HR and Workforce Development
Mature HR practices and a well-thought-out workforce development strategy are key to recruiting and retaining talented staff in a competitive economy. This is especially true for IT, where specialties like cybersecurity have a zero percent unemployment rate.
Records Management 2023-2024
Records Management programs have been implemented in 105 state agencies, higher education institutions, cities, counties, boards, and commissions in North Dakota. Last year (fiscal year 2022-2023), with 53% reporting, onboarded entities disposed of 18,331 cubic feet of records that satisfied their retention requirements. This savings in storage space, equipment, and related salaries resulted in a cost avoidance of $7,040,701.32. For the entities reporting a volume of electronic records, 43 TB were disposed for a cost avoidance of $53,445.25.
Highlights from the past year include:
- Process Improvements for Records Management Reviews:
- Records Management has a statutory requirement (NDCC 54-46-04.2) to perform periodic reviews of records management practices for state agencies, boards, and commissions. These reviews provide opportunities to offer recommendations and increase compliance. This process was thoroughly assessed and updated with a more risk management and compliance-based focus and to allow for reviews to be performed virtually.
- Enhancements to the Records Management System (RMS):
- Several enhancements were completed to improve the user experience, including removal of antiquated form fields, updated reporting features, and a large project to improve to the annual disposal certification process (originated through Governor Burgum’s Red Tape Initiative) which will save significant staff hours and alleviate frustration with completing this mandatory report. It will also improve the process to dispose records with historical value to the State Archives, increasing accountability for transferring the ownership of these records.
Program Improvements in Progress:
- Data Loss Prevention (DLP): Institution of DLP tools and practices will ensure state records and other data are properly classified, labeled, and protected when sent through email or other data sharing channels.
- Compliance and Privacy: Records Management is now organizationally part of the Cyber Governance, Risk and Compliance (GRC) area of NDIT, which provides resources to modernize and adapt to new technologies and changing information landscapes and opportunities to build out a more formal program for compliance and privacy to help better protect and manage citizen data.
Program Recommendations:
- The State of North Dakota should:
- Explore growth in the Records Management and Compliance area, providing the resources to better manage the rapidly expanding requirements for internal and external audit processes.
- Address how retention on data stored in cloud-based software applications should be managed with policy and automation, including email settings in Outlook and for data stored in Microsoft Teams, Sharepoint, and OneDrive (including information generated by AI tools such as Copilot).
- Require completion of training in records and information management best practices to all staff annually and to all new hires.