How Will You Benefit From This Training?

• Modernize and simplify your department’s outdated filing system.
• Make document searches on your PC a piece of cake.
• Increase your personal productivity several times over.
• Identify weaknesses and flaws in your recordkeeping processes – and fix them.
• Make sure that only the people who NEED access to your files GET access to your files.
• Store and retrieve critical electronic information more effectively.
• Select the best filing system for your needs – and your personality – to make it stick.
• Eliminate those lovely piles of files that dot your office landscape.
• Win back valuable floor space, closet space, file space, drawer space and more because every file has it’s place.
• Clean up that desktop (can you even SEE your computer’s wallpaper through all those icons?).
• Create a system that anyone can use even when you’re out of the office.
• Keep yourself and your company legally safe from misplaced or accidentally destroyed documents and files that you may need later in court.
• Gain the latest tools and software that make recordkeeping and filing simple.
• Know exactly what, when, and how to back-up your computer files so you never lose another file again.
• Enable yourself to find any file anywhere, NOW.

• HR managers and staff
• Office managers
• Compliance and safety officers
• Bookkeepers
• “Gatekeepers” of vital corporate data
• Legal assistants
• Medical records professionals
• Administrative assistants
• Anyone expected to find critical information at a moment’s notice

Introduction to Effective Records Management and Flow

• The importance of solid records management and organization in today’s workplace
• The critical difference between paper records management and electronic records management
• The definition of records management, what it is – and what it isn’t
• Benefits of establishing and maintaining control over records
• The two basic elements critical to successful records management
• Getting the lingo down: glossary of key terms

Assessing and Auditing Your Current Filing Systems and Processes

• A step-by-step guide to conducting a quick, easy, and amazingly accurate filing-system audit
• Tools you’ll need to perform a successful audit and why you’ll shoot yourself in the foot if you don’t
  use them
• What are primary and secondary classifications and why you need to make sure you distinguish between the two
• How to identify mission-critical information
• The 3 attributes of record integrity
  

Developing a Strategic Records- Management System

• Using organizational goals as a springboard to a personal system and strategy
• Identify core business processes
• Work flow and supporting documentation
• Identify your vital records and maintain the lifeblood of the organization
• Winning records-management strategies and selecting the one that works for you
• A quick overview of the most popular and successful filing and management systems
• How to use simple project-management tools to help you manage a mountain of paperwork
• Creating record streams and channels that guarantee you’ll remain in control of your files forever

Information Lifecycle Management: Strategies to Categorize Records and Documents

• How to identify records that you need to keep close- at-hand, file nearby, or store elsewhere
• What your HR department (and your corporate counsel) wants you to know about record storage
• When, what, and how to dispose of your records and stay legally safe
• 4 ways to classify information and sources of information
• A simple 7-step records-management plan: Solutions for common filing problems
• Controlling information from the get-go: Forms management anyone can initiate

Developing a Filing System With Split-Second File Retrieval Abilities

• The 4 best ways to organize your files
• How to more effectively process records and files for filing and re-filing
• Cross-referencing your files so that nothing gets lost, misplaced, or misfiled
• How to create a simple cross-referencing form for centralized and decentralized filing systems
• Developing a disaster-recovery plan
• A quick review of the critical link between records retention and disasters (both natural and man-made)

Keeping It Clean & Clear: Records-Retention Plans, Schedules, and Execution

• The 4 steps of records retention
• Implementing a records-retention schedule that fits YOUR schedule
• SPECIAL BONUS: Your “Should I Keep It?” retention decision-making guide
• How to establish an archive for permanent-records preservation
• Purging your obsolete records
• How to incorporate “human factors” into your organizational processes
• How to train co-workers and staff to honor – and use – your system

Special Section: Using Outside Vendors

• How to know when it’s time to call in help and use outside vendors
• The pros and cons of commercial records- management centers
• How to select the right vendor for your needs

Harnessing Technological Help for Organizing and Maintaining Files

• Advances in software that anyone can use to help get organized
• Functions and features to look for in a software package
• How software can help even the most hopeless and disorganized person
• Other resources you can use for effective records and file management

Managing Your Electronic Files

• Organization principles that make inventorying electronic records a snap
• Identifying the types of electronic message- transmission systems we use today and the pitfalls of each in getting organized
• Filing and storing e-files on your computer
• Is backing up your files overrated?? Are you kidding?!
• Steps you can take to retrieve files you thought were irretrievable

SPECIAL BONUS SECTION: The Legal Ramifications of Records Management and Organization

• Current legislation that every employee who handles files and paperwork MUST know
• How to safeguard critical and confidential information
• The history, necessity, and current issues in records management
• Developing a Sarbanes Oxley Compliance Plan
• The Federal Records Act
• Industry standards
• The National Archives and Records Management Administration endorsed standard

“Expected a roomful of ‘managers in dark suits’, but the environment was relaxed, full of humor – it
kept my interest!.”
Stephanie Brown,
Employment Services Specialist, Goodwill

“Thought-provoking and useful. A nice change of pace from the day-to-day grind!”
Kara Brown,
Support Services Director, Union County

“High energy, excellent instructor!”
Paul Arnason,
Contracts Officer, Energy & Environmental Research Center