How to get records started in the right direction in your inductions and get process appraisals done for free

Front note - this post is only for people whose regulator won’t show up to enforce compliance effectively. If yours will, you don’t need to read this.

Too often, we try and get records started in the right direction by getting people to fix OUR problems.

The problem with this approach, is that you don’t start a virtuous cycle by taking, you start it by giving - and someone has to start it.

Here's a simple exercise that I'd put into every single induction that I think starts the virtuous cycle we need to be successful - namely that records is seen as helpful, and there to solve problems for people.

Start by explaining to people that records is about making sure that the right information is in the right place at the right time for people to get their work done.

Then give them a small notepad, and get them to spend the week writing down every time information wasn't -

- Available at all.

- Where they expected it to be/where it was supposed to be.

- Complete.

- Of a quality level that made it easy to do their job well.

If you get people who don't know how to do that, you can also just explain to them that every time they have to ask someone where something is - that's probably a trigger.

At the end of the week, get them to bring the notebook back to you.

It will be filled with all of the opportunities for records to improve the business of the organisation.

To make the promise of records matter in your organisation, you just need to start fixing the problems.

One of the largest challenges for records, is that we’ve started too often with our own notebook. And built systems to fix the problems in our own notebook. Everything good comes from fixing other people’s problems, and having them value us and what we do.