Gus Harris commented on a reply from Larry Medina " ... why be retaining all of these personnel records in hardcopy?  And that's a good question as well considering the advantages of automation with .... a long term solution to inactive employee file retention."

A quick answer is that, for the type of retention periods Larry and some others have mentioned, electronic records are the WORST POSSIBLE CHOICE. They have essentially no long-term viability (assuming you define "long-term" as 30+ years).

An alternative to keeping the paper is to output the electronic images and data to microfilm. The additional cost is minimal and, if properly manufactured, processed and stored, first-generation silver-gelatin microfilm has a Life Expectancy rating of 500 years (good enough for HR work, in any setting). Microfilm requires about 5% of the storage space of paper.

Best regards,

Fred
-----------------------------------------------------------
Frederic J. Grevin, Vice-President
Records Management Department
New York City Economic Development Corporation * www.nycedc.com
[log in to unmask] * w. 212.312.3903 * mobile 917.510.3016 * f. 212.618.5722

List archives at http://lists.ufl.edu/archives/recmgmt-l.html
Contact [log in to unmask] for assistance
To unsubscribe from this list, click the below link. If not already present, place UNSUBSCRIBE RECMGMT-L or UNSUB RECMGMT-L in the body of the message.
mailto:[log in to unmask]