Chapter 14

Train the Troops

In This Chapter

Generating program awareness

Coming up with a training plan

Seeing your training plan through

Equipping yourself with the tools to implement an effective and compliant Records and Information Management program is only half the battle — you also have to figure out how you get the word out to everybody else. Like any new company program, you will need to generate awareness and train employees how to use and follow it. The level of understanding that employees have of the program will determine its success. Generating awareness is especially important for new Records and Information Management programs, but also applies to existing programs that need a boost.

This chapter provides you with the guidance you need to generate awareness through developing marketing campaigns and effective training methods designed for small and large groups of employees, plus tips on conducting refresher training.

I’m Aware of That!

Employees appreciate being given advance notice of new company programs, especially if the program has the potential to impact the way they perform their functions. The organization’s Records and Information Management program is no exception. You should take advantage of the opportunity to make employees aware of the program through establishing an awareness campaign.

From the top

The success of the organization’s Records and Information Management program relies heavily upon employee cooperation and buy-in. The most effective way to ensure employee compliance to the program is to secure senior management support. As part of your marketing and awareness plan, you should request that senior management distribute a communication to employees introducing the program, its benefits, and their expectation that all employees will comply with the program. It’s important to note that it’s common in these situations that senior management will ask you to draft the communication, which they will then distribute on their letterhead.

What’s in it for me?

It’s important to generate awareness prior to rolling out the Records and Information Management program. Generating awareness of the program prior to implementation gives employees time to familiarize themselves with the important points and benefits of the program.

Good marketing programs have one key concept in common — they generate a perception of need. The same should be true for your Records and Information Management Program Awareness campaign. Your campaign should focus on how the program will benefit employees and why they need it. Therefore, it’s essential for you to understand how the program will positively impact an employee’s daily work life. Following are some examples of benefits that employees will realize:

Greater ease in finding information: A huge source of employee frustration is not being able to locate needed information. An effective Records and Information Management program can significantly increase an employee’s ability to find what he needs, when he needs it.

Eliminating guesswork: In the absence of a Records and Information Management program, employees, out of necessity, are forced to make decisions on how to manage company information. Employees would rather be provided with consistent guidance and procedures. This eliminates the time and effort they spend wondering whether they’ve made the correct decision.

Removing clutter: A Records and Information Management program can reduce departmental clutter. This can be accomplished by introducing document imaging or through the proper life cycle management of paper and electronic information.

Processing improvements: An effective Records and Information Management program should include procedures that provide employees with clear and concise instructions on how to process related functions, such as boxing records for storage, physical and electronic filing, and information destruction. In addition, significant processing improvements can be achieved through the use of automated workflow.

Although other significant benefits can be realized through the implementation of a Records and Information Management program — increased legal and regulatory compliance as well as reductions in organizational risks, for example — employees don’t perceive these issues as directly benefiting them. However, with the appropriate level of employee cooperation and buy-in, it will increase the probabilities of achieving all the program objectives.

Creating a creative awareness campaign

You have two approaches to choose from when creating an awareness campaign: traditional and creative. The traditional organizational approach for introducing a new program typically involves a formal (boring) communication that informs employees of the new program and why they must comply with it. Employees understand that they must adhere to company policies and programs. However, they don’t like being dictated to.

The creative approach is designed to involve employees in the new program process. The employee involvement process should begin early in the development of the Records and Information Management program. For example, you can capitalize on the opportunity to inform employees about the nature and benefits of the program and seek their feedback when you are inventorying and appraising their records.

A creative awareness campaign is as good as your creativity. You should solicit ideas from other employees involved in the program. The following methods for generating awareness have proven to be effective:

Tagline: A tagline is a catchy phrase that communicates a central topic of your program. If effective, the tagline will cause employees to immediately associate it with the Records and Information Management program. Examples of program taglines may include “For the Record,” “Find what you need, when you need it,” “Managing the Information Life Cycle,” and “Records Management — A Process, not a Project.”

