Email Retention and Archiving Policy

Records and Data

Purpose

To help employees determine what information sent or received by email should be retained and for how long, this policy identifies the broad categories of electronic messages processed by the [enter-your-company-name-here] system and sets out the factors to be considered in setting practice guidelines to be adopted in each case.

The rise to predominance of electronic communication mandates electronic message management systems comparable to existing hard copy filing systems.

All material, electronic or otherwise, created by employees and volunteers of [enter-your-company-name-here] in the course of their employment or accessed by employees on [enter-your-company-name-here] equipment is the property of [enter-your-company-name-here].

Policy

All [enter-your-company-name-here] email information shall be categorised into four main classifications with retention guidelines:

Administrative Correspondence (4 years)
Fiscal Correspondence (4 years)
General Correspondence (1 year)
Ephemeral Correspondence (Retain until read, then destroy)

Administrative Correspondence

[enter-your-company-name-here] Administrative Correspondence includes, though is not limited to, confidential management information, employee-related information, and project-related correspondence.

To ensure Administrative Correspondence is retained in an accessible format, a mailbox admin@(Insert organisation name) is to be created.

Users should copy (cc) to this address when receiving or sending such email, when retention will be administered by the IT officer.

Fiscal Correspondence

[enter-your-company-name-here] Fiscal Correspondence includes all information related to revenue and expense for the organisation. To ensure Fiscal Correspondence is retained, a mailbox fiscal@(Insert organisation name) is to be created,

Users should copy (cc) to this address when receiving or sending such email, when retention will be administered by the IT officer.

General Correspondence

[enter-your-company-name-here] General Correspondence covers information that relates to customer interaction and the operational decisions of the organisation. The individual employee is responsible for email retention of General Correspondence where this is likely to be of continuing usefulness.

Ephemeral Correspondence

[enter-your-company-name-here] Ephemeral Correspondence is by far the largest category and includes personal email, email dealing with the work of the day, and email containing information outdated by events. Staff may destroy this after reading.

Depending on the particular circumstances of the organisation, four further classifications may also created with their own retention guidelines:

Instant Messenger Correspondence

[enter-your-company-name-here] Instant Messenger General Correspondence may be saved with logging function of Instant Messenger, or copied into a file and saved. Instant Messenger conversations that are Administrative or Fiscal in nature should be copied into an email message and sent to the appropriate email retention address.

Correspondence involving intellectual property

Any correspondence that involves the creation of any significant intellectual property rights shall be retained at the discretion of the CEO. To ensure Administrative Correspondence is retained in an accessible format, a mailbox ip@[enter-your-company-name-here] is to be created. Users should copy (cc) to this address when receiving or sending such email, when retention will be administered by the IT officer.

Correspondence of legal significance

When legal proceedings are in process – and in Victoria, when legal proceedings are in progress or reasonably to be anticipated – particular considerations apply to document retention. It is the responsibility of the CEO to inform staff should these considerations be applicable and to circulate staff with any relevant changes in policy and procedures.

Storage

It shall be the responsibility of the CEO or their nominee to maintain backup tapes from the [enter-your-company-name-here] email server. Once a quarter a set of tapes shall be taken out of the rotation and be moved off site. Email shall not be removed from the off site backup tapes.

Email Retention and Archiving Policy