Building Records Management Awareness and Training

You can have a perfect retention schedule and capable software, but if employees don’t understand or follow the program, records still get lost, misfiled, or kept forever. Awareness and training are what turn policy into practice.

Why it’s often weak

Records training is frequently a once-a-year slide deck that people click through and forget. The result: staff don’t know what’s a record, where it goes, or why it matters — so they default to keeping everything or saving things to personal drives. Behavior, not the binder, is the real measure of a program.

What effective training covers

Keep it practical and role-relevant:

• What’s a record (and what’s not). The record vs. non-record distinction, in their context.
• How to capture and file. Where records go, and how automation helps (so it’s not all on them).
• Email, chat, and texts. That messaging is records too.
• Holds. What a litigation hold means and what to do when one applies.
• Why it matters. The risk, cost, and accountability stakes — so it’s not arbitrary.

Making it stick

• Make it role-based. A records liaison needs more than a general user; tailor depth to the role.
• Make it ongoing. Onboarding for new hires, refreshers, and timely reminders beat one annual event.
• Reduce the burden. The best “training” is a system that captures and classifies automatically, so correct behavior is the easy default.
• Lead from the top. Visible support from leadership (and the SAORM in government) signals that recordkeeping matters.
• Measure it. Track completion and, better, outcomes — misfiling rates, schedule adoption, audit findings.

The culture goal

The aim is a culture where good recordkeeping is normal and easy, not a chore imposed from outside. That comes from clear expectations, low-friction tools, and consistent reinforcement. Training is a key part of advancing a program’s maturity. See the fundamentals hub for more.