Another classic "it depends" question.

GENERALLY, a Policy is a high level, internally generated, guidance document.  It's designed to establish how an organization will achieve certain things, typically, compliance with requirements that may be placed on them by external laws, statutes or regulations, or in some cases, contractual obligations. 

It's not uncommon (in the case of an RM or RIM Policy) that Otis a very bare bones short document, approved at the highest level of an organization.  In many cases, the policy provides citations to guidance documents as references and also lists lower level companion documents (program descriptions and org charts, procedures, RRS and/or RIDS) that give more direct guidance.  These documents are typically approved at lower levels, and are more 'fluid' in nature, being revised and modified to suit staff and organizational changes to staffing and roles and responsibilities of those performing the work. 

The RRS is a "product", based on performing an inventory of information/records generated, or received, a function of business. Once this has been completed, the business needs of the items are evaluated, and research is performed to determine what requirements may exist to retain the information for any specific minimum periods of time.  These requirements and business needs are reviewed, and an RRS (typically functional, but sometimes organizational) is developed, establishing the retention period and disposition authority (if any).  In many cases, the 'finished product' receives legal review, and it is published and anyone responsible for managing information/records is trained on how to apply it. 

For the RRS to remain of use, it should be reviewed periodically (annually is common) to see if changes to retention periods are needed, or if items need to be added or deleted from the RRS. 

So from my opinion, the RRS is a component of the policy, but in and of itself, it is not a policy, it's a process/procedure document. 

Larry
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Sent from MY iPhoneSeís

> On Jul 8, 2016, at 10:49 AM, Brett Wise <[log in to unmask]> wrote:
> 
> Hi everyone, so I had assumed I knew the answer to the following question until I did some research on it and found several different sources that contradicted each other.
> 
> The question - Is a Records Retention Schedule (RRS) a policy?  If so, how do the business users know how to apply the RRS (i.e., shouldn't a policy be able to stand on its own?)?
> 
> OR, is the RRS a corporate document that is governed by a RIM/Retention Policy?
> 
> OR, is the RRS a policy that is governed by a RIM/Retention Policy?
> 
> OR, is there some other terminology/system that define the nature of a RRS?
> 
> I have looked at multiple "authoritative" resources, and they all seem to differ in some manner.
> 
> Thanks for any input - this is more of a question of curiosity as to the experts' opinions on the Listserv at this point.
> 
> 
> -          Brett
> 
> Brett Wise CRM, CIPP/US, IGP, CIP | American Board of Pediatrics
> Director of Records & Information Management
> 111 Silver Cedar Court
> Chapel Hill, NC 27514
> [log in to unmask]
> 
> 
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