I'm struggling a bit trying to understand the role that you're looking at. Are you hiring a records clerk (i.e. someone to handle box movements, handle orders for boxes, and input data into databases (among other tasks)? Or do you want to hire a professional who will run the records management program (create policy, develop system requirements, manage retention schedule, etc.)? Your assistant is likely qualified for the former and you will have a hard time convincing HR that he is qualified for a professional position in records management.

The Records Analyst title might be appropriate for an entry level professional, but that presumes some experience with retention schedules and electronic records.

In terms of salary, the higher end of the range you mention is probably appropriate for a Records Analyst who is effectively running the Records Management program. The lower end probably is appropriate for the role you mention for your assistant, although those tasks are very clerical in nature, so you really need to do a good job defining the role in professional terms. A "survey" is not a professional's task. Presenting training that has been created elsewhere is not a professional's task."Other duties as assigned" needs more definition. Your task as the manager is to define the role in terms that make it simple for HR to measure the role against other related roles in other departments. If you make the job look clerical, that's who you get measured against.

And attitude, particularly for you, is everything. If you don't sell this role to your assistant as an upgrade and a career-enhancing position, he's going to be unhappy. 


The information professions are evolving very rapidly right now and many traditional roles are disappearing. If you limit yourself or your staff to a single focus, you're doing yourself and your staff a disservice. You have to continually evaluate where you spend your organization's resources and what value is brought back to the organization.That often means stretching yourself and your staff in unexpected ways. I never dreamed that I would be responsible for security risk assessments, data privacy, PCI audits, e-discovery, information security policy, and SOx audits when I became Motorola's records manager almost five years ago. If I had limited myself to records management, I'd be unemployed today. But I didn't, and I found entirely new ways to understand the records lifecycle and what it means to manage information.

You have an opportunity to re-vision your organization's mission and the skillsets that you bring to the table. For your sake and the sake of your staff, use this opportunity well.

 
Patrick Cunningham, CRM, CIP, FAI
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"Perpetual optimism is a force multiplier." 
-- Colin Powell

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