Government Records Retention for Teams, Slack, and Text
A government records retention schedule should make public records requests simple. In practice, a request for all communications about a road repair project can turn up email, Microsoft Teams chats, texts, and social media comments, as well as paper files.
A good schedule sets retention periods and destruction triggers, but the harder question is whether an agency can enforce those rules across the systems employees use. Enforcing that schedule across Slack, Teams, and text messages is where most agencies get stuck.
Key takeaways
- A retention schedule is based on a record's content and business purpose, not the app used to create it.
- Federal rules don't bind state and local agencies, but they show how retention can scale across large organizations.
- Default deletion settings in Teams, Slack, and other apps can quietly override an agency's approved schedule.
- A retention schedule sets normal retention; a public records request can pause it.
- Turning policy into consistent practice takes technology settings, employee guidance, and a repeatable process.
What a government records retention schedule covers
A government records retention schedule defines how long specific categories of public records are kept and how they are handled once that period ends.
A typical schedule identifies:
- Record series or category
- Responsible department or business function
- Required retention period
- Triggering event for the retention period
- Authorized process for eventual destruction
- Permanent preservation requirements
- Applicable audit, legal, historical or regulatory obligations
Retention schedules exist so agencies manage information consistently, rather than leaving employees or departments to decide what to keep and what to delete.
The most important concept is that retention is generally based on a record’s content and business purpose, not the tool used to create it. A Microsoft Teams message approving a purchase likely has procurement value, while a message about running five minutes late likely does not. The business decision documented matters more than the platform used.
Building a practical retention checklist
Most of the work happens after the schedule is written, when it needs to hold up against Teams, Slack and everyday employee habits. Use the checklist below to pressure-test where your program stands today.
1. Identify applicable retention requirements
This step sets the ground rules for everything that follows.
- Determine which federal, state, local or agency-specific schedules apply
- Identify the records authority responsible for approving retention requirements
- Document required retention periods for major record categories
- Flag records that require permanent preservation
- Verify the events that start each retention period
- Record exceptions for audits, investigations, litigation or legal holds
2. Inventory record types and communication channels[
Most retention gaps trace back to channels nobody thought to include. The following are all public records when government business is discussed:
- Email, text message channels, and mobile communications
- Microsoft Teams chats and channel messages
- Slack messages and channels
- Social media posts, comments, and direct messages
- Contracts, procurement, and financial records
- Public safety records
- Meeting recordings and transcripts
- Cloud-based applications
- Shared drives and document repositories
- AI-generated or AI-assisted business communications, where applicable
3. Map records to retention schedules
This step turns the inventory from step two into an enforceable schedule.
- Map each system or channel to an applicable record category.
- Apply retention based on content and business purpose, not application or format.
- Confirm similar records get the same retention treatment across different channels.
- Identify systems containing potential records not yet mapped to a schedule.
- Resolve overlapping or conflicting retention requirements.
4. Review technology and system settings
A policy is only as good as the settings that enforce it.
- Identify default deletion settings in Teams, Slack, email, and messaging platforms.
- Confirm application settings don't delete records before required retention periods expire.
- Check for data that may live outside the primary application.
- Verify attachments, metadata, edits, and conversation context are preserved where required.
- Review retention settings after upgrades or migrations.
- Flag unsanctioned or unmanaged communication tools.
5. Evaluate capture and archiving
This step separates what looks captured from what holds up later.
- Determine whether communications are captured automatically.
- Confirm captured records are accurate and remain searchable.
- Preserve metadata, timestamps, and sender or recipient information.
- Capture edited and deleted communications where required.
- Maintain conversational context for chats, threads, and collaboration platforms.
- Validate that records can be exported in a usable format.
6. Prepare for public records requests
A retention schedule doesn't help if records can't be found when it counts.
- Confirm which systems must be searched for a given request.
- Ensure records can be searched across multiple communication channels.
- Test whether records can be located by person, date, keyword, department, or type.
- Document procedures for suspending deletion once a legal hold is issued.
- Coordinate retention procedures with public records officers.
- Validate archived records can be reviewed and exported without alteration.
7. Manage legal holds and preservation
Legal holds override the normal schedule the moment they're issued.
- Document and test legal hold procedures.
- Identify who is authorized to issue and release holds.
- Confirm holds suspend normal disposition processes.
- Apply holds across the relevant communication platforms.
- Track which users, systems, and record categories a hold covers.
