In my continuing look at methods of encouraging compliance in the field of records management, today I turn to costs. Both individuals and organizations might be motivated by the goal of reducing the costs associated with records management.

costs puzzle piece

The economic costs of maintaining records are the most obvious. Back in April for RIM month, I produced some posts for the blog of SAA’s Records Management Section that provide some guidance about calculating the costs of records storage:

Each post includes an overview of issues to research when trying to calculate your costs along with a 1-page brochure as well as a spreadsheet that provides some basic math of how to make these calculations. Each also takes into consideration in-house and vendor storage.

But economic costs are not the only ones to consider. There are also personnel costs — and these factor differently depending on whether or not an organization is exercising good records management. Managing records takes regular, dedicated time. Although I’ve never encountered someone who’s tried to put an actual dollar amount on the personnel costs of RM, I suppose it could be done. On the other hand, if an organization is not managing its records appropriately, the personnel costs come in the form of time wasted looking for files that have not been properly indexed or stored or that are misplaced in a sea of redundant, obsolete, or trivial (ROT) documents that should have previously been disposed. Be it for audits, discovery, or public records requests, most organizations are sometimes compelled to produce records, and as soon as someone asks for them, it no longer matters whether the records could have been destroyed previously; they now all must be produced.

Which raises the final type of cost — liability costs for records that are retained longer than required. Sometimes this liability may be nothing more than having to generate a more robust response to a public records request. But if your organization suffers a breach of some sort and exposes more records than should have been available to bad actors — especially if there are confidential records in the mix — the costs are amplified. So even if the economic costs of RM don’t motivate everyone, perhaps consideration of the personnel costs and liability costs can help tip the scale to a more compliant RM environment.