Information Management and the Departing Employee

Your responsibilities when leaving the employ of (or changing your position within) the GoC.

DOES THIS APPLY TO YOU? In these training modules, the word “employee” includes any individual in the temporary or permanent employ of the GoC (including contractors). Are you leaving your position permanently? (contract finished, retiring) Are you leaving your position semi-permanently? (extended leave, parental leave, training) Even if you are merely changing position or moving to another organization in the department - some of the following may also apply to you.

WHAT YOU’LL LEARN: Options for ensuring the accessibility of your information when on temporary leave. Your information management responsibilities as a departing employee or an employee significantly changing positions in the department.

WHAT YOU NEED TO KNOW! Identifying, organizing and transferring your official records (to other individuals or to the Records Office) is a very important part of your IM responsibilities when you are leaving a position. Identifying and deleting your transitory records is another very important part of your leaving responsibilities. These efforts can be time consuming – start planning for this exercise as soon as you know that you will be leaving.

TEMPORARY LEAVE When you are away from your office temporarily (on parental leave, a secondment or training for example), make sure someone in the department is able to access the information that you collect and store.

BUSINESS CONTINUITY You and your manager need to put a plan in place to ensure the official information that you manage is accessible when you are away from your office. This will allow the department to continue to provide services and prevent your co-workers from having to duplicate the work you have already done.

CONSIDER THE FOLLOWING OPTIONS: Store your business-related electronic documents and messages in shared network directories or in a common electronic document repository such as RDIMS. Provide someone with access rights to specific mailbox folders using the “Delegate Access” function in MS Outlook. Do not share your password. Forward your automatically to someone else on the departmental network; never forward directly through the Internet.

CONSIDER THE FOLLOWING OPTIONS: Ask your network administrator to give full access to your or electronic records to someone you delegate. Disable the “Send” function first and do not share your password. Assign responsibility for your and electronic records to someone, with the understanding that this person will not delete your records. Ask your manager for their recommendations in this matter.

DEPARTURE When you are retiring, leaving indefinitely, changing departments, making a significant change in position to another area within the department or finishing a contract, you need to make sure that the information that you have created/collected/stored in the course of your work is cleaned up, organized and transferred to the appropriate individuals for storage or continued use by your co-workers.

THE ISSUE Every year, people leave their organizations (and their temporary assignments/contracts) and leave behind mountains of paper and electronic files for someone else to sort through. Few people understand as well as you do what your official records are, and what information is merely transitory. In most departments, there is little or no staff available to clear out these mountains of “abandoned” materials.

THE RESULT: Abandoned materials pile up; Official records are “lost” because they are essentially inaccessible; Accuracy of response to ATIP requests become compromised; Your co-workers are unable to find the information that they need to do their job.

TRANSITORY RECORDS: DEFINITION Transitory records are information sources that are only required for a limited period of time in order to complete a routine action or to prepare a subsequent record. You should dispose of or delete transitory records once they have served their purpose

TRANSITORY RECORDS If you haven’t already been doing this, then dispose of transitory records that are no longer needed by your co-workers. Review your: –Paper-based materials; – s; –Electronic documents on your computer’s hard drives, your personal network drives and in other locations such as RDIMS. Note that transitory records required for an active or anticipated Access to Information and Privacy (ATIP) request, litigation or official investigation must be retained and delivered to the appropriate manager.

But, if you are ever in doubt about a record’s status…. Save it!

OFFICIAL RECORD: DEFINITION Official records document or provide evidence of a department’s business activities. You must save all of your official records

OFFICIAL RECORDS: GENERAL Contact your local Records Office about the management of your official records as early as possible. They will provide you with the necessary guidance prior to your departure. Transfer useful/active official records to the appropriate individuals in your work group.

OFFICIAL RECORDS: PAPER Most organizations have detailed guidelines for the preparation of paper-based records that are being transferred to the Records Office. These guidelines typically cover the type of box to use and methods for identifying the contents of your boxes. Please contact your Records Office for the information that you will need.

OFFICIAL RECORDS: ELECTRONIC In “cleaning up”, ensure that you leave no electronic documents: –in your box –on your computer’s hard drive –in personal network directories –on diskettes or CD’s –on laptops –on BlackBerries –on home PC’s –On removable media such as ‘jump drives’

OFFICIAL RECORDS: ELECTRONIC Any electronic materials that you have that fit the category of “official record” need to be saved in a location where they can be accessed by others: –central document repository such as an Electronic Document and Records Management System (EDRMS, RDIMS etc.) if your department has one; –shared network directories. Speak to your Records Office for advice about transferring “ownership” of electronic documents if required. Keep in mind that your status as document “owner” may confer rights to you that will need to be transferred to someone else.

SENSITIVE RECORDS Any materials that you have that are “sensitive” – that is Protected C, Confidential, Secret or Top Secret – need to be treated differently than your other materials. Sensitive transitory records: –Electronic sensitive materials that need to be destroyed, should be handled by IT Security (disks, CD’s etc.); –Paper-based sensitive materials that need to be destroyed, should go in a classified waste disposal, be destroyed in a micro-cross-cut shredder or submitted to the Records Office for destruction.

SENSITIVE RECORDS As the “owner” of sensitive official records you should: a) review the materials to determine if they need to be declassified or downgraded; b) transfer the ownership/responsibility of these materials (paper and electronic) to your manager or your replacement (speak to your manager and your Records Office). Your local Records Office and/or Security Organization can provide further help – contact them!

RECORDS OFFICE FILES Don’t forget to return any official records that you have taken out from your Records Office. If checked out official records are to be transferred to another employee, the Records Office must be notified.

PUBLICATIONS Return departmental publications to the library. Check with your departmental library as they may be interested in taking all of the publications and government reports in your possession.

IF YOU WANT TO TAKE INFORMATION WITH YOU Consult with your manager if you wish to take copies of any paper or electronic records in your possession. An example of a record you may wish to copy could be: –a sample of your contributions to a particular policy document. Copies of sensitive records cannot be taken. Remember that these materials are owned by the department and not by you.

IN REVIEW… Identifying, organizing and transferring your official records (to other individuals or to the Records Office) is a very important part of your IM responsibilities when you are leaving a position. Identifying and deleting your transitory records is another very important part of your leaving responsibilities. These efforts can be time consuming – start planning for this exercise as soon as you know that you will be leaving.

CONGRATULATIONS! You have just completed IM and the Departing Employee – an IM self-study module. You may now: –Test your knowledge with the following quiz. –Review other IM self-study modules in this series: Information Management 101 Managing Effectively Information Security Records Management and You! Privacy and Personal Information – What Canadians Expect Understanding IM Within the Federal Government