The international standard ISO 15489 defines best practice for the management of documents and records. Martin Bradley presents this guide to help organisations assess the benefits that preparing for ISO 15489 will bring.
Who is the standard aimed at?
ISO 15489 is for any organisation that needs to ensure their records (both paper and electronic) are properly maintained, easily accessible and correctly documented, from their creation right through to ultimate disposal, be that archiving, imaging or destruction.
The standard also ensures that this disposal is carried out in a transparent manner according to a pre-determined criteria.
ISO 15489 is then particularly important for organisations that need to reassure customers and clients that they maintain accurate, detailed records according to a stated policy, for instance the health, financial services and state-funded sectors.
Office workers can waste up to two hours a day looking for paperwork
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Of course good Records Management procedures as laid down in the standard bring their own rewards for all organisations. Recent statistics indicate that managers spend an average of four weeks a year searching for or waiting on misfiled, mislabelled, untracked, or 'lost' papers; up to 70 per cent more records than needed are retained by most offices; between one to five per cent of all records are misfiled, and office workers, in general, can waste up to two hours a day looking for misplaced paperwork, a total of 500 hours, or 62.5 days, per year.
What form does the standard take?
The standard is divided into two parts. ISO 15489.1-2002, Records Management - Part 1: General provides a high level framework for record-keeping. This specifically addresses the benefits of records management, regulatory considerations affecting its operation and the importance of assigning of responsibilities for record-keeping.
It also discusses high level records management requirements, the design of record-keeping systems and actual processes involved in records management, such as record capture, retention, storage, access etc. It concludes with a discussion of records management audit operations and training requirements for all staff of an organisation.
ISO 15489.2-2002, Records Management - Part 2: Guidelines provides practical and more detailed guidance about how to implement the framework outlined in Part 1. For example, it provides specific detail about the development of records management policy and responsibility statements and outlines the DIRS process for developing record-keeping systems.
Part 2 also provides practical guidance about the development of records processes and controls and specifically addresses the development of key record-keeping instruments such as thesauri, disposal authorities and security and access classification schemes. It then discusses the use of these tools to capture, register, classify, store, provide access to and otherwise manage records. Part 2 also provides specific guidance about the establishment of monitoring, auditing and training programs to promote and effectively implement records management within an organisation.
What systems need to be in place to achieve certification?
In the process of establishing the ISO 15489 standard, the ISO committee also formulated guidelines to implementing a sustainable records management programme across a broad spectrum of industries, irrespective of their country of origin. There are broadly eight steps in implementing a Records Management programme that meets the ISO standard.
- Initial Overview
- Analysis of Internal Administrative Structures
- Identifying Records Requirements
- Assessing Existing Systems
- Identification of Records Strategies
- Design of Records Management System
- Implementation of Records Management System
- Review
The first step in implementing an ISO 15489 records management programme is examining the administrative requirements of your organisation. This should cover all current internal administrative procedures, as well as external aspects such as economic and legal imperatives.
The next step is to carry out an in-depth analysis of your organisation's structures, functions, processes and activities. This will allow a better understanding of your records and the way that they are created and used by staff.
The background information gained in the previous steps provides a foundation for identifying what influencing factors affect the creation and maintenance of records in your organisation. Requirements can vary depending on the creating office/department and some may be determined by legislation.
Most organisations have some, albeit informal, systems in place for tracking and maintaining records. An assessment of existing systems needs to consider older processes the company uses and how to blend them with the new systems being developed.
Once all the requirements have been identified, a company-wide strategy needs to be formulated incorporating policies, standards and practices to cater for them all.
Only once the steps above have been implemented it is possible to start in on designing a Records Management System that incorporates best practice and, most importantly, mirrors the requirements of your organisation, in order to minimise interference with core activities during the period of its implementation.
The system should be implemented in easy to manage stages, each with an appropriate consultation period to ensure that the system reflects the needs of its users as well as the requirements of the standard. Since the new Records Management System will impact directly on most staff it is essential that a comprehensive training programme be implemented at this stage.
Ensure all systems are working as designed, all records are accounted for and that staff have an adequate understanding of the requirement for a Records Management System, as well as how the nuts and bolts of the system operate on a day-to-day basis.
Martin Bradley is a professional archivist and Records Management Consultant operating from Ireland. You contact him on tel: 00353 87 286 2274 or via his website at www.archives.ie
