Iron Mountain’s Global Records and Information Manager offers best practices for RIM Awareness Month

April is Records and Information Management (RIM) Awareness Month, which was created to promote good information management and record keeping. As leaders in information management, Iron Mountain understands everyone has a role to play in properly managing both the physical and digital records we create, access, store, or dispose of everyday and keeping them secure.

To understand a little more about RIM Awareness, we went straight to the expert: meet Arlette Walls, Global Records and Information Manager for internal records at Iron Mountain. A five-year Mountaineer, Arlette is a member of our Privacy and Compliance team.

Q: How do you define records and information management?

A: Records and Information Management (RIM) is an essential organizational function that oversees the entire lifecycle of information from creation (or ingestion) to disposition. It requires effectively implementing consistent and accountable record keeping practices, including adherence to the organization’s retention schedule, which covers how long records must be kept to comply with rules and regulations. RIM increases efficiency, reduces risk, and drives value throughout the organization.

Q: What does RIM Awareness mean to you?

A: For a RIM Manager, this is an opportunity to educate employees within the organization about the importance of good information management practices, provide them with resources, promote compliance, and more importantly engage them in proactively managing the information they generate or contribute to.

Q: What excites you about your job and working for Iron Mountain?

A: Being the information manager for a global information management company is kind of a unique experience. I need to keep our internal and external customers’ data safe, of course, but want to set a good example.

It's exciting to pilot products and services that we’re offering to our customers. This gives me the opportunity to provide feedback from a RIM perspective, and help our customers that way.

Q: How have you grown professionally since joining Iron Mountain?

A: The role of a records and information manager has changed tremendously in the last decade, with exposure to new technologies, whether blockchain or AI, new platforms, more privacy regulations, sustainability principles, etc. It’s always challenging to stay current and relevant, but partnering with our data governance team, privacy, compliance and others, has allowed me to do just that. I’m a lifelong learner, and this is a role where there is always more to learn.

Taking ownership of your records and information management

Remember these tips from Arlette this month:

• Reflect then act: Pinpoint your strengths, uncover areas for growth, and craft an actionable plan to dispose of physical records by destruction or digitization.
• Update and review: Assess retention schedules against your organization’s footprint and new regulations, and ensure accurate codes and metadata are assigned to your records. Educate your employees on how to be compliant and organized.
• Spot the gems: Identify high-risk versus high-value records. Dispose of the first ones as soon as they achieve retention, and get smart about long-term storage and accessibility.
• Make RIM relevant: Facilitate better search and recovery efforts during litigation, mergers, and divestitures, while also creating more opportunities for data-driven insights.

You can learn more about Workplace Evolution here.