What is an individual employee actually responsible for when it comes to retention and disposition?

Retention and disposition can sound like a job for a dedicated records team, but the program only works because of what ordinary employees do every day. You don’t have to memorize a schedule or know the law in detail. Your responsibilities are practical and limited, but they matter.

Recognize and keep your records

The first duty is simply recognizing that the information you create and receive in the course of your work may be a record. Records are not only formal files. They include emails, messages, spreadsheets, drafts that document decisions, and the documents you produce to carry out your duties. When something qualifies as a record, you are responsible for capturing it in the approved system or repository rather than leaving it scattered across personal drives, inboxes, or devices.

Follow the retention schedule, do not freelance

You are not expected to invent how long things should be kept. Your organization maintains retention schedules that say how long each kind of record must be held and what happens at the end. Your job is to:

• File records where they can be found and managed under the schedule.
• Avoid keeping duplicates or convenience copies past their usefulness.
• Let records reach their scheduled disposition rather than deleting them early or hoarding them indefinitely.

Both extremes create risk. Destroying a record too soon can violate law or policy; keeping everything forever creates cost, clutter, and exposure.

Honor holds and ask when unsure

If your organization issues a legal hold or litigation hold, you must stop any disposition of the affected records and preserve them until the hold is lifted, even if the schedule would otherwise allow deletion. A hold always overrides the routine schedule.

Finally, when you are unsure whether something is a record, how it should be filed, or whether it can be deleted, ask your records officer or program coordinator before acting. Disposition is usually irreversible.

In short

An individual employee is responsible for capturing records, filing them correctly, following the schedule, respecting holds, and not making unilateral destruction decisions. The records program supplies the rules and tools; employees supply the day-to-day discipline that keeps them working.

To see how these duties fit into the broader lifecycle, explore the retention and disposition topic hub.