Email Retention Basics
When to Retain An Email
It's safe to assume that all emails you interact with while working at WWU are public records. However, you are not required to assign email retention labels to all of your emails. We have developed retention labels for emails that document policy, procedures, and decisions taken by Western. Emails that need retention labels meet the following criteria:
- You are either the sender or the recipient AND the email is related to WWU or your job duties, AND
- You need to take action based on the content of the email, OR
- The email documents a formal business process or job function that you are responsible for performing.
Some records have a short retention period or should be retained for as little as 90 days, or "until administrative purpose served." For these records, UARM has not created retention labels in Outlook. Instead, UARM recommends that WWU employees regularly delete unlabeled emails that they do not need for business purposes. For best practice, regular email cleanups should include both your Inbox and Sent Mail and should occur at least every 6 months.
Some emails are considered Transitory. They should be kept until they are no longer needed for agency business. If they are not related to your job duties at Western, such as junk mail, they can be deleted immediately upon receipt.
Email Best Practices
Beyond Outlook retention labels, please remember these guidelines and best practices when working with emails at WWU:
- Email is a public record and should be retained and managed just as any other record at Western.
- Store email that is part of a larger process or that others may need to access in a centralized location, such as OnBase, along with other pieces of the record. Alternatively, forward or cc selected emails to a shared program inbox.
- Do not use your personal email account to send work-related email. If there is no other option than to use your personal account, cc your WWU email, forward any replies to the email to your WWU account, and delete the copy on your personal account.
Step 1: Know Your Records
Become familiar with the record titles in use by your office. You can read through the titles listed in the General Schedule and for your office, or reach out to your Records Coordinator for assistance.
Read the descriptions and retention statements for the records that your office encounters as emails.
Step 1a: What Kind of Retention?
Emails that have date-based retention can be pre-assigned a retention start date based on their retention statements: they will enter the retention period at a point known in advance. For example:
- 2 years after the end of the fiscal year → the end of the fiscal year is a known date, and 2 years after that can be calculated in advance. An email with this retention statement can be assigned a date to enter its retention period based on its send date.
When reviewing your office records, note which ones have date-based retention statements and which have deferred retention statements.
Emails that have deferred retention (sometimes also referred to as event-based retention) do not have a predetermined, exact start date for their retention periods: they enter the retention period at some point based on their retention statement. For example:
- 6 years after employee separates from university → employee separation is an event with an unknown date in the future. After the separation occurs, the 6 year retention period can begin, but the employee might work at the agency for 2 years or 40 years. The exact date of separation isn't known when the record is created.
When reviewing your office records, note which ones have date-based retention statements and which have deferred retention statements.
Step 2: Choosing a Label
Date-Based Retention
For emails with date-based retention statements, applying labels is a simple process. You have 2 options:
- Organize your emails into folders that correspond to record types that your office creates or is responsible for maintaining, and apply a retention label to each folder.
- UARM recommends this approach for convenience.
- Apply a retention label from the drop-down menu in Outlook to each email.
Deferred Retention
For emails with deferred retention statements, applying labels is more complex because you need to account for the email both when it is initially sent/received and when it fulfills its retention statement's criteria.
When you send/receive an email with deferred retention, first apply the "Deferred Retention" label. Then, when the email's retention statement criteria is met (for example: "when the employee leaves the university" or "when the student is no longer enrolled"), apply the more specific Outlook label for that email. The process should look like this:
- You send or receive an email with a retention period that begins at an unspecified point in the future (it is deferred). You immediately apply the "Deferred Retention" Label or put the email in a folder that has the "Deferred Retention" label applied.
- Time goes by, and the criteria for the email to enter its retention period is met.
- You apply the appropriate retention label for that email, either by selecting from the Outlook menu or by moving the email to a different folder with the correct new label applied.
