The Building Digital Capability – the Records Governance Policy Baseline Survey is coming soon

The Survey is based on the new Records Governance Policy (launched in June this year) and links to QSA’s Recordkeeping Transformation Program. The results will establish a baseline against which future surveys can be measured.

The new Survey wants to know all about how recordkeeping works in your agency and how that’s working for you and your strategic goals.

We know that everyone’s busy so here’s some ideas on how to be as ready as you can be before the Survey hits your desk.

What’s the Survey actually about?

The goal of the Survey is to provide a baseline to measure any changes in digital recordkeeping maturity.

To measure this, the Survey asks you a range of questions about:

• Your agency (how many staff, etc)
• Your recordkeeping activities – both strategic and operational.

What do Records Managers need to do?

Before: Keep an eye out for information about the Survey. Sign up to our newsletter, this blog or follow our Twitter to keep up to date on Survey news! Have a look at our Survey factsheet as well.

During: Ensure your agency responds with accurate and informed answers to the Survey. Accurate survey results benefit everyone – we get a better picture of what agencies are doing and the challenges they’re facing, and agencies get a better idea of their own maturity. Take your time to gather the information you need – you have six weeks before the Survey closes!

After: Use the Survey results to support your recordkeeping program and initiate strategic conversations within your agency. Doing something well? Crow about it – make sure everyone in the agency knows! Something you could do better? Take advantage of momentum from the Survey results to get in the ear of the people who can help you change that. We’ll be doing something similar – using the Survey results to identify the areas where we can engage directly with CEOs and DGs, where agencies need additional support and where they are doing well.

What type of questions can I expect?

The questions are drawn directly from the Records Governance Policy.

We suggest that everyone use this time ahead of the Survey to get a good handle on the Policy and its concepts.

Consider each Policy Requirement and Element. How are they reflected in your agency’s records governance? If time and money were no object, how would you implement them in your agency? What barriers or challenges would you face?

Test your understanding by looking at your strategic plan, organisational structure and records governance framework in light of the Policy. How well are your strategic plan, structure and framework aligned? Do they all support each other to achieve your agency’s strategic goals?

If you’re having trouble with certain Policy Requirements, have a look at our blog series unpacking the Policy and the Implementation Guideline. The Implementation Guideline is full of ways for agencies to meet each Policy Requirement and to help you picture what real-world applications of the Policy may look like.

Who will I need to contact to get the information I need for the survey?

You will probably need to talk to a few different sections of your agency to answer the Survey.

For example, you might need to talk to:

• leaders in your agency about whether recordkeeping is part of performance measures
• staff in different areas and at different levels about how well record creation is integrated into business processes
• IT about how your agency measures its recordkeeping activities or what recordkeeping activities take place in various business applications.

We know that people won’t be able to answer the whole survey in one sitting, that’s why you can save and come back to questions as needed.

We suggest that the first thing you do when you get the Survey is to read through every question and take notes about which ones you’ll need to talk to others about. From there you can start getting in touch with your colleagues to gather the information you need.

If at some point you hit a question that you’re not sure how to answer, get it touch with us! Our queries team can talk you through any questions you might have.

Government Recordkeeping