Traditionally, responses to public records requests have been time-consuming, staff intensive and costly. But this is a new era. Today, the public expects instantaneous responses and more efficient government spending. Traditional records management creates discontent between the government and the people they serve.

Doll broke down what agencies need to consider when they review their records management strategy:

• Communication channels: Agencies need to be able to retrieve records from all of the communication channels that they use. These agencies are now using more channels — such as instant messaging, text, and social media — and they must be able to respond quickly to requests for those records
• Comprehensive search: Advanced search capabilities that can handle complex requests are vital, especially with multiple communication channels. Agency staff should also be able to complete searches themselves, without involving the IT department
• Robust legal holds management: The ability to hold onto records for several years is legally required

Secondary (but important) considerations of government records management include:

• Supporting the redaction process: Every record that’s released must be reviewed for sensitive information. Making redactions easier to complete saves resources, especially when it comes to video content
• Integrating records management with department processes: Making it as simple as possible to capture and retrieve electronic communications will help public agencies streamline their records management
• Minimizing IT involvement: Involving IT staff in day-to-day records management tasks can be a drain on the IT department, and a bottleneck for the retrieval process

Rowe agreed with reducing IT’s involvement in records management.

“I’ve seen some agencies have their top IT person retrieve information because searching the database is too hard. These are complex searches sometimes. Human capital is something that agencies don’t consider.”

Overall, Doll said governments need to focus on their records management process. Putting policies in place that support the strategy is vital to success, and efficiency.

“It’s more challenging if staff have to decide for themselves what’s considered public or personal. It’s surprising how much information governments collect and how often we find that the information isn’t well-defined relative to its privacy and transparency requirements.”

A thoughtful strategy will go a long way in helping public agencies comply with recordkeeping requirements. This is especially important in BYOD or remote working environments, which are great for productivity but do require more thorough records management.

“Cybercriminals are targeting people who work from home,” Doll said. “We’ve seen an uptick in phishing and cybersecurity-related attacks. Agencies have the technology to put multiple layers of security on the cloud, so people shouldn’t have to work only on their devices. Agencies should provide workers the security tools they need.”

“Always start with the policy,” Rowe added. “Sharing files, for example. It can be as simple as sending a link to a file on a shared drive instead of attaching the file in an email.”