What can employees use to classify documents for specific retention periods?

Employees can use retention labels to classify documents for specific retention periods. Retention labels are metadata tags that can be applied to documents and other content to indicate how long that content should be retained. This method allows organizations to enforce their data retention policies more effectively by automating the management of documents.

When a retention label is assigned to a document, it typically incorporates rules about the duration for which the document must be kept and any actions to be taken once that period expires, such as deletion or archiving. This helps ensure compliance with legal and regulatory requirements regarding data management and retention.

Retention policies, on the other hand, are broader in scope and may govern multiple documents or content types across an organization but do not necessarily provide the same level of specificity on individual documents as retention labels. Document management systems can facilitate the application of these labels and policies but do not inherently classify documents for retention on their own. Folder structures are simply organizational tools for data organization and do not classify documents for retention purposes. Therefore, retention labels are the most precise tool for employees to classify documents concerning their retention periods.