The Retention Labels
UARM publishes 2 types of retention schedules, the General Schedule and the Office Records Retention Schedules:
- The General Schedule: Everyone at WWU can use titles from this schedule. UARM has developed a consolidated list of General Schedule labels for deployment across the university to each employee's Outlook account. Consolidated General Schedule for Outlook
- Office Records Retention Schedules: Some offices have additional unique titles that have been developed for their use, and employees in those offices could see additional retention labels appear based on those schedules. Office Records Retention Schedules
Here is an overview of the 12 General Schedule Retention Labels:
Academic & Student Support
A wide range of academic and student support communications.
Retention period: 10 years.
Communications & Media Releases
Communications with the media relating to WWU's activities and accomplishments.
Retention period: 3 years. This is also an archival label, meaning these emails will be reviewed after the initial retention for possible inclusion in the University Archives.
External Relations/Outreach/Engagement
Multiple existing outreach and engagement communications policies.
Retention period: 3 years.
Financial & Audit
Multiple existing financial policies.
Retention period: 7 years.
Governance & Executive
Communications held by governing, executive, or advisory bodies received from or sent to the units or bodies reporting to them.
Retention period: 7 years. This is also an archival label, meaning these emails will be reviewed after the initial retention for possible inclusion in the University Archives.
Legal Advice & Issues
Legal advice and opinions received by the agency concerning the agency’s actions, statutes, rules, policies and procedures, etc.
Retention period: 6 years. This title has deferred retention. The 6 year retention period begins only when the legal issue has been resolved. You should use the "Deferred Retention" label until this email record has met its retention criteria (the resolution of the issue and when the advice is no longer needed for agency business), then apply the "Legal Advice & Issues" label.
Public/Customer Assistance & Feedback
Records relating to the capturing and receiving of feedback/information (including complaints) from the agency’s clients/customers. Additionally, it should cover records relating to requests received and provision of advice, technical assistance and information.
Retention period: 4 years.
Research Award Management
Email communications relating to grant award management, primarily concerning grant funds management.
Retention period: 6 years. This title has deferred retention. The 6 year retention period begins only when the legal issue has been resolved. You should use the "Deferred Retention" label until this email record has met its retention criteria (usually the completion of the grant cycle), then apply the "Research Award Management" label.
Routine Internal Reporting
Routine internal statistical and narrative reports provided to management documenting/tracking the activities and work accomplishments of an office/program.
Retention period: 3 years.
Search & Recruitment
Email relating to the process of recruitment and selection of employees.
Retention period: 4 years.
Security & Data Breaches
Email communication documenting security incidents, data/privacy breaches, assessments of threats received, responses, and investigations relating to agency facilities, vehicles, equipment, supplies, information, targeted violence towards staff, students, and others, etc.
Retention period: 7 years.
Use of Facilities & Equipment
Documents the use of Western facilities, equipment, and/or vehicles by agency staff, other agencies, students/clients, and the general public.
Retention period: 4 years.
Can't Find an Accurate Label?
UARM has provided a concise list of consolidated Outlook retention labels for General and Office Schedule titles that will allow for the most common types of emails sent and received on campus to the best of our knowledge, but at some point you may realize that the labels available to you do not describe an email that you need to label.
If you read through the General Schedule label descriptions (plus any Office Schedule labels that may be available for your use in the same dropdown menu) and there are no Outlook retention labels that work for the email you need to retain, the next step is to check if the email is considered Transitory or has a short retention period, such as "until administrative purpose served." UARM recommends that WWU employees review emails that are not yet assigned a retention label at least every 6 months in order to assign labels or delete unneeded emails as appropriate.
Below is a list of records that are considered Transitory or to have short retention periods.
Transitory and Short-Retention Records
- Drafting and Editing
- Informational Notifications/Communications
- Contact Information
- General Information - External
- Meeting and Board/Committee Administrative Arrangements
- Meeting Materials - Members' Copies/Notes
- Organizing/Monitoring Work in Progress
- Records Documented as Part of More Formalized Records
- Reference Materials
- Requests for Basic/Routine University Information
- Secondary (Duplicate) Copies
- Unsolicited Additional Materials
If you are still stumped
If your email is not represented by the labels in Outlook, and is not included in the above list of Transitory and short-retention records, but you feel that there should be a label for the email message, check that it meets the following criteria:
- The message documents work for Western that you are responsible for performing.
