Ever wonder why Zasio’s research team leads the industry? They are more than just proficient legal researchers—they immerse themselves in record keeping. Collaboration with Zasio’s consulting and technology teams results in accurate, in-depth, and top-quality records management solutions. Our clients receive a product focused on relevant recordkeeping requirements vetted alongside business best practices. Customer success is our sole objective, and our expertise and qualifications provide high-quality research for recordkeeping unmatched by our competitors.

Zasio Researchers Have Over 65 Years of Combined Experience in Records Management

And that’s not just years of career experience—that’s years with Zasio dedicated to recordkeeping regulation. Most of our researchers are attorneys and paralegals who understand the nuances of international recordkeeping law. Our researchers’ refined methodologies have been proven over years spent successfully developing projects in numerous industries and ensure our clients receive the most thoroughly vetted research for their business needs. Our researchers use their experience to focus exclusively on citations relevant to each client’s specific business processes. Through this consistent approach, we avoid the predictable dead ends other recordkeeping consulting firms encounter.

Record Keeping Specialization

Fluency in the language of recordkeeping takes time. Statutes and regulations obscure retention periods, triggers, and format requirements. Our team members have specific industry certifications related to recordkeeping—such as Certified Records Manager (CRM), Information Governance Professional (IGP), Certified Information Privacy Professional (CIPP), and Certified Information Privacy Manager—which anchor their efforts in industry practice. In addition to client recordkeeping projects, Zasio researchers work year-round to keep citations in Zasio’s world-class database up to date. We monitor trends in privacy, retention, and handling restrictions. We comprehensively review—and re-review—all available primary and secondary sources. A singular focus on recordkeeping law allows Zasio’s research team to provide consistent and relevant results.

Research Knowledge Base

At Zasio, we know research without focus leads to unrefined results. It is critical to understand the context of citations to business practices. Our team uses research and consulting to maintain a fresh perspective on what records managers in various industries consider essential. Zasio’s researchers also benefit from interactions with our client’s stakeholders and legal counsel, apprising them of current business operations. This collaboration focuses their research on essential functions and practices. Zasio’s researchers work with our consultants to identify tricky citations and align them with industry common practice. We save our clients time and money by fostering a collaborative environment that streamlines the legal focus of recordkeeping research.

Internal and Direct Resources

A good team is left blind without proper tools to harness and focus their skills. Zasio’s industry-leading records retention software platform houses our coded pinpoint citations containing regulated parties and retention periods. However, our researchers don’t just use Zasio’s software to input citations but also work with our technology team to provide feedback and optimize the technology. Our researchers understand what information is relevant and provide input to ensure the end-user experience is refined and efficient.

Not all Research is Created Equal.

Knowing the source of your vendor’s research is essential. A high-caliber research team provides a strong foundation for recordkeeping programs through accurate and customized recordkeeping citations. The experienced, focused, and dedicated Zasio team carries a distinct advantage by providing businesses with the precise information they need to meet recordkeeping challenges quickly and efficiently. Like names on film credits, those doing the challenging work are often not prominently recognized. But like those individuals supporting a successful film, Zasio’s researchers create the backbone for an effective and defensible recordkeeping strategy that would be impossible without their dedicated efforts.

Disclaimer: The purpose of this post is to provide general education on Information Governance topics. The statements are informational only and do not constitute legal advice. If you have specific questions regarding the application of the law to your business activities, you should seek the advice of your legal counsel.

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Like getting kids to clean up their mess, encouraging employee compliance with records software can be challenging. In the 2023 ARMA IG Maturity Index survey, 45.1% of respondents believed their organizations lacked the essential components of an information governance program. A key element to increasing your records management program’s maturity is engaging employees and making them active participants. And a great way to engage employees is to make learning and compliance a game.

Com-pliance Starts With Com-petition

People naturally want to contribute to a team’s success and love to compete and win. Suppose you want to improve your organization’s success with your records management program. In that case, you can leverage that competitive nature by creating a friendly competition that focuses on the organizational goal of records management compliance. Creating a “gamified” training experience will develop a culture of compliance throughout your organization.

Get In the Game

Creating a game out of training and compliance makes it seem like it’s not even work, which makes it extremely effective. Professional services firm KPMG developed a “gamified training tool” and used it with both leaders and employees to provide a better understanding of available products and services. Researchers found that the gamified training helped to increase collected fees by 25%, the number of clients by 16%, and opportunities from new clients by 22%.

You don’t have to build a complex tool from the ground up to enjoy similar benefits. Find minor ways to “gamify” your RRS training. For instance, you could develop a contest between departments related to RRS compliance with the following competitions to earn points:

• Audit random record series related to separate departments and determine which series has the lowest percentage of incorrectly assigned records in the past quarter.
• Distribute a pop quiz to test individuals’ understanding of the RRS and see which department returns the highest average score.
• Measure the volume of records pending disposition and determine which department has the lowest percentage of outstanding records.
• Send an email asking to identify the correct record series for a well-known organizational record and see who responds first.

Make sure to provide a fun prize! The engagement rate with your training competitions increases when employees understand there is something to be won.

