Do you need Records Management? Three clear signs — and the next steps to take.

Most organisations don’t think about records management proactively.

It’s rarely driven by strategy or enthusiasm for governance. Instead, it tends to surface gradually, through small operational frustrations and unanswered questions about documents, retention, and responsibility.

Is there actually a risk?

At first glance, it may not feel like it. Documents exist, work gets done, and nothing appears broken. But risk in records management is rarely immediate or visible. It accumulates quietly — through uncertainty about what should be kept, inconsistency in how records are handled, and reliance on informal knowledge rather than clear rules. By the time the risk becomes obvious, the opportunity to address it calmly has usually passed.

Records management exists to deal with this exact situation — not by adding complexity, but by restoring control before problems become incidents.

How You Know Records Management Is Needed

You may already need records management if any of the following sound familiar:

• Different teams store the same documents in different places

• Important records live in inboxes or personal folders

• No one agrees how long documents should be kept

• Everything is retained “just in case”

• Preparing for audits or reviews is manual and disruptive

Individually, these issues feel manageable. Together, they indicate a lack of structure around records and a growing dependence on habit rather than policy.

At that point, the organisation is no longer fully in control of its information.

What Records Management Actually Does

Records Management is often misunderstood as a compliance exercise or a bureaucratic layer. In practice, it is a business discipline that ensures records are handled consistently and responsibly throughout their lifecycle.

When done properly, records management:

• Defines which documents are official records

• Applies clear rules for access and retention

• Protects sensitive and regulated information

• Supports audits and regulatory reviews

• Prevents unnecessary data growth

Most importantly, it replaces informal, person-dependent practices with clear, defensible rules.

The Three Next Things to Do

Recognising the need for records management is only the starting point. What matters is taking the right first steps.

1. Agree on What Counts as a Record

Not every document is a record. Drafts, working files, and duplicates do not carry the same obligation as final, authoritative documents.

Start by agreeing:

• Which documents have legal, financial, or regulatory value

• Which documents support key business decisions

• Which documents are temporary or transitory

This definition should be simple and easy to explain. If staff don’t understand it, they won’t apply it consistently.

Clarity here removes uncertainty everywhere else.

2. Put Clear Retention Rules in Place

Retention is the foundation of records management.

For each record type, the organisation needs to know:

• How long it must be kept

• Why that period exists

• What should happen when it expires

Without clear retention rules, the default behaviour is to keep everything. While this feels cautious, it increases legal exposure, storage costs, and audit complexity.

Deleting records at the right time is not a risk — it is a controlled, accountable action.

3. Make Records Management Part of Everyday Work

Records management rarely fails because the policy is wrong. It fails because it relies on people remembering to apply it.

It works best when:

• Records are captured as part of normal processes

• Classification happens early, not at the end

• Access and retention rules are applied automatically

This is where document management systems and process automation support records management by embedding control into everyday work.

Why This Matters

Organisations are creating more information than ever before. Without structure, that information becomes harder to trust, harder to manage, and harder to defend.

With records management in place:

• Audits become routine rather than disruptive

• Staff know what is expected of them

• Risk is reduced rather than deferred

• The organisation can demonstrate control

That confidence matters.

A Final Thought

Most organisations don’t have a records problem. They have a decision problem — decisions that were never made about what should be kept, for how long, and why.

Records management is simply the act of making those decisions and applying them consistently.

If your organisation can’t confidently explain how it manages its records, then records management isn’t something to consider later.

It’s something you already need.