The COVID-19 crisis has presented us with a new dynamic for working from home while maintaining productivity and strengthening efficiency. Continuous and diligent updating of your organization’s records is not immune from your new list of work-from-home (WFH) responsibilities. It is essential to you and your organization’s success. During this crisis, organizations are still generating new documents, revising existing documents, and restructuring the ways you access legacy records. All these changes require that you retain the most recent document revision and/or original to ensure it is not misplaced. Not doing so can have a tremendously negative impact on your organization’s bottom line and can adversely affect client trust.
Improper records management can affect you personally and your company directly. Imagine that your doctor cannot find your most recent medical records. What if your Human Resources department does not have your latest declaration of pay and allowances? What would happen if your organization cannot quickly access the latest versions of profit and loss statements and budget information?
Having proper and current documentation instills confidence by others in your organization. Updated documents keep you compliant with various state and national directives. Opportunities for new business rely heavily on proper documentation and protecting your organization’s integrity is an important by-product of good documentation.
There are many reasons that an organization would want to keep its records updated:
• Meets legal obligations
• Creates a current knowledgebase
• Improves employee efficiency
• Increases growth opportunities for your business
• Provides a resource for new strategic initiatives
WFH allows employee flexibility not seen before, but also moves your organization to a paperless environment. Can you imagine if everyone working from home were printing their information and then sending it into the office? This would be quite a challenge at home to sort, file, catalog, and send documents to your organization for filing again. The logical question would be, why should I continue to do this process at the office when it reopens? Why not go paperless?
The ability of your organization to be efficient and grow relies on keeping records current. This efficiency results from a consistent and standardized records management program where tasks are simple to do and easy to learn. It means that all employees are following these procedures, creating a smooth and efficient workflow. While WFH poses a new set of challenges, keeping your organization’s records up to date is critical to preserve and grow your business.
“We don’t grow when things are easy; we grow when we face challenges.”
Anonymous
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