What is Retention Policy Management?

What is Retention Policy Management, and why do you need a system to keep up with it? Document or Records Retention Management deals with the policies which your organization must follow, keeping some records on file for a certain period of time, and making sure that others are deleted and not on file, after that retention policy period. 

Here are samples of common document retention policies. These rules can change drastically based upon your industry type, and changing regulations. Do not use these in place of any legal advice, they are merely to demonstrate the many policies in place for most industries today.

Businesses are required by law to retain confidential client, employee, and company information for a minimal amount of time. But many documents eventually outlive their purpose, and holding onto them for too long puts you at risk of a security breach and non-compliance with today’s privacy legislation. How long you store business records should be determined by a retention schedule that balances each record’s usefulness with the legal requirements. This schedule will depend on the type of business and the lifecycle of specific documents.

Below is a document retention schedule that outlines how long you should hold on to important documents. After their retention period is complete, you should ensure that they are securely destroyed by a third-party information security provider. Please note that these recommendations on document retention are general guidelines only. They are not intended to represent legal advice. Contact your legal expert(s) or federal, state or provincial government to ensure you are following current legal requirements for your area.

* Retention periods begin after the termination, expiration, disposal, etc., of the item.