State Records NSW

The New South Wales Government's Archives and Records Management Authority

Create and Capture - Guidelines on better recordkeeping
Section 3 - Strategies for promoting record creation and capture

3.5 Be aware of outsourcing or other workplace arrangements
In today’s business environment, it is important to be aware of outsourcing or other workplace arrangements that could affect record creation and capture.

Outsourcing

Although outsourcing brings many benefits, it can also bring risks if it involves the dismantling of structures and practices supporting the systematic creation and keeping of records. If your organisation is considering the outsourcing of some of its activities, it is important to consider the requirements for record creation and capture that exist for these activities and to ensure that contractors employed to undertake the outsourced activities are aware of these requirements. For example, if your organisation is outsourcing a particular activity, it should be written into the service contract that all appropriate records associated with the conduct of this activity must be created and captured into an appropriate records system.

Distributed workplaces

In the current work environment, staff in your organisation can be physically distributed across the country or even internationally. It is important that even in these situations, record creation and capture processes happen systematically and consistently and that all staff, irrespective of their location, are aware of their recordkeeping responsibilities.

In such situations, networked electronic business systems, which include appropriate record creation and capture, would obviously be ideal. All staff could then use these systems to conduct their work and to manage records of that work. Until such systems become more commonplace, distributed staff should create and maintain records within the relevant systems in their own geographic area. This will result in some information duplication, but will mean all staff have access to records when they require them. Home based workers are an exception to this rule. If home based workers do not have access to a centralised electronic records system, the records they create in the course of their work should be forwarded to the organisational records manager to file and manage in the relevant official records system.


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