File Retention Myths

File Retention Myths

I am sure you all know the story of Goldilocks and the Three Bears? A tragic tale of woe and porridge and yet another case of File retention gone wrong because the myths surrounding this area of record keeping were ignored. As it turns out Mother Bear had made different porridges because she had lost the recipe. Tut Tut Tut.

Accessing those files that haven’t been used in a while or finding the archives that you now desperately need but never thought you would are common ailments.  The common false theories or myths around file retention are:

  1. Keep for 7 years only; in fact most files should be kept for 7 years but there are some that need to be kept longer by law, some you will want to keep forever as they are a meaningful part of the organizations history or is information that must be kept. Then there are cases where things can be destroyed after 1, 2 or 5 years.
  2. Keep everything forever. This is a variant on the 7 year myth and is based on the "if we don’t throw it out, we will be OK" theory. The problem is space is not available to do this and the operational cost is prohibitive. Setting up the right practices and training people will ensure this myth is archived forever.
  3. Retention is for paper files only. This is false; electronic storage like physical storage costs money and is not infinite, soft files should have the same retentions policy and practices applied to them as paper files.
  4. Old equals archive. Again not true, sure some old files will go to archive under the retention policy but many old files can be destroyed once their currency has expired. A properly planned retention policy and practices will cover this and make it clear what must be archived and what should not.
  5. Archiving cost money and is offsite.  This is again not entirely true. If you have a large storage requirement for archives, don’t store in a high rent CBD location, move it somewhere cheaper and consider outsourcing it. But a considered decision based on the retention policy is required so that cost of storage and subsequent retrieval are optimized.

Like all things these myths will never really die but having the right retention system will consign them to a dark corner and at the same time preserve the rights of an organization, enable its efficient operation, and protect it from various forms of risk.

And maybe we can get a consistent bowl of porridge every time!