Do you have an e-mail retention policy? If not, you may want to consider developing one in order to prevent putting your business or organization at unnecessary risk.
For example, if a judge requires that you cooperate with electronic discovery during a legal proceeding, you may also be required to produce copies of e-mails. With the increasing legal requirements pertaining to electronic documentation, it is becoming more critical that employers and organizations have e-mail retention policies.
First of all, what electronic programs should be included in an e-mail retention policy? Based on my experience, I recommend that organizations include all e-mail and instant messenger type applications, and you will want to factor in even one-line type messages. Other factors to consider include the following:
- Preserve those records that could be relevant to a lawsuit or an investigation. If you receive a notice of a potential or pending investigation, you have a duty to retain and, if required, produce any records that are the subject of an investigation.
- Determine your e-mail retention guidelines and stick to them. Your policy should include details about how e-mails will be maintained and, when they are destroyed, how they will be destroyed.
- Determine how long information contained in e-mails will be valuable to the company. For instance, if information relates to accounting records, or if there are e-mails to clients or customers, you will want to determine what length of time that information is valuable to the company. Some experts recommend that companies keep this information at least 90 days, if not longer. You should give special attention to highly sensitive information.
- Consider where you will house your e-mail retention policy; if not in the employee handbook, you may want to keep the policy in a document that contains information about network administration and technical procedures, such as your operations manual. You can also cross-reference this information within your employee handbook so that employees understand that e-mails sent and received during company time and/or while using company-owned resources remain the property of the company.
- Review applicable federal or state boundaries: For instance, if your organization falls under the scope of any federally mandated programs, you will want to consider how those mandates might affect your e-mail policy retention decisions.
Finally, most organizations will also want to work in concert with their IT professionals when developing e-mail retention policies. Employers that develop e-mail retention policies are taking important steps to help prevent unnecessary risks, including stiff legal sanctions, costly settlements and public humiliation.
As with all employee policies: (1) Employers should seek legal counsel when developing policies that affect its relationship with employees. (2) Employers should review and regularly audit their employee policies to make sure they are current and up-do-date.
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