Records Classification and Filing Fundamentals Training Course

Course overview

Records become difficult to find, retain and dispose of when teams rely on personal folders, inconsistent file names, broad shared-drive permissions and informal retention habits. These weaknesses slow casework, create duplicate information, expose confidential material and make it hard to demonstrate compliance during audits, investigations or legal holds. This course gives records and information professionals a practical foundation for bringing order to both physical and digital records through defensible classification and filing practices.

Participants learn how to analyse business functions, identify record series, construct classification hierarchies and apply controlled naming conventions. The course covers file plans, metadata, retention triggers, access controls, version management, vital records, legal holds and disposition documentation. Participants practise distinguishing records from non-records, mapping records to business activities, assigning metadata and applying retention rules in line with ISO 15489 and ISO 23081 principles.

Instruction combines worked examples, filing-plan critiques, records classification workshops and scenarios involving shared drives, SharePoint sites and Microsoft Purview Records Management. Each participant develops a usable records classification and filing pack for a selected business area: a function-based classification structure, file-naming standard, metadata profile, sample retention schedule entries and implementation actions. This provides both an immediately applicable workplace artefact and a clear basis for discussing improvements with managers, IT and compliance colleagues.

The course is suited to staff who already work with organisational information, documents or records and need a structured method for designing or improving filing arrangements. It is particularly valuable where organisations are moving from uncontrolled network folders or paper files toward governed digital records management.

Course objectives

By the end of this course, participants will be able to:

• Analyse business functions and transactions to identify defensible record series
• Construct a function-based records classification scheme with hierarchical codes
• Develop file-naming conventions that distinguish record type, subject, date and version
• Apply ISO 15489 principles to classify, capture and manage organisational records
• Create a metadata profile using ISO 23081 concepts for retrieval, access and retention
• Assign retention triggers and disposal actions to sample record categories
• Configure a practical filing structure for shared drives, SharePoint libraries or record repositories
• Produce a records classification and filing implementation pack for a business unit

Benefits of attending

Target competencies

Who should attend

• Records Officers — who need consistent methods for classifying, filing and retrieving corporate records
• Information Governance Managers — who are establishing defensible controls for digital and physical information
• Document Controllers — who manage controlled documents and must maintain reliable file structures
• Compliance Officers — who need records practices that support retention, audit and investigation requirements
• SharePoint Administrators — who translate business filing requirements into libraries, metadata and permissions
• Business Operations Managers — who oversee teams affected by poor filing, duplicated information and retrieval delays

Requirements and prerequisites

Participants should be comfortable working with business documents, shared folders, document libraries or paper filing systems and should understand their organisation’s basic records, privacy or retention obligations. Familiarity with terms such as metadata, retention period, access permission and version control is helpful, but these concepts are reviewed during the course. Participants should bring awareness of one business process or document set they would like to improve. No prior records-management qualification, taxonomy-design experience, Microsoft Purview licence or SharePoint administrator access is required. Complete beginners can attend, but should expect structured terminology and practical classification exercises from the first day.

Training methodology

The five-day programme uses instructor-led explanations to introduce standards and decision rules, followed by short classification drills using realistic contracts, correspondence, project files and personnel records. Participants work in groups to analyse business functions, resolve ambiguous filing cases and critique poorly designed folder structures. Demonstrations show how classification, metadata and retention controls translate into SharePoint libraries and Microsoft Purview Records Management. Daily exercises build toward an individual end-of-course application plan and a completed classification and filing pack for a chosen workplace area.

Course outline

Day 1: Records management foundations and classification logic

• Records, non-records and transitory information distinctions
• Business value, evidential value and accountability requirements
• ISO 15489 records management principles
• Function-based versus subject-based classification approaches
• Business function, activity and transaction analysis
• Record series identification and scope statements
• Paper, shared-drive and cloud repository filing risks

Workshop: Participants analyse a business-process scenario and produce an initial list of functions, activities, transactions and associated record series.

Day 2: Designing a usable records classification scheme

• Classification hierarchy levels and coding conventions
• Developing function and activity titles
• Writing unambiguous record class definitions
• Cross-references, aliases and index terms
• Handling multi-functional and hybrid records
• Testing classification schemes against user search behaviour
• File plan governance and change-control procedures

Workshop: Participants build a three-level classification hierarchy and file-plan extract for a selected business unit.

Day 3: Filing rules, metadata and retrieval controls

• File-naming syntax and controlled vocabulary rules
• Date formats, identifiers and version labels
• ISO 23081 metadata principles
• Mandatory, optional and system-generated metadata fields
• Folder structures versus metadata-led retrieval
• Access classifications and need-to-know permissions
• Quality checks for misfiled, duplicate and incomplete records

Workshop: Participants create a naming convention and metadata profile, then classify and retrieve a mixed set of sample records.

Day 4: Retention, disposition and digital repository application

• Retention schedules and retention-rule components
• Event-based, time-based and trigger-based retention
• Legal holds and suspension of normal disposition
• Disposition review, approval and audit trail requirements
• Vital records identification and protection measures
• SharePoint document library columns and content types
• Microsoft Purview retention labels and record declaration

Workshop: Participants assign retention triggers and disposition actions to sample record classes and map them to repository controls.

Day 5: Implementation planning and filing governance

• Current-state filing assessment techniques
• Records clean-up and migration decision rules
• Roles of business owners, records staff, IT and legal advisers
• User guidance, training and filing accountability
• Compliance monitoring and file-plan performance measures
• Exception handling and escalation procedures
• Phased implementation roadmap and stakeholder communication

Workshop: Participants complete and present a records classification and filing implementation pack with priorities, owners, controls and a 90-day action plan.

Tools & standards covered

ISO 15489-1:2016 Records Management, ISO 23081-1:2017 Metadata for Records, Microsoft SharePoint, Microsoft Purview Records Management

A typical training day

Live online deliveries follow the same structure in the East Africa Time zone, with shorter screen blocks and longer breaks.

What the fee includes

How you can take this course

Certification

Participants who complete the full five days receive the Skillset Development Certificate of Completion, stating the course title, course code, dates and delivery format — suitable for professional-development records and employer reimbursement.

Frequently asked questions