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Snapshot

Records and Information Governance specialists protect the lifeblood of modern organizations. They design the rules for how information is created, named, stored, secured, found, used, retained, and finally destroyed. They keep the right people informed and keep the wrong people out. They make audits easier, reduce legal risk, speed investigations, and save money by cleaning up data clutter. If you enjoy structure, clear rules, and the satisfaction of turning chaos into order, this role offers steady demand, strong transferability across industries, and meaningful impact.

Is this career a good fit for you Take the MAPP assessment at www.assessment.com to find out if your motivations align with order, responsibility, and practical service.

What You Actually Do

1. Policy and retention schedules
   You translate laws, regulations, and business needs into a written retention schedule. It maps each record type to how long it must be kept, who owns it, where it lives, and when it can be destroyed. You keep this schedule current as rules and the business change. You create policies for classification, naming, versioning, and acceptable repositories. Your work gives the company a single source of truth for records decisions.
2. Classification and taxonomy
   You design a logical folder tree, metadata fields, and tags so people can file and find content. You keep the taxonomy simple enough that staff will use it and expressive enough that legal, audit, and privacy teams can search accurately. You test with users and iterate based on real behavior.
3. Repository governance
   You help choose and configure document systems such as SharePoint, Google Drive, Box, or iManage, plus archives for email and chat. You define permission models, default retention, version settings, and automated moves from working folders to records libraries. You partner with IT to enforce those settings, and you verify that they actually work.
4. Legal holds and discovery support
   When litigation or an investigation hits, you place legal holds that suspend ordinary deletion. You identify custodians, systems, and data sources. You track acknowledgments, monitor preservation, and help collect data defensibly. You document each step so the company can prove what it did and when.
5. Privacy, security, and lifecycle
   You map where personal data and sensitive information live. You set rules to minimize unnecessary copies and to protect high risk fields such as government identifiers and health data. You supervise deletion at the end of retention, including in backups where practicable. You work closely with security and privacy teams on access controls, encryption, and data subject requests.
6. Training and change management
   You teach people how to file, tag, share, and clean up their files. You write short job aids and record quick videos. You run office hours, answer questions, and work with managers to make good habits stick. You measure adoption and adjust your approach.
7. Audits and reporting
   You assess compliance through sampling and dashboards. You report exceptions and plan corrective actions. You coordinate with internal audit and with regulators when needed. You maintain clean documentation for policies, approvals, and system configurations.
8. Content clean up projects
   You lead defensible disposal campaigns to reduce storage and risk. You define scope, run scans for duplicates and sensitive data, seek approvals, and document destruction. You free up space, cut retention cost, and remove material that could surface in discovery.

Where You Work

• Corporate legal departments and privacy teams
  You align retention with legal risk and privacy obligations, partner on legal holds, and support investigations and audits.
• Information technology and security
  You co own repository configuration, permissions, backup strategy, and the technical enforcement of retention and deletion.
• Highly regulated sectors
  Healthcare, financial services, life sciences, energy, utilities, telecommunications, and government contractors often have larger programs and deeper controls.
• Professional services and law firms
  Client matter records, ethical walls, and outside counsel guidelines create sustained demand for governance.
• Public sector and education
  Open records laws, research data, and student information require strong policies and clear processes.
• Vendors and consultancies
  Specialists design programs, migrate content, and modernize repositories for multiple clients.

Hybrid and remote models are common because the work centers on systems, process, and training that can be delivered digitally.

Education and Entry Requirements

Education

• Minimum of a bachelor degree is common. Useful fields include information systems, library and information science, business, paralegal studies, criminal justice, or a related discipline. Strong writing and analytical skills matter more than a specific major.

Credentials

• General governance. Certified Records Manager, Certified Information Professional, or Information Governance Professional are respected signals.
• Privacy. CIPP or CIPM can help if your program covers personal data.
• Security. CompTIA Security Plus or similar awareness helps with access controls and incident response.
• Platform badges. SharePoint, Microsoft Purview, Google Workspace, Box, or iManage training shows hands on skill.

Experience

• Paralegal, e discovery, compliance, internal audit, library sciences, IT administration, and help desk support all transfer well.
• If you are early in your career, internships or projects where you build folder structures, write job aids, or clean data sets will help you stand out.

Skills That Matter

Policy translation
You can read a requirement and explain what people should do. You keep rules practical and short. You include examples and screenshots.

Systems thinking
You understand how information moves from creation to archive to deletion. You see the connections between email, chat, document libraries, databases, and backups. You design controls that work across that lifecycle.

Metadata and search literacy
You pick fields that improve findability without heavy data entry. You teach people how to search with filters and phrases. You tune defaults to reduce effort.

Access control and permissions
You define roles and groups. You avoid everyone can see everything and avoid so much restriction that people bypass the system. You document who owns each space and how permissions change when staff move.

