Is there value in aligning benefits with agreed strategic goals?

One records management team, interviewed by the authors, at a county council which was looking to reallocate a number of business units in satellite offices into the main council buildings successfully took advantage of this organisational objective by showcasing the benefits associated with records management in the following way.

By applying records management principles, e.g.:

• applying retention schedules to existing physical paper stores and keeping only records that are required

• moving hardcopy records from office space to the county council's main record store

• moving to electronic record storage, on a central server, rather than in hard copy form

The county council were able to demonstrate a reduction in the office space required by the business units when relocating into the main office buildings.

The county council elected to illustrate the benefits by equating the volume of physical records that were no longer required to the dimensions of a standard staff workstation. This measurement provides a visual representation and a clear message to senior management looking to reduce the office space required by the business unit moving into the main county council buildings.

The literature confirms the obvious point that there is a benefit to matching the objectives of a records management programme with the strategic objectives of an organisation. Hare and Mcleod (1997, p.20)¹¹ assert that 'The records management programme provides an implementation tool but it needs to be managed at a strategic level and it will only be successful if it is aligned with the aims and objectives of the organisation to which it refers.'

The literature also supports that articulating the benefits of records management in terms of the strategic aims of the organisation can prove beneficial in communicating the benefits to senior management. In his opinion piece Asprey (2004, pp.7-13)¹² expresses concern that 'record keeping strategies are often compliance and technology focused rather than business driven' and advocates the aligning of the objectives of the records management programme to organisation objectives stating 'This may improve the prospects of identifying and realising measurable benefits and underpin the value proposition for securing business case funding.'

Aligning the objectives of the records management programme with the organisation's strategic objectives not only provides suggestions of how to quantify the benefits but also provides a language that senior management is familiar with, which further contributes to the notion of the 'selling of records management' that Jones (2003, p.6)¹³ touches on.

The espida Project also utilises the concept of aligning the benefits of projects with strategic aims to assist in articulating the intangible benefits of a project.