The rules and regulations governing how long records must be kept, and the methods for disposing of them once their retention periods have ended.
Purpose of Records Retention: Understand the importance of records retention, why it is important to keep records, and what legal and regulatory requirements are applicable.
Elements of Records Retention: The components involved in records retention, such as retention schedules, policies, and procedures.
Records Inventory: Knowing what records you have and where they are stored. Conducting a thorough inventory of all records helps to identify all the information that should be included in a retention program.
Creating a Records Retention Schedule: A schedule should be created to describe how long each type of record should be kept.
Legal and Regulatory Requirements: Understanding the various legal and regulatory requirements for records retention and the risks of noncompliance.
Destruction and Disposal of Records: Defining the methods of destroying and disposing records in a manner that complies with legal and regulatory requirements.
Digital Records Retention: Understanding the unique aspects of digital records retention, including electronic records, email messages, electronic medical records, and other digital documents.
Document Management: Understanding document management systems and how they can help with records retention, including document classification and storage, indexing, and retrieval.
Record Keeping Requirements: Understanding the requirements for records retention in specific industries, such as medical records retention requirements under HIPAA.
Record Retention Policy: Developing a comprehensive and effective records retention policy to meet legal, regulatory, and business needs.
Legal Records Retention: This includes records that are required for legal purposes, such as contracts, deeds, litigation records, etc.
Financial Records Retention: These records are related to finances, such as receipts, invoices, bank statements, etc.
Personnel Records Retention: This includes records related to employees, such as employment records, benefits records, payroll records, etc.
Medical Records Retention: These records are related to medical records, such as diagnoses, treatment records, etc.
Correspondence Records Retention: Records that involve communications between individuals, businesses, groups, or governmental agencies.
Administrative Records Retention: Records that document business activities, such as meeting minutes, reports, etc.
Research Records Retention: Records that document research activities, such as research notes, laboratory reports, etc.
Intellectual Property Records Retention: Records that document intellectual property, such as patents, copyrights, trademarks, etc.
Marketing Records Retention: Records that document marketing activities, such as advertising material, market research, etc.
Information Technology (IT) Records Retention: Records related to information technology, such as system logs, configuration files, etc.
Environmental Records Retention: Records related to environmental compliance, such as waste disposal records, environmental testing records, etc.
Safety Records Retention: Records related to workplace safety, such as accident reports, training records, etc.
Quality Records Retention: Records related to quality assurance, such as inspection records, customer feedback reports, etc.
Historical Records Retention: Records that have historical significance, such as old catalogs, photographs, and documents that are no longer in current use.