- Document when holds are released and resume normal retention only after authorization.
8. Build defensible disposition
Deleting records on time is only defensible if you can show your work.
- Define when records become eligible for destruction.
- Automate disposition where appropriate.
- Require authorization before destroying sensitive or high-value records.
- Maintain an audit trail of disposition activity, including what was deleted and under which rule.
- Verify records under legal hold are excluded from disposition.
- Periodically test disposition workflows.
9. Clarify roles and responsibilities
Most retention failures come down to unclear accountability, not bad policy.
- Define responsibilities for records management, IT, legal, and compliance.
- Identify department-level records owners.
- Establish procedures for employee departures and role changes.
- Train employees on approved communication channels and retention responsibilities.
- Provide guidance on using personal devices for government business.
- Audit and enforce the policy on a regular basis.
10. Review the program on a regular cycle
Certain changes should trigger an automatic review of the program.
- Deployment of Teams, Slack, or other collaboration platforms
- Introduction of texting or mobile communication capabilities
- Addition of new social media platforms
- Migration of applications to the cloud
- Adoption of AI or automation tools
- Implementation of body-worn cameras or new audio/video systems
- Changes to business processes or regulatory expectations
- Use of unsanctioned communication tools
Why the schedule matters more than storage costs
An effective retention schedule gives records managers, legal teams, IT administrators, and department leaders a shared basis for deciding what to keep, what to destroy, and what to preserve when a request, audit, investigation, or legal hold arises.
Deleting records too soon is one risk. Keeping too many for too long is another, and it makes searches, reviews, breach analysis, and legal matters more expensive than they need to be.
Retaining records for too short a period can create problems during public records requests, litigation, investigations, audits, and regulatory reviews. Retaining unnecessary information increases storage costs, cybersecurity exposure, privacy risk, and the volume of data that has to be searched later.
The goal is defensible disposition: retain records as long as required, preserve them longer when there's a legal or operational reason, and dispose of them consistently once they're eligible for destruction.
Federal schedules are a useful reference, not a template
Federal agencies operate under the Federal Records Act and requirements set by the National Archives and Records Administration, or NARA.
NARA's General Records Schedules, known as GRS, cover common administrative and operational records across federal agencies, including procurement, financial, and technology records.
NARA has also developed approaches such as Capstone to simplify email and electronic message management. Under this role-based approach, retention can be tied to an employee's position and the likely business value of that employee's communications, rather than asking employees to manually classify each message they send.
Federal schedules don't govern state or local agencies, but they show how retention rules can be standardized and aligned with how work gets done. For state and local governments, the practical takeaway is to build the policy, technology, and repeatable processes that keep pace with how work is completed.
Local and state schedules vary, but the challenge is the same
Local government retention requirements vary by state and jurisdiction. State, county, municipal, school district, law enforcement, utility, and special district records may fall under state archives rules, local schedules, agency-specific requirements, or special statutes. Records managers should start with the applicable state archives office, records commission, or governing authority to confirm which schedules apply. IT administrators should then confirm whether the agency's technology can enforce those requirements. A five-year retention requirement doesn't hold up if the application storing those records automatically deletes messages after 90 days. That gap creates real compliance risk.
How records break down by channel
Retention should follow the business activity in a message, not the app that carries it, whether the record sits in an inbox, a Teams channel, or a text thread. Text messages on personal devices carry the same obligations as equivalent business records. Social media, Teams, and Slack also carry edits, reactions, and metadata that need their own retention treatment. The table below is a starting point for discussion, not a substitute for legal review.
Record type |
Retention approach |
Key consideration |
|---|---|---|
Content-based; transitory to permanent |
Channel, not a record category |
|
Text messages | Same as equivalent business records |
Includes personal-device use |
Social media | Often years; some content permanent |
Includes edits and metadata |
Public safety records | Varies; some records permanent |
Dispatch, body-worn video, 911 calls |
Microsoft Teams or Slack | Content and business purpose based |
Spans chats, files, recordings, includes threads and reactions |
Common retention mistakes agencies make
Most retention problems trace back to policy, technology, and day-to-day employee behavior drifting apart, and not bad intent.
