Take a look around your office or cubicle. If your boss asked you for important information right now, would you be able to find it right away? Are you 100 percent certain that everything you’ve pitched into the trashcan could legally be thrown away? Join us for Secrets to Effective Records Management and turn your work space into a place more conducive to creativity, efficiency, and productivity.

How much time would you save if every file you needed took less than a minute to locate?
It’s staggering to think about how much more effective you’d be in your job just by mastering a few records-management techniques that are simple to learn and amazingly easy to implement at work!

Time-management experts say that the average worker wastes up to three full work weeks annually just searching for misplaced papers and files. And office managers spend TWICE that amount of time!

With the highly effective strategies you’ll learn with us, you – and your co-workers – will be able to find any file at a moment’s notice … save space by destroying files you don’t need anymore and aren’t legally obligated to keep … and track every file that leaves your department like a bloodhound.

Changing legal requirements make throwing anything away a gamble – do you know what you need to keep?

Do you really need to know the legalities behind records management? Upcoming changes to the Federal Rules of Civil Procedure place more importance on electronic files than in the past. Recent court cases have come down against organizations to the tune of several million dollars in fines. Wouldn’t you rather be proactive than reactive?

Give yourself and your company peace of mind with this one-day workshop. We’ll get you up-to-date on the legal requirements surrounding records management – from safeguarding sensitive company information to current legislation that every employee in America should be familiar with!

Introduction to Effective Records Management and Flow

• The importance of solid records management and organization in today’s workplace
• The critical difference between paper records management and electronic records management
• The definition of records management, what it is – and what it isn’t
• Benefits of establishing and maintaining control over records
• The two basic elements critical to successful records management
• Getting the lingo down: glossary of key terms

Assessing and Auditing Your Current Filing Systems and Processes

• A step-by-step guide to conducting a quick, easy, and amazingly accurate filing-system audit
• Tools you’ll need to perform a successful audit and why you’ll shoot yourself in the foot if you don’t
  use them
• What are primary and secondary classifications and why you need to make sure you distinguish between the two
• How to identify mission-critical information
• The 3 attributes of record integrity
  

Developing a Strategic Records- Management System

• Using organizational goals as a springboard to a personal system and strategy
• Identify core business processes
• Work flow and supporting documentation
• Identify your vital records and maintain the lifeblood of the organization
• Winning records-management strategies and selecting the one that works for you
• A quick overview of the most popular and successful filing and management systems
• How to use simple project-management tools to help you manage a mountain of paperwork
• Creating record streams and channels that guarantee you’ll remain in control of your files forever

Information Lifecycle Management: Strategies to Categorize Records and Documents

• How to identify records that you need to keep close- at-hand, file nearby, or store elsewhere
• What your HR department (and your corporate counsel) wants you to know about record storage
• When, what, and how to dispose of your records and stay legally safe
• 4 ways to classify information and sources of information
• A simple 7-step records-management plan: Solutions for common filing problems
• Controlling information from the get-go: Forms management anyone can initiate

Developing a Filing System With Split-Second File Retrieval Abilities

• The 4 best ways to organize your files
• How to more effectively process records and files for filing and re-filing
• Cross-referencing your files so that nothing gets lost, misplaced, or misfiled
• How to create a simple cross-referencing form for centralized and decentralized filing systems
• Developing a disaster-recovery plan
• A quick review of the critical link between records retention and disasters (both natural and man-made)

Keeping It Clean & Clear: Records-Retention Plans, Schedules, and Execution

• The 4 steps of records retention
• Implementing a records-retention schedule that fits YOUR schedule
• SPECIAL BONUS: Your “Should I Keep It?” retention decision-making guide
• How to establish an archive for permanent-records preservation
• Purging your obsolete records
• How to incorporate “human factors” into your organizational processes
• How to train co-workers and staff to honor – and use – your system

Special Section: Using Outside Vendors

• How to know when it’s time to call in help and use outside vendors
• The pros and cons of commercial records- management centers
• How to select the right vendor for your needs

Harnessing Technological Help for Organizing and Maintaining Files

• Advances in software that anyone can use to help get organized
• Functions and features to look for in a software package
• How software can help even the most hopeless and disorganized person
• Other resources you can use for effective records and file management

Managing Your Electronic Files

• Organization principles that make inventorying electronic records a snap
• Identifying the types of electronic message- transmission systems we use today and the pitfalls of each in getting organized
• Filing and storing e-files on your computer
• Is backing up your files overrated?? Are you kidding?!
• Steps you can take to retrieve files you thought were irretrievable

SPECIAL BONUS SECTION: The Legal Ramifications of Records Management and Organization

• Current legislation that every employee who handles files and paperwork MUST know
• How to safeguard critical and confidential information
• The history, necessity, and current issues in records management
• Developing a Sarbanes Oxley Compliance Plan
• The Federal Records Act
• Industry standards
• The National Archives and Records Management Administration endorsed standard