Get started with records management

You are required to make complete and reliable records of all your work-related duties that contribute towards your public authority’s  activities, affairs or business, including:

• A decision made
• An action undertaken when a recommendation, advice or instruction is given or received
• The explanation or evidence supporting a decision or action undertaken.

Content not format is important

A key thing to understand is that the format of the information doesn’t make it a public record, the content does.

Public records can include emails sent and received, social media posts, photos taken, reports, spreadsheets and presentations.

For example, a project approval is a public record regardless of whether it is in the form of a signed memo, an email, or a text message.

Some public records you work with may be captured automatically through the business applications and systems you use. Some public records may require additional metadata to make them complete and reliable.

In these situations, make sure you include:

• A short description
• The date and time
• Decisions or recommendations made
• Advice or instructions given
• Actions taken
• Rationale
• People involved.

Advice for records managers

Make a public record advice for record managers provides more detailed information on establishing your systems and processes.  This is especially useful for record managers and covers Records governance policy requirements 1, 2 and 3.

Public records made and retained should be kept somewhere so they can be accessed and used by the business when required.

This means storing public records:

• somewhere that is easily accessible whether they are in a digital or physical form
• with appropriate levels of security and protection
• can be easily found (through metadata) by other users.

The approach and tools that you and your public authority use will vary depending on your business systems and processes – and that's okay.

The key requirement for all public authorities is that the information is easily accessed.

Example:

Sam is working on Project X and provides two options to proceed. They email their manager with the options to seek a decision and approval to proceed.

The manager replies to Sam’s email approving option 1.

Sam takes that email, the email they sent, and the information provided to explain option 1 and option 2 and saves them in a dedicated location for the project.

There are different types of recordkeeping systems and applications your public authority may choose to use to manage and locate captured public records including:

• electronic document and records management system, also known as eDRMS that combines document management and digital recordkeeping
• collaborative applications such as SharePoint and Teams that can enable both workplace collaboration and recordkeeping practice
• shared network drives
• paper based system where all documents are printed and physically filed.

Advice for records managers

Use a public record advice for record managers provides more detailed information on establishing your systems and processes.  This is especially useful for record managers and covers Records governance policy requirements 4 and 5 .

Some public records can be disposed of once they've been used, but others must be kept for longer—this is known as the minimum retention and disposal period.

In most cases the public records we make and use during our working day aren't of permanent value and can be disposed of after its minimum retention period has expired.

It's important that we proactively manage the disposal of public records from our systems and storage arrangements:

• to reduce costs and improve our budget by reducing items being stored
• to ensure that risk is managed by the removal of old public records
• for more efficient businesses systems and processes.

You need to demonstrate why you disposed of public records. That's why there are tools and processes, such as retention and disposal schedules, that sets out when we can lawfully dispose of public records.

These retention and disposal schedules are comprehensive but very technical. Before disposing of public records, you should check with your relevant record management, legal and Right to Information areas.

Advice for records managers

Disposal of public records advice for record managers provides more detailed information on establishing your systems and processes. This is especially useful for record managers and covers Records governance policy requirement 6 .