Review of corporate information management

Performance management 

The review found only a handful of measures utilised in the SG which aim to gauge performance in certain areas of information management. These are:

• all staff joining the organisation and annually thereafter are required to conduct an annual knowledge check on handling personal data and complying with GDPR.
• performance tracking of response times for Freedom of Information Requests
• progress tracking of the completion rates of reviews of local information assets by IAOs
• The yearly Corporate Certificates of Assurance process

The last two of these measures follow a largely localised self-assessment process. A review of these processes, including their profile and meaningfulness should be considered in the context of the findings of risk summarised.

Other than ad hoc performance monitoring locally in teams and Branches there is no structure or defined process to evaluate performance on general information or records management good practice. Importantly this includes an absence of performance monitoring around current training, skills and knowledge in processes and the use of eRDM. 

The review found that only around a quarter of staff who should use eRDM have undertaken the basic online course in how to get the best out of the recently modernised system. Better tracking of the training of Information Asset Owners could also be significantly improved. Section 8 also refers to training.

Valuable management information and business intelligence is available and should be exploited much more than it currently is. eRDM has an inbuilt management information reporting tool which can generate reports on the use of the corporate system at an individual, Branch, Division, Directorate, DG or organisational level. The learning management system hosting all training in the use of eRDM can also provide reporting on the uptake and completion of training in eRDM. Neither of these outputs is used in earnest to support performance monitoring or assurance activities.  

Managing information in the SG would benefit from the implementation of an integrated performance management approach to help drive improvements, good practice and compliance among individual staff, business areas and the organisation as a whole. This would not just benefit information management itself but would add value to the achievement of wider organisational goals. Performance measures could be used to increase the use of eRDM, reduce the unjustified use of alternative information systems and complete minimum standard training. The use of work based objectives for senior staff and mandatory objectives for general staff could also be considered.