Managing Email Retention In Context
What we are trying to achieve in this and the previous section are ways of ensuring that email retention is managed in the same way as the retention of any other type of record. This is why the sections of records retention are so relevant to this topic. At the same time we cannot ignore the fact that the volume and nature of email as a format adds the difficulty of achieving this. Routinely removing ephemera as previously described can be successfully adopted as the first stage of the process. The next step requires the user to transfer their email records to whatever repository is being used to store the other records to which they relate (for example shared file server, document management system etc).
Ideally users would do this as and when such email records are identified. That way the email records they possess become part of the institution's 'official' shared and managed information holdings as quickly as possible. In reality, however, this may prove unworkable where large numbers of email records are being created or received by busy members of staff. In such circumstances an acceptable compromise might be to encourage transfer of all such email records at defined points in the process. These may include official project gateways and review points or at project closure for smaller projects, completion of a tender process or of the entire contract to which it relates etc. The Semi-active use - Do you know what information is being held and why? section of the Information Lifecycle strand of this resource provides further information about how to identify these points in the lifecycle of information - reflecting as they do the dividing line between active and semi-active use.
By encouraging users to create email folders which mirror those of the main record/document filing system as suggested in Active Use - Making best use of your email application section it should prove easier for the user to quickly and easily identify the correct folder for these emails to be transferred to.
What Happens When A Member Of Staff Leaves?
If the institution has adopted the measures outlined within this resource it is to be hoped that a departing member of staff's email account should only contain a relatively small number of messages relating to current activity. These should be arranged in such a way that it is then a comparatively easy job to transfer them over to the respective folders to which they relate in the main shared file area as part of their hand-over activities.
Unfortunately what institutions will also often find are that the accounts of departing staff contain hundreds if not thousands of random, unmanaged emails relating to a wider range of topics: trivial and important; current and completed. In this scenario the institution has three basic options: to go through and sort them out individually; to keep them all or to destroy them all. Which of these is adopted will depend upon the number of emails in question, the seniority and importance of the member of staff concerned and the degree of risk it is believed retention of the total collection involves. If the institution does decide to retain all messages when an employee leaves it is suggested that a policy is enacted whereby any of their emails then subsequently accessed are transferred into the appropriate 'corporate space' and that after an agreed period of time (3 years?) the remainder of their emails are permanently deleted.
