding, editing and revising documents so taking control of document retention is crucial to ensure your organization runs smoothly. Your intranet can help you with your document management goals using tools such as Document Read and Agree, Document Versioning and more.
Before you get started on document retention, make sure your documents are of value. Your intranet can accumulate a lot of unnecessary information so review your content to ensure they meet the following 5 key principles of content management:
So, how can your intranet help you retain the documents you need without them growing stale, becoming irrelevant or winding up lost? Below are 3 methods of document retention every organization should consider when implementing a document management plan:
The definition of a document retention policy is;
The retention period of information is an aspect of records and information management (RIM) and the records life cycle. It identifies the duration of time for which the information should be maintained or “retained”, irrespective of format (paper, electronic, or other).
Your document retention schedule should balance a documents usefulness with it’s legal requirements. Once you’ve determined a retention schedule that works for your organization, have a removal schedule in place for those documents to reduce risks associated with misinformation. Your intranet is a great place to start with tools such as Archiving Clean-Up.
There are a variety of common documents, both online and on-paper, that follow certain document retention schedules, such as:
To ensure your document retention strategy is successful, you’ll need strong document review procedures. This is your intranet’s time to shine as it contains time-saving tools. Assign content review managers (such as the head of a department) to keep content up-to-date and relevant. Turn on content approval workflows to make sure all published documents on your intranet have gone through proper approval channels.
Concerned your documents might not be relevant? Allow employees to provide feedback on your content with commenting and rating. Additionally, enable scheduled reviews that automatically alert authors if it’s time to review and update files.
Determining which documents employees have read and agreed to, and if you have displayed the latest version, comes down to maintaining clear document records. There are two useful intranet tools that can help you in keep your documents audit ready:
Quick Tip: Already have an intranet full of valuable documents you want to keep? Consider the following content marketing trends:
- Create personal content
- Include visual content
- Deliver interactive content
Does your organization have a document retention strategy in place? We want to hear from you in the comment section below! See how your intranet can help with retaining key documents by requesting a demo.
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