- The message does not need to be downloaded and stored in another digital system such as OnBase or SharePoint. Outlook is the appropriate place for retention of this record.
If the email meets these criteria, please reach out to UARM to ask for assistance.
FAQs and Best Practices
No, so much of the email that we all handle on a daily basis is considered Transitory and does not require a retention label. Things like invitations to lunch, junk mail, and informational newsletters that you receive can be deleted without applying a label.
Other records appearing in email have been designated by UARM as having such a short-retention period that they can be considered Transitory in nature. UARM recommends that WWU employees regularly clean up their Outlook Inboxes and Sent Mail folders, at least every 6 months.
Unfortunately, no. Just like with paper records, email records should all be identifiable with a business function or activity documented on a records retention schedule. The format of the record does not matter when assigning a record title, just the function.
These guidelines assume that your email records will remain in your Outlook account, either your personal WWU Outlook account or a WWU program account to support business continuity. The decision of whether to use a shared program account is a strategic decision to be made by each unit. In any case, you should manage your email in such a way as to facilitate email discovery if you leave Western or move to a new position within the University.
There may be cases where emails need to be stored outside of Outlook. These situations must be deliberate, intentional, and include system controls that support email record integrity, retention, and disposition. Printing emails or saving to PDF does not satisfy these criteria. Contact UARM with questions about storing emails outside of Outlook.
Units that store emails outside of Outlook should determine whether copies of those emails remain in their Outlook account(s). The emails that have been moved outside of Outlook become the official records subject to required retention policies if the purpose of moving them is to co-locate them with other records related to the same business process. In these cases, copies of emails left in Outlook are Transitory. As Transitory records, emails left in Outlook would not require retention labels in Outlook and can be deleted after confirmation of successful transfer.
Do not use your personal email account to send work-related email, unless there are no other options. If you do send an email using your personal account that is related to your work as a Western employee, remember that the email is still a public record; it can be subject to disclosure in relation to a public records request or other legal action and is subject to all of the same recordkeeping requirements as other public records.
If there is no other option than to send an email using your personal account, cc your Western email and forward any replies to the email to your Western account as well. The email is then captured in the Western system, and you can delete the copy on your personal account.
This policy still applies when student employees use their personal Western email to send emails for their on-campus jobs, which is why UARM strongly recommends that departments discourage student employees from using their personal email accounts for work emails.
UARM recommends that employees use folders in their Inbox based on the Outlook retention labels that best correspond to their work at WWU. When an email is added to a folder, it will automatically be assigned the retention label for that folder.
No, you must keep emails as electronic records, not as paper records. Public records must be retained in the format in which they were created.
When you apply retention labels in Outlook, archival labels will be identified as part of the label. This lets you know that after emails with these labels reach the end of their retention periods, the disposition process will involve University Archives.
If you have emails that have deletion as part of their disposition process, but you feel they have historical value, please UARM.
Yes! Your sent mail also contains emails that need retention labels, and may in fact have even more emails that need Outlook retention labels than your inbox. You can choose one of two approaches for your sent mail folder in Outlook, depending on your workflow.
- You can apply the retention label for an email before you send the email. This option is currently only available in the Outlook Classic application, not in the web browser version of the application. Please note that the label will not appear on the email when it arrives in the recipient's mailbox.
- You can go into your Sent Mail folder in Outlook and apply retention labels to emails that require them after you have sent them. UARM recommends making a regular habit of doing this, as it can be easy to forget about the Sent Mail folder. A regular calendar event that reminds you to apply labels to Sent Mail could be helpful.
Don't worry- there will be a report that alerts you to review emails which have not been assigned a final label after 6 months. You will receive this report..... via email!