Project management
You plan migrations, hold campaigns, and clean up waves with clear timelines, owners, and measures of success.

Communication and training
You write simple job aids and run short training sessions. You keep messages positive and action oriented. You praise good behavior and give quick help when people struggle.

Data ethics and confidentiality
You handle sensitive information with care. You enforce need to know access and report concerns promptly.

Calm execution
You stay steady when a regulator calls, a lawsuit lands, or a breach is discovered. You follow your playbook and keep clean notes.

Tools and Technology Stack

• Document and records systems
  SharePoint and OneDrive, Google Drive and Shared Drives, Box, iManage, OpenText. You configure sites, libraries, labels, retention policies, and records declarations.
• Email and chat archives
  Microsoft Purview, Google Vault, Slack export controls, and archiving connectors. You set retention and legal hold rules that match policy.
• Discovery and legal hold
  Hold and collection tools, plus export routines to send data to e discovery platforms. You track acknowledgments and preserve copies while allowing daily work to continue.
• Identity and access management
  Groups, roles, single sign on, and multifactor authentication. You partner with security to align permissions with job roles.
• Sensitive data discovery
  Scanners that find personal data, financial numbers, and secrets in files and messages. You use results to drive remediation and training.
• Backups and archives
  You understand what the backup system can do and cannot do. You document how long backups live and how deletions propagate.
• Dashboards and reports
  Basic business intelligence tools to show adoption, storage growth, hold coverage, and clean up progress.

You do not need to code. You do need to be comfortable clicking through admin screens, testing settings, and reading logs.

A Day In The Life

08:30 Review overnight hold notices and access change requests. Approve a new project site with standard permissions and labels. Answer a question about naming conventions.

09:30 Meet with legal to update the retention schedule for a new product line. Map record types, owners, repositories, and legal citations. Schedule a short training for the product team.

10:30 Configure a records library for finance. Apply a seven year retention label, restrict delete permissions, and test a disposition review workflow. Capture screenshots for the admin guide.

12:00 Lunch and a quick check on the privacy queue. A data subject access request came in. Start a search across email, chat, and documents. Note any redactions that will be required.

13:00 Work with security on a sensitive data scan. Review results that show old spreadsheets with customer numbers in a shared folder. Contact owners, move files to a restricted library, and plan a clean up task for next week.

14:30 Run a defensible disposal wave. Identify orphaned folders and duplicate archives that are beyond retention. Send a pre destruction notice and start the approval workflow. Log disposition certificates for audit.

15:30 Host office hours. Show a team how to create a project site from a template with correct labels and permissions. Record the session for reuse.

16:30 Prepare a dashboard for leadership. Include storage growth, percent of sites with retention labels, legal hold coverage, and clean up volumes. Add a short note on risks and next steps.

17:15 Update the program wiki with a one page checklist for new site owners. End the day with a quick review of tickets due tomorrow.

Earnings Potential

Pay varies by sector, company size, scope, and the systems you own.

• Entry level coordinator or analyst
  Competitive salaries with room to grow as you take ownership of repositories and legal hold processes.
• Specialist or senior analyst
  Higher pay for those who run retention schedules, hold programs, and large repositories. Privacy and regulated sector experience often carry a premium.
• Manager or lead
  Strong salaries when you supervise staff, own platform configurations, direct clean up programs, and report to the general counsel or the chief information officer.
• Director or head of information governance
  Six figure packages are common in larger organizations. Bonuses can be tied to successful audits, risk reductions, and program maturity.

Upside drivers include cross platform skill, clear results in storage reduction and risk control, and strong relationships with legal, security, and business leaders.

Growth Stages and Promotional Path

1. Coordinator or junior analyst
   You learn the systems, label basics, and retention schedule. You manage tickets and small clean up tasks. You build credibility with quick, helpful responses.
2. Records and information governance specialist
   You own a business unit or a platform area. You configure sites and labels, place holds, and run adoption training. You write job aids and help desk scripts.
3. Senior specialist or program lead
   You manage the retention schedule, coordinate legal holds across matters, and run defensible disposal projects. You present dashboards and handle audits.
4. Manager or platform owner
   You own enterprise governance for one or more systems, supervise staff, select tools, and lead migrations. You align with privacy and security on strategy.
5. Director or head of IG
   You set program goals, manage budgets, lead cross functional committees, and report to executives and the board. You shape policy across the company.

Adjacent paths
Privacy operations and data protection, e discovery and investigations, compliance and internal audit, security governance, knowledge management, and legal operations.

