A Guide to Email Retention Policy

Every day, companies exchange a huge number of emails. Your teams are always sharing updates, communicating with clients, and doing a whole lot more.

But as those emails start piling up, mishandling them can lead to serious risks like data breaches, compliance issues, and costly legal problems.

That’s where having an email retention policy comes in handy.

In this article, we’ll talk about what an email retention policy is, why it matters, and how to create an effective policy.

What is an email retention policy?

An email retention policy is a formal, organization-wide framework that specifies how long emails are going to be stored and when they should be archived or permanently deleted.

Why should you have an email retention policy?

There are 4 key reasons why it’s important to create an email retention policy. We’ll explore each one below:

• Protecting sensitive information: The longer emails sit in your system, the greater the risk they could be accidentally shared, leaked, or accessed by the wrong people. A good email retention policy helps you limit how long sensitive data stays in your system, reducing the chance of a security breach.

• Meeting legal requirements: Regulations like GDPR, HIPAA, FINRA, and SOX define specific rules on how long you must keep certain types of emails. A retention policy helps you stay compliant with those rules.

• Saving storage costs: When you don’t hold on to emails longer than needed, you free up storage space and reduce pressure on your systems.

• Supporting audits and legal cases: Keeping the right emails can act as evidence during audits and legal investigations.

Key components of an email retention policy

Here are the key elements every email retention policy should include:

1. Scope and purpose

Your policy should begin by defining its scope, like does it apply to all your employees, specific departments, or certain email communications between employees or clients.

Also, specify the purpose of creating the retention policy. For example, are you looking to :

• Meet legal data retention requirements.

• Reduce storage costs and optimize system efficiency.

• Prevent future data breaches.

2. Retention periods

In your business, different kinds of emails need to be kept for different amounts of time. When setting your policy, make sure to label how long each kind of email should be kept. Below is a general guideline for different email types and their typical retention periods:

3. Archiving process and tools

When it comes to email archiving, it’s important to clarify how and where emails will be stored. This could mean using cloud-based systems like Microsoft 365 Compliance Center, Google Vault, or sticking to on-premise servers.

Additionally, you’ll also want to clarify whether the archiving process happens automatically, how often it should happen, and what people need to do in order to access archived emails later on

4. Deletion protocols

Next, be sure to explain exactly when and how emails will be deleted once the retention period is over.

Also, it’s important to make the deletion process permanent and secure, so emails can’t be recovered by anyone who shouldn’t have access.

Here are a few best practices to follow:

• Verify: Regularly check whether the deletion processes are working as expected and that no data is lingering past its retention period.

• Limit deletion access: Only authorized personnel should be able to manage or adjust deletion protocols.

• Maintain deletion logs: Keep records of what was deleted, when, and by whom to support audits.

5. Legal holds

Sometimes, your company may face legal case audits or regulatory reviews. In these situations, you need to pause your regular email deletion process to make sure no important messages are lost. This step is called a legal hold.

Your policy should clearly outline how legal holds will be handled, including who is responsible, which emails need to be preserved, and how long the hold should stay in place.

6. Roles and responsibilities

It’s important to clearly say who will be in charge of implementing and monitoring the policy. Typically, the IT team manages the technical side of things, while the HR and legal team ensure the policy meets regulatory requirements.

Also, make sure to train your employees on their specific tasks. This way, you can improve the chances of the policy being followed correctly across the organization.

Key email retention laws you need to be aware off

Before creating your email retention policy, it’s important to understand the laws that apply to your business. Different regions have their own rules about how long emails must be kept. Below are some key laws to keep in mind:

• GDPR (EU): You can only keep personal data, including emails, for as long as you genuinely need it. Once the information is no longer useful for your business, it must be safely deleted. You also need to specify beforehand why you will be keeping it for a specific amount of time.

• HIPAA (US healthcare): Healthcare emails that contain sensitive patient information must be kept for at least 6 years. Disposal of this data must also follow HHS standards, such as shredding the content or secure deletion.

• FINRA (US finance): If your business works in the financial industry, you must keep email data related to transactions and business operations for at least 3-6 years. These records must be stored in a way that is easy to find if regulators ask for them.

• SOX (Sarbanes-Oxley Act – US): This act says public companies must store emails related to audits, financial reports, or fraud for 7 years.

Factors to consider before creating an email retention policy

Before drafting an email retention policy, it's important to assess several key factors to ensure the policy is both practical and compliant:

• Legal obligations: Identify which laws apply to your industry and region and how long you’re required to keep different types of emails.

• Departmental needs: Different departments handle different types of sensitive or regulated data. HR may need to retain employee communications for several years, while marketing might only need short-term retention for campaign emails.

• Storage limitations: Think about whether your current email system can handle large amounts of email data and if it can scale as your company grows.

• Cloud vs. on-premise hosting: Where your emails are stored really matters when it comes to managing your retention policy. If you use cloud services like Microsoft 365, you can set up automatic rules to delete emails. If your emails are stored on your own servers, you might need to manually set up backup system and regularly delete old emails.

Conclusion

A well-crafted email retention policy brings clarity and control to one of your most-used communication channels. By clearly defining how emails should be stored and deleted, you can reduce the risk of data loss, security breaches, and regulatory violations.

And remember, a policy like this works best when it's updated to match new laws and the latest technology. Staying on top of it helps protect your organization and keeps your operations running smoothly.