Training & Development › Administrative Excellence › Archiving and Records Management
ADMINISTRATIVE EXCELLENCE
Archiving and Records Management
Find what you need, keep what you must, release the rest
Why It Matters
Records pile up quietly until someone needs a contract from three years ago and no one can find it. Poor records practices waste staff time, slow responses to audits and information requests, and expose organizations to legal and reputational risk. Keeping everything forever is not a plan either. Participants gain a dependable way to file, retrieve, and retire records. Organizations gain consistency, better accountability, and firmer footing when funders, auditors, or the public ask for documentation.
Course Description
The learning begins with a quick inventory of the records each participant handles: paper files, shared drives, email attachments, and system data. Participants then practice applying a retention schedule, sorting sample records into keep, archive, and dispose categories, and discussing gray areas. Hands-on exercises cover building a naming convention, setting up a folder structure, and indexing archive boxes or digital archives for fast retrieval. The group also discusses privacy and access controls for sensitive records. Because legal retention requirements vary by organization, sector, and jurisdiction, participants learn how to work with their legal, compliance, or records officers rather than guessing. Each participant drafts a cleanup plan for one records area with a follow-up review date.
Key Focus Areas
Participants explore and practice:
Understanding retention schedules and who sets them in your organization
File naming conventions and folder structures that scale
Managing paper and digital records side by side
Indexing and retrieval methods for archived material
Access controls and handling of confidential records
Secure disposal and documenting what was destroyed
Learning Outcomes
Participants will be able to:
Apply a retention schedule to a set of sample records
Build a naming convention and folder structure for a shared drive
Retrieve a requested record using an index or search method
Draft a cleanup plan for one backlog of records
Who Should Attend
Records and information staff
Administrative professionals
Program staff who maintain case or grant files
Office managers
Delivery and Customization
Examples, scenarios, and activities are adapted to your audience and goals. Delivery is available in person, virtually, or in a hybrid format, as a standalone session or as part of a series. Format and length are agreed during scoping.
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Bring Archiving and Records Management to your team
Tell us about your audience and goals. We will follow up to scope objectives, format, and timing.