What documents do I need to save on the H Drive?
It’s easier to tell you what documents shouldn’t be saved on the H Drive, than those that should so the above question will be answered this way.
All documents must be saved on H Drive except for the following:
- any document or other material produced in a private capacity / for a personal (not work related) purpose;
- any document copied/produced to be used for reference or as a working file to assist in the creation of draft documents and ultimately a final document;
- carbon copies / duplicates of documents. Only the creator (or if an external document, the primary Unitec receiver) of the document needs to retain the original document on H Drive (ensuring it is accessible to all those persons who need to access it). This is to avoid duplication of documents across the H Drive;
- documents belonging to other organisations (e.g. other ITP Annual Reports or Prospectuses, advertising material or catalogues) – except in cases where these documents serve to evidence a significant decision made or the reason behind an action being taken, or when for example an external companies document is used by your position to carry out your job/responsibilities e.g. a product catalogue, conditions of an insurance policy Unitec may have, a TEC document outlining rules Unitec must follow;
- any records that have been generated out of one of Unitec’s business systems e.g. a PeopleSoft report. This is because the business system is the creator of the record and therefore is the system which should be used to manage and retain the record for the required length of time – Some exceptions to this however are:
– when it is necessary to save a business system created record alongside other documents on the H Drive because this business system created record (e.g. a PeopleSoft report) gives context / serves to give evidence to these other documents; or
– when a record generated out of one of Unitec’s business systems needs to be seen by a large number of staff, but not all of these staff have the ability to generate the document. H Drive can then be used to make the document accessible to all of the staff members who need to see it.
NOTE: Draft documents can be saved on the H Drive . This allows someone else to pick up the work should you need to take an unexpected absence or you leave Unitec, HOWEVER once a final document has been created, these drafts should be deleted.
What folder on H:\ Drive do I need to store my documents in?
If Information and Policy Services has not yet worked with your area to create specific H Drive folders for you and your colleagues to save your documents into, then you should save your documents into the existing H Drive folders you have access to. If you don’t have access to any suitable H Drive folders, then please let the Manager, Information & Policy know and she can work with you on this.
For further information see the question below – “Who is doing this H:\ Drive tidy up work and what will happen to my documents?”
What is a Functional Filing Classification Structure?
Documents on the H:\ Drive will be filed by the business function and associated activity the document has been created for, not by the organisational unit the person who created the document works in, or by the position they hold. For example – any electronic document created in relation to a student dispute for a student studying in the Department of Communication Studies will not be filed on H:\ Drive under H:\Department of Communication\ Dispute Resolution. Instead they will be filed under H :\Student Administration\ Dispute Resolution\ Department of Communication.
For further information refer to the User Manual for Using Unitec’s Filing Classification Structure (still to be completed)
The Unitec Filing Classification Structure can be used for filing both paper and electonic documents.
Will our Department / Service Unit still have their own Department folder on the H Drive?
Yes – all Departments / Service Units will still have their own Department folder on the H:\ Drive, however this should only be used to store documents specifically related to the running and operation of the department itself (e.g. budget setting and management documents; team meeting minutes; staff related documents such as team meeting minutes and memos/letters to staff). The Department folder should also include a confidential area for each of the staff in that Department to save documents they are working on (prior to these being finalized and then transferred to a more public folder), as well as a folder accessible to all department staff for the purposes of document collaboration. To view the suggested folder structure for each Department folder open this pdf document Suggested_Dept_Folders.
Any documents you are creating that contribute to one of the Functions (the 22 top level folders of the Filing Classification Structure) and the Activities (the folders below one of these 21 top level folders) must be saved in the correct Functional folder, not your Department folder e.g. You may work in Te Puna Ako (Student Learning Centre) but if you create a document that outlines the learning support activities offered by Te Puna Ako, this must be stored under the folder H:\ Student Support\ Learning Support, not Te Puna Ako’s Department folder.
How was the Unitec Filing Classification Structure developed?
The Manager, Information & Policy along with representatives from 17 other NZ Institutes of Technology (ITPs) spent a 4 week period in each of their respective institutions rifling through filing cabinets, storage rooms and other areas where documents are stored, to create an inventory of the types of documents generated and received by staff. A broad cross section of departments were visited across Unitec, including both academic and administrative departments across all 3 campuses. After this 4 week period the reps from each of the ITPs came together to compare and collate their information, and from this collated list Unitec’s Filing Classification Structure was developed.
What if the Folders in the new structure don’t seem to work for our documents?
At the same time as Information and Policy Services is working with your department [through your nominated representative(s)] to reclassify and move the documents you currently own on the H:\ Drive into the most appropriate folders based on Unitec’s Filing Classification Structure, we will also be validating with your department the structure. In other words we will be open to some ‘tweaking’ of the structure (without moving it to away from a functional based structure) to ensure it works best for the staff in your department.
What about the intranet? – do I put a document on the H:\Drive, or the intranet?
All documents you create as part of your job here at Unitec must be saved on the H:\ Drive in the appropriate folder (refer Unitec’s Filing Classification Structure).
Currently the H:\Drive is Unitec’s Document Management System and is where the master copy of all work related documents must be stored. If you then also want to communicate/promulgate this document to all staff, then you (or your Department / Service Unit intranet editor if you don’t have editor access) will need to upload the document to the intranet for it to viewed through one of your Department’s intranet pages.
Another way to look at it is – The H:\Drive is where you store/manage/edit documents and the intranet is what you use to publish documents to an “all staff” audience.
Where can I find out more?
For further information refer to the User Manual for Using Unitec’s Filing Classification Structure (still to be completed) or contact the IMS Records Management Advisor.