Who is supposed to declare a record day to day, the employee or the records department?

The short answer is: both, but they play different roles. Declaring a record is a shared responsibility. The employee who creates or receives information is usually the one who identifies and “declares” it as a record, while the records department sets the rules, tools, and oversight that make consistent declaration possible.

What “declaring a record” means

To declare a record is to formally fix a document or piece of information as an official record of the organization, applying the appropriate classification and triggering its retention rules. After declaration, a record should generally not be altered, and it must be retained and eventually disposed of according to a schedule.

The employee’s role

In most organizations, the person closest to the work is best positioned to recognize when information has business, legal, or historical value. Day to day, that means employees are expected to:

• Recognize when something they created or received documents an official action or decision.
• Save it in the approved system or repository rather than a personal drive or inbox.
• Apply the correct category, classification, or label when prompted.
• Avoid deleting potential records on their own judgment.

This is why training and clear policies matter so much: declaration only works when staff can reliably tell a record from transitory or convenience information.

The records department’s role

The records or information governance function does not usually declare each item by hand. Instead it provides the framework that makes accurate declaration repeatable:

• Defining what counts as a record and publishing retention schedules and file plans.
• Configuring systems so declaration is built into normal workflows, sometimes automatically.
• Training employees and answering classification questions.
• Auditing, monitoring compliance, and managing eventual disposition.

How they work together

Modern guidance treats recordkeeping as an organization-wide responsibility, not the job of one office. Increasingly, systems can auto-declare records based on rules, reducing reliance on individual judgment. But even then, accountability rests with the program. The practical rule of thumb: employees declare at the point of creation, and the records department ensures that declaration is correct, consistent, and enforceable.

For more foundational concepts, see the fundamentals topic hub.