Key Performance Indicators

• Retention label coverage percent of sites, libraries, or folders with correct labels
• Legal hold effectiveness acknowledgment rate, time to place holds, scope accuracy, and audit trail completeness
• Storage health growth trends, duplicate reduction, and percentage of orphaned content archived or deleted
• Access accuracy number of overprivileged sites reduced, permission reviews completed, and incidents prevented
• Adoption and training course completion rates, office hour usage, and self service site creation using approved templates
• Disposition volumes number of items deleted with certificates, backlogs cleared, and exceptions handled
• Audit results findings closed on time and repeat findings avoided
• Search success time to locate authoritative records for audits, investigations, and data subject requests

Pick a handful of metrics that drive behavior. Publish them monthly, celebrate improvement, and ask for help where numbers are stuck.

Common Mistakes and Better Moves

Mistake Writing long policies that no one reads
Better Write short, plain, and specific rules. Add a one page quick start with screenshots and a three minute video.

Mistake Turning on deletion without proof of coverage
Better Validate label coverage, run pilots, and secure approvals. Keep disposition certificates for every wave.

Mistake Overlocking permissions so teams bypass the system
Better Provide easy project templates with the right defaults. Limit ad hoc changes. Teach people how to share safely.

Mistake Treating legal holds as a manual email process
Better Use a system that tracks acknowledgments, escalates non responses, and logs preserved locations automatically.

Mistake Ignoring backups and archives
Better Document backup retention and restoration limits. Align your deletion story with how backups work in real life.

Mistake Taxonomies that are too complex
Better Start simple. Use a few top level categories, a short list of metadata fields, and defaults that reduce data entry.

Mistake One time clean up campaigns
Better Schedule ongoing waves with clear goals. Automate destruction for routine content, and reserve manual review for high risk items.

Practical 90 Day Plan to Break In or Level Up

Days 1 to 30, foundation

• Inventory repositories and current retention rules.
• Map one business process from document creation to deletion.
• Draft a simple naming convention and a two page filing guide.
• Shadow a legal hold, observe acknowledgments and preservation steps.

Days 31 to 60, quick wins

• Launch a pilot records library with standard labels and permissions.
• Run a small clean up that targets duplicates or orphaned folders.
• Produce a dashboard with three metrics. For example label coverage, storage growth, and legal hold coverage.
• Record a five minute training video and publish it on the intranet.

Days 61 to 90, scale and sustain

• Update the retention schedule for one new record type with legal sign off.
• Implement a disposition workflow that generates certificates.
• Hold office hours and collect feedback.
• Present a short plan for quarter two with targets for coverage, clean up, and training.

Repeat this cycle each quarter. Add privacy scans, permission reviews, and cross system integrations as you mature.

Employment Outlook

Information volume grows every year, and new privacy and security rules continue to arrive. Companies that once treated records as a filing problem now treat governance as a risk, cost, and customer trust issue. Hybrid and remote work increase the need for digital processes and clear rules. Regulators expect organizations to know what they hold, why they hold it, and how they protect it. Courts and watchdogs expect legal holds and discovery that are fast and defensible. All of this favors professionals who can build practical programs, configure common systems, and teach busy people how to do the right thing.

The outlook is strong across industries. Healthcare, finance, and life sciences need deeper programs. Tech companies and retailers need strong privacy and deletion practices. Public entities need consistent handling of public records requests and retention rules. Your skills travel well between these settings.

Ethics, Security, and Professionalism

• Confidentiality
  Treat personal data, trade secrets, and legal matters with care. Use approved systems and limited sharing.
• Accuracy
  Keep policies current and tested. Correct errors quickly and document changes.
• Fairness
  Design rules that balance regulatory needs with the reality of work. Respect staff time and do not create busywork.
• Documentation
  Maintain evidence of decisions, settings, holds, and destruction. If asked, you should be able to show the who, what, when, where, and why.
• Inclusion and accessibility
  Provide training that works for different learning styles and languages. Make instructions simple and visual where possible.

Is This Career a Good Fit For You

This path is ideal if you like building order from complexity and keeping promises through systems. You will collaborate with legal, IT, security, privacy, and every business unit that creates information. You will write rules, configure tools, train people, and measure adoption. If your MAPP profile highlights motivation for order, responsibility, and practical problem solving, you will likely thrive. If you prefer rapid sales cycles, constant travel, or open ended creative design, consider adjacent roles such as knowledge management, product operations, or security awareness that still benefit from governance thinking.

Still deciding Take the MAPP assessment at www.assessment.com to find out if this is a good fit for you.

FAQs

Do I need a law degree
No. Legal literacy helps, but most specialists come from information systems, library science, paralegal work, compliance, or e discovery.

Which platform should I learn first
Choose the platform your target employers use, often Microsoft 365 or Google Workspace. Add a legal hold tool if you will support litigation.

How technical do I need to be
You should be comfortable in admin screens and with basic security concepts. You do not need to code.

Can I work remotely
Yes. Many programs are hybrid. Sensitive collections, audits, or training workshops may require periodic on site days.

What makes a program succeed
Simple rules, helpful templates, tools that fit how people work, consistent training, and visible metrics that show progress.

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