Logo: Creating a logo gives the program an identity. Like a tagline, you want your logo to create immediate recognition of the program. Your logo may stand alone or incorporate your organization’s logo.

Posters: Fun-themed posters incorporating the program’s tagline and logo can be created and placed in high-traffic areas, such as break rooms, the cafeteria, and company bulletin boards.

Newsletter/intranet: You can draft a series of articles promoting the Records and Information Management program to be published in the organization’s newsletter or posted on the intranet. In the first article, you may want to take a mystery-theme approach. For example, you may discuss a scenario that involves working in an environment where employees always find the information they are looking for and where no desk is cluttered, without mentioning the Records and Information Management program. This approach is used to pique the interest of the reader. Subsequent articles are used to provide more information, culminating in the unveiling of the program.

Scavenger hunt: A fun approach for generating program awareness is to develop a virtual scavenger hunt. Usually, the company intranet is used for this purpose. The objective of the scavenger hunt is to educate employees on key points of the Records and Information Management program. It involves developing questions related to Records and Information management and distributing the questions via e-mail. The e-mail contains a link to an intranet page containing the answers. The first person to correctly answer all the questions can be recognized and awarded a prize.

Lunch and learn: Sometimes referred to as brown-bagging, lunch and learn involves conducting an awareness session where employees can bring their lunch and discuss the new program. Lunch breaks can serve as an effective time to bring employees together when their schedules would not otherwise permit.

Vendors: Records Management vendors can be a good source for communication material that promotes Records and Information management. This includes educational material, posters, and quick-reference guides.

Free stuff: Last but not least is free stuff. Free stuff is one of the most effective ways to generate awareness. Many Records Management and Office Supply vendors are happy to provide you with trinkets and samples emblazoned with their logo. You can conduct an awareness session in a conference room or cafeteria and provide the freebies. However, it’s important to announce prior to the meeting that you will have free stuff to maximize attendance — and don’t forget to order the pizzas.

The Internet can be a good source for tips on generating Records and Information Management program awareness. Many academic and governmental Records Management departments have websites that you can access that provide useful information. In addition, ARMA International (www.arma.org) has Records and Information Management promotional material that can be purchased.

Developing a Training Plan

Records and Information Management training should be viewed as a continuous process and not a one-time project. A need for initial training exists when the program is first introduced to the organization, but a need also exists for periodic refresher training as well as training on new Records and Information Management requirements.

Prior to training employees, you need to plan the process. This includes determining your curriculum, figuring out how to tailor training to different audiences, and identifying additional training needs. The following sections help you examine these issues.

Deciding on the curriculum

Developing your training plan requires determining the curriculum — seeing what employees need to be trained to do. When introducing a Records and Information Management program to the organization, a need exists for comprehensive training on numerous topics. The Records and Information Management policy typically serves as an effective outline for initial training. It’s recommended that your curriculum focus on the following topics:

Vital record identification and protection

The information hold order process

How to use the retention schedule

Onsite and offsite storage requirements

Proper destruction methods

E-mail management

The information life cycle process

Filing electronic information

Records Management or Enterprise Content Management (ECM) software (if applicable)

Depending on your organization and industry, additional Records and Information Management topics may require employee training, such as how to properly safeguard HIPAA (personal health information) records and other privacy-related matters.

One size doesn’t always fit all

Based on your company, employees, and their job responsibilities, it may be necessary to tailor your training approach. This involves understanding whether your training curriculum needs to be modified for different workgroups or employee categories. For example, different training plans may be developed for management employees, employees with extensive job responsibilities, and other employees who have limited processing duties.

A training plan for management employees may consist of an overview of important topics, with an emphasis on management employee responsibility for ensuring compliance. This may include areas such as information hold orders, vital record identification, and approving the destruction of records. The training plan for other nonmanagement employees may include specific procedural instructions for how to use Records and Information Management software, how to process records for offsite storage, and how to use the retention schedule.

