E-Mail management should REALLY NOT be so confusing

It's been interesting watching some of the articles recently about the challenges of managing e-mail as if there is a need to manage every piece of it that exists. I've been writing about this topic for quite some time, and while I've also stated it isn't a simple task... it's nowhere NEAR as hard as some make it out to be! In fact, it's hard to believe there were 153K hits for the literal search of the phrase "managing email"

I think what's happened over time is a lot of misinformation from numerous sources, especially those that are urging organizations and individuals to "save everything" when there is NO REASON TO.

What is important is that every organization develop a policy for Records Management that clearly identifies what a "record" is for their organization. This should include elements such as:

- It documents an official decision or transaction
- It provides guidance to staff about what to do or how to do something
- It communicates a policy to others inside or outside your organization

Naturally, depending on the industry segment you operate in, there are other critical factors to consider based on who regulates what you do and what laws you operate under. Also, once a legal action is entered into or you become aware one MAY be pending, all documents (including e-mail) related to the matter must be retained until the matter is resolved.

But all this said, much can be done in the course of normal business to minimize the volume of e-mail any organization is required to manage, and most of this can be done by staff on receipt of the e-mail itself. FIRST... develop a policy and communicate to all employees the definition of a record for your organization. Follow the "KISS principle" when doing this, but make sure it's comprehensive. Make sure employees understand this applies to ALL information, but especially e-mail.

Next, direct employees to delete all e-mail that is NOT a record if it is received on the company system, as soon as practical. A Company's e-mail system is not intended for personal e-mail or other information that is not related to the 'business of the business', and while the occasional use of information systems is generally in keeping with most organizational policies, they are NOT designed to store or retain such information. Yep, this sounds harsh... but it will generally eliminate a good 40-50% of the volume of e-mail. If you include the non-business e-mail received from vendors, trade publications, internal messages of informational only value, this number will likely climb to 70-80% of the volume.

The next steps are more painful, and absent the existence of an Electronic Records Management System (ERMS) of some type, it is difficult to achieve success. The management of records is related to the content included in a record. That content and its value determine the length of retention required for the information.

All organizations should have a Records Retention Schedule (RRS) (a topic for an independent post) in place that suits their business needs and the laws, regulations and statutes that govern their industry segment. If an RRS exists, then it is much simpler to manage the 20-30% of e-mail that fits the definition of a record. Of the approaches used to accomplish this, the application of what are commonly known as "rule and role based" principles are among the most successful.

Rule and Role based retention practices involve an evaluation of the work being performed by various functional entities within an organization and comparing these against the records they routinely create and/or receive. This list of records is then compared tot he RRS to determine retention periods, which results in the development of a short list of retention periods for users to select from to assign to the records. After generation of records, or following review of those received, users select from this "pick list" to associate a retention period with the record prior to it being stored.

This is best done through an interface with an ERMS, but absent an official proper records management repository, the records can be stored on organizational servers that are routinely backed up to protect content form alteration of destruction prior to their assigned retention periods.

This is intended as a simple overview of one process that greatly reduces both the volume of e-mail being retained unnecessarily and the effort required to achieve compliance with legal and business needs for effective records management.