Safe data storage: how to use electronic systems to securely manage your HR records
28 Sep 2022 12:54 PM
Understand the importance of using an electronic document management system and how you can safely store HR records in line with legislation.
This blog on safe data storage has been written in conjunction with Yorkshire Purchasing Organisation (YPO), our partner on the RM6175 Records Management framework, and Ricoh, one of the suppliers available on the framework.
Why are HR records suddenly an issue in schools and academies?
As schools convert to an academy status they take on the responsibility that was previously held by a local authority to hold and maintain HR records, in a compliant way. The grouping of academies into multi-academy trusts (MAT) means that lots of these records are suddenly in one, unsecure place and are often in paper form.
What does that mean for a MAT?
There is a responsibility under General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) and Data Protection Agreement (DPA) legislation that these records are safe, accurate and recoverable on demand. The difficulty with paper records is that they typically:
- take up a lot of expensive office space
- are vulnerable to damage like fires or flooding
- are at risk of misfiling and can go missing
- can only be searched on the criteria they were filed under (for example a name or employee number)
What is the solution?
There are options available that will support you in meeting legislation rules. Adopting an electronic document management system (EDMS) means that:
- the paper can be securely destroyed after being scanned to electronic format
- the data is accurate and as secure, as all of the MATS other data
- the records become searchable using multiple fields, making records easier to find(e.g. finding diversity data)
How do you go about implementing this?
Using a supplier on Lot 5 of our RM6175 Records Management framework allows for a variety of benefits. These include scanning existing records to digital format in bulk, secure destruction of paper records, and hosting of the data within a cloud platform that is licensed as Software as a Service (SaaS).
This means there is no expense of providing servers to hold the data or paying for licences you don’t need. The benefit of this is that you can flex your licensing as the trust grows or shrinks.
Find out more
If you would like any further information about records management, please get in touch: