Manual for the Design and Implementation of Recordkeeping Systems (dirks)

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Example: Types of vital records
Tip: Not all useful records are vital

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Reviewing strategies for records creation and capture

Step H: Post implementation review

Creation and capture requirements and system support should be reviewed:

when new business processes or needs are evident
when there is a major change (for example, a change in functional responsibilities or new legislation)
on roughly a 5 year cycle to account for changes.

Further information

For more information about the creation and capture of records read the relevant steps of DIRKS and see ARMS' Create and Capture: Guidelines on Better Recordkeeping. (Not yet issued)

Doing DIRKS to manage your vital records

What are vital records?

How are vital records managed?

Identifying your vital records

Implementing strategies for managing your vital records

Reviewing strategies for managing your vital records

Further information

What are vital records?

Vital records include records needed to:

operate if the United Nations were affected by a disaster
re-establish United Nations” functions after a disaster, and
establish and protect the rights and interest of the United Nations and its employees, customers and stakeholders.

In effect, they are records that are essential to the United Nations. Without them the United Nations cannot establish, conduct or continue business effectively.

How are vital records managed?

Managing vital records involves:

identifying and documenting vital records
finding measures to protect them, and
ensuring they are priorities for salvage in a disaster.

This management regime is effectively an 'insurance policy' against disruption to critical operations. [1]

A vital records program is an essential component of a counter disaster program, which aims to prevent disasters or enable the United Nations to attain business continuity or quick recovery.

Scope

Vital records may be found in any part of an organization, and in records created in the course of administrative and core functions.

^ Example: Types of vital records

Pension Fund records may be considered vital because they establish the rights and interests of U.N. staff. Likewise, personnel records are vital because they protect the rights and interest of the organization's employees.

Therefore vital records programs should be department/office-wide. However, some functions or business units may have particular risks associated with them so vital records programs may be implemented first in these areas.

Identifying your vital records

Steps A-C of the DIRKS methodology can be used in order to identify what records are vital.

Step A: Preliminary investigation

Step A provides a broad overview of the business of the United Nations at the department level, who its stakeholders are and the business risk factors the organization and particular business units may be subject to. This information provides a contextual basis for the vital records program.

Step B: Analysis of business activity

The main benefit of Step B for a vital records project is that you are able to understand your business and how it is documented in more detail. You can therefore start to identify which of the functions and activities performed are critical to the organization in meeting its goals and strategies. You may then wish to prioritize these in planning for your vital records programs.

The records to support these functions may be identified during Step B interviews and will be considered in more detail in later steps. Through interviews you can directly discuss what staff and stakeholders believe are the functions and processes of most importance to the organization.

^ Tip: Not all useful records are vital

It is common for staff and stakeholders to consider all the records they use to be vital to the organization. You need to make it very clear to them that vital records are only those ones that are so essential to the organization that it could not function without them.

Linking risks to the functions and activities you identify may highlight high risk areas with high consequences for the organization if the information is lost.

Step C: Identification of recordkeeping requirements

The outcomes of Step C are critical if you are doing DIRKS in order to identify what records are vital to the organization. The analysis of business and regulatory requirements and community expectations and the risk assessments performed in this step will help you to see what records are key to business operations and the consequences to your department/office of not meeting its requirements. This knowledge allows you to have a far better understanding of what is really vital to the organization's survival and whether staff and stakeholder views on vital records are accurate. At this stage you should be able to produce a list of your department/office's vital records. You should have this signed by senior management.

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