Although training plans need to be appropriately tailored for different audiences, the reality is that most employees use, process, and handle records while performing their assigned job functions. This means that the majority of topics typically covered in the organization’s Records and Information Management policy may be applicable to a large percentage of company employees. Understanding your organization’s operations and employee functions can help you avoid excluding any pertinent training topics.

How refreshing

Over time, some employees transfer into different roles, some leave the company, and new employees come on board. Laws, regulations, and software upgrades create changes and new requirements. This fact of corporate life means that Records and Information Management training has to be a continuous process.

Records and Information Management Program procedures can help employees understand how to perform some of the related tasks. However, in many cases, refresher training may be a more effective tool than relying solely on procedures — especially if the procedures haven’t been updated. Refresher training can consist of current or new material.

Instead of assuming what refresher training needs to be conducted, it’s recommended that you review the results of compliance audits that may have been conducted or survey employees to determine areas where they feel they may be deficient and need additional training. Figure 14-1 gives you an idea of what such a survey might look like.

Training the Masses

Training is essential to the success of the program. Employees need and want to know the correct way to manage the organization’s records and information. For small businesses, the challenge of finding time to train all employees may be minimal. However, for medium- and large-sized organizations, the challenge can be significant. Therefore, you need to look at all your training options.

The following sections examine training issues, options, and recommendations for ensuring that all employees receive the necessary Records and Information Management training they need. This includes time constraints, webinars, and the use of the company intranet.

How much time do I have?

After you select the training curriculum, you need to determine how much time is needed to adequately conduct the training. You probably will not have the luxury of conducting a three-day training seminar; it’s more likely that you’ll have just an hour or two. Based on this constraint, you need to make the most of the training. This means determining the key points that need to be conveyed.

Limited training time is usually a result of employees not being able to be absent from their work area for long periods. If this is the case, you may be able to schedule multiple one- or two-hour training sessions over a period of several days or weeks. This will allow you adequate time to cover multiple topics and reduce the potential of trying to cover too much at one time. Although it’s important to determine how much training time will be allotted, the most important issue is ensuring that employees are adequately trained on all important aspects of the program. You should request additional training time if it’s needed.

Face-time training

Training is traditionally conducted in a face-to-face conference room setting — far and away the most effective training method. This approach may be possible for organizations with one location and a manageable number of employees.

Face-to-face training works so well because it allows the trainer and the trainee to interact. The trainer is able to monitor employee body language, which helps to identify the level of interest and whether the message is sinking in. Identifying these issues allows the trainer to quickly alter the content delivery or reiterate certain points.

Face-to-face instruction can also work for a large number of employees, but will typically require conducting multiple training sessions due to lack of conference room space. Organizations that have employees scattered in multiple geographical locations may decide to conduct face-to-face training, but then they probably need to budget for related travel expenses.

Webinars

Web-based training is a good option if you need to train large numbers of employees in multiple locations, have a limited training budget, or are under training time constraints.

Advances in technology have made webinars (live web-based training) a viable alternative to face-to-face training. Webinars typically involve sharing your desktop PC screen with attendees and using an audio connection. This approach allows employees to visually follow the training material and ask questions through the audio or by typing questions through the webinar interface. Several vendors such as GoToMeeting and Microsoft’s Live Meeting are good tools for conducting webinars.

Intranet-based training

You find two primary intranet-based training approaches. One involves posting a noninteractive copy of the training material to the intranet. Employees receive a link to the material via e-mail. This approach is not preferred. It relies on the employee to read the training material. The noninteractive method doesn’t test the employee on her knowledge of the content or allow her to ask questions.

The second option is an interactive approach. This presents the training information to the employee, but also requires the employee to test his knowledge of the content as he proceeds through the material. In addition, the interactive approach allows the employee to post questions that can be answered by the trainer.