What are an individual employee's responsibilities for declaring and capturing records so the organization stays compliant with DoD 5015.2 or ISO 15489?

Compliance with a records management standard like DoD 5015.2 or ISO 15489 is not only an organizational obligation. Much of it depends on the everyday choices individual employees make as they create and handle information. The technology can store and govern records, but only a person can recognize that a given email, report, or form is a record and act on it.

Recognize what counts as a record

Your first responsibility is to distinguish records from transitory or convenience copies. A record is information created or received in the course of business that documents a decision, transaction, or activity, regardless of format. Both ISO 15489 and DoD 5015.2 frame this around the evidential value of the content, not where it happens to be stored. If something documents what the organization did or decided, treat it as a record.

Declare and capture promptly

Once you identify a record, declare and capture it in the approved recordkeeping system rather than leaving it in a personal mailbox, local drive, or chat thread. Capturing means placing the record under organizational control so it is fixed, complete, and managed.

Key individual duties include:

• Filing the record into the correct category or file plan so the right retention rule applies.
• Capturing required metadata accurately (title, date, author, and classification or category).
• Keeping the record authentic and unaltered after declaration.
• Not deleting, moving, or hoarding records outside the official system.

Apply retention and disposition rules

You are not expected to memorize schedules, but you are responsible for following them. Let records move through their lifecycle under the assigned retention period, and never destroy a record on your own initiative, especially when a legal hold or investigation is in effect.

Support compliance day to day

Complete required training, follow your organization’s policy, and ask your records officer when a document’s status is unclear. Asking early prevents records from being lost or destroyed prematurely.

These habits — recognize, declare, capture, and follow disposition — are the backbone of standards-based compliance. For related guidance, see the compliance standards topic hub.