Your organization’s records programs probably needs a makeover. Here’s how to make the business case.

While records management legal and regulatory requirements are not going away (if anything, they are getting more onerous), the real change drivers are coming both from other compliance requirements and, increasingly, from business needs.

Some organizations are rethinking their programs because of new privacy regulations. Others are revisiting them to support artificial intelligence governance. But another key driver behind this is to make these programs more functional, driving employee productivity and collaboration. 

Why the Old Model Isn’t Working

For years, most companies approached records management as a one-and-done compliance exercise: Write a policy, issue a retention schedule, and hope people follow it. Those traditional programs focused narrowly on legal and regulatory requirements, often ignoring business needs and user experience. They worked, more or less, when most information was on paper. But in an all-digital world, they’ve become unmanageable.

The volume of electronic information has exploded, while the manual processes that were originally designed for paper (not electronic) information have not kept up. Employees have ingrained habits of saving everything, both because they “may need it later” but also because they don’t have time to follow records management procedures.

Privacy, AI, and the Push for Smarter Retention

Privacy laws and data minimization requirements are driving change. While records management rules focus on minimum retention periods, privacy rules shape a different dynamic. Nearly every major privacy regime, from Europe’s General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) to the California Privacy Rights Act (CPRA), requires that personal information be retained “no longer than necessary” for legitimate business purposes. Keeping everything forever, including personal information, means that over-retention can now violate the law, not just increase storage costs.

Generative AI is also driving change. AI needs well-organized, high-quality data sets. Out-of-date or low value information can undermine AI effectiveness, while accidentally mixing proprietary information into AI creates a risk of data leakage. Ensuring that AI can be fed quality data is actually a records management problem.

But these compliance motivations are only part of the story. The biggest motivator I see is increasing operational efficiency and employee productivity. Employees spend hours searching for the right version of a file, recreating work because prior documents are buried.

Worse, they are forced to wade through endless folders of irrelevant material. Over-retention of emails and files creates information clutter. This clutter makes it harder for employees to find and collaborate on high-value information. Ever “lose” information when an employee retires? Edit a document only to find you updated an older version? Spend, in the aggregate, hours per week searching for information? Struggle collaborating with employees working from home?

Companies are realizing that a modern records program can improve productivity as much as it improves compliance. By cleaning up redundant, obsolete, and trivial information, modern programs make valuable information more accessible, reducing the hours per week employees spend looking for information. We have found that, on average, employees spend six hours per week searching for information. In well-governed environments they only spend half that time, saving employees three hours per week.

What “Modernization” Looks Like

Companies are remaking their records programs into ones that are modern and easier for employees to execute, driving productivity while ensuring compliance with regulatory requirements.

Modern records programs share several traits. First, they are simpler. The best schedules no longer try to distinguish between hundreds of micro-categories. Instead, they group information into broader functional categories with clear retention triggers. They also capture information with business value. Employees can actually use them.

Second, they are integrated. Privacy, eDiscovery, and records requirements are not handled in isolation. Data minimization rules for personal data are harmonized with broader recordkeeping and business needs, avoiding conflicts and confusion.

Third, they are automated. Companies are leveraging tools they already own, such as Microsoft 365, to enable records management automation. Newer programs are using technology to adopt the “five second rule” of making records classification easy and fast.

Compliance Teams Increasingly Taking the Lead

Interestingly, compliance professionals are best positioned to lead this transformation. They already have the cross-functional credibility to engage legal, IT, privacy, and business units. They understand the regulatory landscape, and they know how to build programs that are both defensible and practical. They also appreciate incorporating the “human element” into successful programs.

Compliance leaders can frame modernization not as an IT project or a policy rewrite, but as a business initiative that improves how the organization functions. By connecting the dots between compliance risk, privacy obligations, and productivity gains, they can build momentum that traditional records or IT teams might struggle to generate on their own.

Making It Happen

So, what does a records program “makeover” look like in practice? We typically see a few foundational steps:

1. Assess the current state. Identify where policies are outdated, where information is over-retained, and where systems don’t align with business or regulatory requirements.
2. Engage stakeholders early. Engage and work with legal, IT, privacy, InfoSec, HR, finance, and business units in developing and executing an enterprise-wide strategy.
3. Develop Clear, Prescriptive, and Useful Retention Guidelines. Move from hundreds of records series to a manageable number of categories aligned with business value.
4. Integrate privacy and AI governance. Ensure that records processes and outputs feed into, and are synchronized with, other compliance requirements.
5. Automate execution. Use existing tools such as M365 or others to simplify classification and automate execution.
6. Engage and Train Employees. Drive behavior change management to position modernization as a way to make work easier and smarter, not just another compliance initiative.

A New Era for Records Programs

Records programs used to be something companies did because they had to. Now, they’re something companies are doing because they want to. Modern records management helps organizations meet privacy and AI requirements, reduce risk, and unlock productivity all at the same time.

As compliance professionals, we can lead this shift. We understand how governance, process, and accountability intersect. We can frame modernization not just as a legal necessity, but as a strategic investment in how the company works.

The makeover is long overdue. Records management is no longer just about boxes, files, and retention codes.

It’s about reducing clutter.

It’s about making information useful.

It’s about enabling smarter, faster, and more compliant operations.

In the process, making over the records management system at your organization gives compliance professionals a new, more visible role in shaping how their organization manages information in the age of AI and privacy.