Bonus Prizes: Increased Attention to Records Management and Metrics

These smaller-scale interactions are more individually engaging than large-scale training presentations, and you can leverage that engagement by sneaking in additional training. Mix general training or informational messages with contest-related ones so your employees will eagerly anticipate all messages from the records management department.

You can also specifically design competitions to provide a secondary benefit of gathering metrics for your program. Tracking correctly identified records or disposition efforts provides information on accountability that you can use to find weaknesses or strengths and to understand where to focus upcoming training and improvement projects.

In It to Win It

As you gamify your records management training for your employees, you will find increased engagement and compliance, leading to a more successful records management solution. Considering the benefits of higher compliance, increased attention to your program, and valuable metrics, it’s definitely a game worth playing.

Disclaimer: The purpose of this post is to provide general education on information governance software topics. The statements are informational only and do not constitute legal advice. If you have specific questions regarding the application of the law to your business activities, you should seek the advice of your legal counsel.

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• Selecting a potential executive sponsor
• Preparing an effective pitch

Now that you’ve identified your desired catch and cast your line, let’s discuss how you can reel them in and keep them invested—especially when a failure to implement your project could expose your organization to costly regulatory penalties.

Getting an executive sponsor committed can be a lot like fishing: after much preparation and a little luck, you’ll feel that first nibble on your line. But you’ve got to be ready to act! Any angler knows you’ll lose your catch if you’re too aggressive or not aggressive enough. Just like when fishing, finding balance is key—you’ll have the most success landing an executive sponsor if you act consistently, clearly, and concisely.

Be Consistent in All Interactions

Consistency at all stages is critical for a successful relationship with your executive sponsor. When you apply inconsistent pressure to your line, it’s likely to break and leave you empty-handed. While meeting project deadlines and providing accurate deliverables is part of consistency, having regular—not insistent—communication is also key. We all have that one friend who talks too much out on the lake and scares the fish away. Don’t be that person.

Consistency allows for flexibility in the details and execution through maintaining a clear objective with open communication. Regular, scheduled meetings, even if brief, provide a platform to keep your sponsor updated without being bothersome. This approach ensures your executive sponsor is always informed and involved, further fostering your partnership. Conversely, inconsistent contact with your sponsor is the quickest way to lose their trust—and future support.

Be Clear with Your Expectations

Your sponsor is staking their institutional reputation on your project and is expending professional capital to marshal support and resources. Accordingly, you must communicate clear goals and waypoints so they will see progress and share in the wins. You also should ensure your objective is aligned with your sponsor’s so you move in the same direction instead of fighting the line. Provide a broad, high-level goal that will allow your sponsor to clearly and succinctly communicate the project to other stakeholders.

To do this, provide your sponsor with an “elevator pitch” they can use to demonstrate the project’s focus on one or more of your organization’s goals, like cost minimization, while highlighting the risks of not proceeding with your RIM/IG project. Here’s an example to get you started:

Revising our records retention schedule will eliminate duplicative retention, which will cut our storage costs by 20 percent, and decrease the risk of over-retention of client personal data!

Including cost savings estimates or examples of recent enforcement actions—and accompanying fines—is especially useful. This may require collaboration with IT or finance departments to determine your program’s current state and estimate your project’s effects.

Having a clear focus does not mean you can’t adapt when needed. You should be willing to compromise and modify aspects of your project to achieve your objective. Don’t be afraid to take your sponsor’s feedback or make course corrections. Letting a bit of line out is good to keep overall progress moving forward. Compromise demonstrates to your sponsor that you want to get the project done right, not that you have to be right. And that gives you more credibility if you need to stand firm on a less-negotiable portion of the project.

Be Concise When Communicating

Your executive sponsor doesn’t have much time to spend hashing out every detail of your RIM/IG project. Providing a potential sponsor with a clear plan allows them the confidence to delegate the details to you without micromanaging the project. Demonstrate respect for their time, and they’ll likely see you as a self-starter who gets things done. If you’re unprepared and unfocused when talking with them, a palpable negative feeling emerges that can be fatal to sponsorship. Nothing ruins a fishing day like forgetting your tackle box, and nothing ruins a sponsorship like not being able to confidently provide a simple status update.

Again, having a ready summary of enforcement actions against similarly situated companies helps strengthen your project’s importance to the organization. Create a one- or two-sentence summary of the facts and outcome to make it easy for your sponsor to understand and communicate them to others. You will have less influence if you simply send them copies of the decisions or—worse yet—a link to the regulator’s website.

Conclusion

There’s no feeling like landing a prize fish after a long battle. Once your first RIM/IG project is successful, if you’ve been consistent, clear, and concise with your sponsor, you’ll have established a professional relationship that will pay dividends deep into the future. This is critical to developing a robust RIM/IG program. They might be willing to sponsor your next project or provide a vote of confidence in your abilities to other stakeholders. You might even develop a mentor who can guide you to your next career step! So, dream big, plan well, and cast your RIM/IG project into the world to see what you catch.

Disclaimer: The purpose of this post is to provide general education on information governance topics. The statements are informational only and do not constitute legal advice. If you have specific questions regarding the application of the law to your business activities, you should seek the advice of your legal counsel.

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