Common mistakes include:
- Assuming Teams chats, Slack messages, or texts are "informal" and therefore not records
- Letting default deletion settings in an application override the agency's approved schedule
- Treating screenshots as complete records, when they may omit metadata, attachments, or context
- Updating the written schedule without confirming whether IT systems can enforce it
When to update your retention schedule
Retention schedules shouldn't sit still. Review them whenever technology, regulations, organizational structure, or actual business practices change. That last trigger, actual business practices, is the one schedules miss most often. If employees are approving work by text or responding to residents on social media, the retention program needs to account for it. One useful check is to compare the retention schedule against the agency's current application inventory. If an application holds government business that doesn't map to a retention category, that's a records management gap worth closing.
How retention connects to public records requests
Retention and public records access solve related but different problems.
The federal Freedom of Information Act, or FOIA, applies to federal executive branch agencies. State and local governments operate under their own public records, open records, or right-to-know laws.
A retention schedule determines how long records should normally be kept. A public records request determines which existing records must be searched, reviewed, and potentially produced. Once a preservation obligation exists, normal destruction may need to stop, since records that would otherwise be eligible for deletion may need to be preserved because of a pending request, litigation, an investigation, or a legal hold.
Consider a public works employee who texts a contractor about a change in scope, then later summarizes the decision by email. The email may be easier to find, but that doesn't make the text irrelevant. If the text documents the actual decision, timing, or approval, the agency needs a way to account for it.
Retention challenges in Teams, Slack, text, and social media
Many older retention programs were designed around paper records, email, and shared drives. Today's agency communications environment is more complex. Teams can include chats, channel posts, shared files, recordings, transcripts, reactions, and edited messages. Slack can include channels, direct messages, threads, attachments, reactions, and deleted or edited messages. Social media adds posts, comments, direct messages, and video. The specific retention period depends on the record series, applicable law, and the agency's approved schedule, but the analysis should start with business purpose, not platform name. Agencies also need to preserve enough metadata and conversational context to make a record understandable later, since a screenshot can lose the participants, timestamps, or surrounding conversation that give a message its meaning.
Signs your retention program needs a closer look
If any of these questions are hard to answer with a confident yes, that's worth flagging for review:
- Do we know where government records are being created?
- Can we map those records to an approved retention schedule?
- Can our systems retain records for the required period?
- Can we stop deletion once a legal or public records obligation arises?
- Can we search communications across the relevant platforms?
- Can we preserve metadata and conversational context?
- Can we document why and when records were destroyed?
- Do records management, IT, legal, and compliance follow the same process?
A program that answers yes across the board is in good shape. A few uncertain answers point to where to focus next.
What to do next
A working retention program comes down to knowing what records exist, where they live, how long they need to stay, and when they can be defensibly disposed of.
If your agency's retention schedule was written before Teams, Slack, text messaging, automated transcripts, and social media became routine, what matters now is whether the policy still describes how people get work done.
Talk with Smarsh to see how agencies capture and retain communications across the channels they already use.
Frequently asked questions
A government records retention schedule defines how long specific categories of public records must be kept and what should happen to them at the end of the retention period. Depending on the record type, that can mean destruction after a defined period or permanent preservation. Retention is typically based on a record's content and business purpose, not the application used to create it.
There's no single retention period that applies across email, text messages, Teams, and Slack. The right period depends on the business content of the communication and the applicable federal, state, local, or agency-specific schedule. A contract approval sent through Teams, for example, may need the same retention period as other procurement records.
A public records request can pause an agency's normal retention schedule the moment it arrives, since responsive records may need to be preserved even if they were otherwise eligible for destruction. Retention schedules set the default timeline. Requests, litigation holds, and investigations create exceptions to that timeline, and agencies need a way to identify affected records quickly and document why normal disposition was paused.
Review the program whenever there's a meaningful shift in technology, regulations, business processes, or communication habits. Common triggers include adopting Teams or Slack, new texting capabilities, social media platforms, cloud applications, AI tools, body-worn cameras, or new public records and privacy requirements.
Automated retention reduces reliance on individual employees to decide what to save or delete, which is where many manual programs break down. It also makes it easier to preserve metadata, apply legal holds consistently, and document why a record was disposed of, all details that matter when a decision gets challenged later.
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Bill is a frequent speaker at legal and information governance industry events and has authored four eBooks including Email Archiving for Dummies, Cloud Archiving for Dummies, The Bartenders Guide to eDiscovery and the Know IT All's Guide to eDiscovery. Bill has also authored 60 plus industry articles and hundreds of blogs as well as hosting 37 podcasts with industry pundits, subject matter experts, state legislators, and attorneys.
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