Published: June 29, 2015 by Dr. Pat Franks

by Susan D. Haigh Washington State agencies adopted a new “Information Governance” job series last year, and several new positions have been posted at state agencies in recent months. Three positions are posted currently on the Washington State jobs website (as of June 27, 2015) – you can view details here:

• Chief Information Governance Officer – WA Department of Health (Closes 7/16/2015)
• Privacy & Records Governance Manager – WA Office of Superintendent of Public Instruction (closes 7/15/2015)
• Information Governance Manager – Office of the Insurance Commissioner (open until filled)

The position announcement details vary, but they should sound familiar to anyone who has studied Information Governance. Some highlights:

• “leads the agency effort to establish, implement and maintain a modern model for the management of agency information”;
• “responsible for overseeing an operational framework for the vast array of agency information (in its myriad forms and locations) that balances the needs of internal and external stakeholders and successfully aligns information governance (IG) systems, processes and people to meet the organization’s overall strategic business objectives”;
• “serves as a focal point, bringing together the various actors and activities related to information management (business, legal, risk, enterprise architecture, information technology, records and information management, privacy and information security, data stewards, etc.) to ensure deliberate, cohesive and strategic approaches related to actively managing information throughout its lifecycle across the enterprise”;
• “This position is distinctly different from that of the Chief Information Officer (CIO) position (which focuses more on the technology infrastructure), but the individual holding this position must work in very close partnership with the CIO in order to be effective and meet business needs”. (Dept of Health)

This is an emerging and interesting development for Washington State, and it’s not yet clear who will fill these new positions. Some IG job postings cite a law degree as the preferred educational background (see the Insurance Commissioner and Superintendent office postings, above), but a couple have instead called for a bachelor’s or higher degree in “Public/Business Administration, Organizational Leadership, Public Health, IT, Archives/Records Management, or a closely allied field” with “Demonstrated experience in … Information Management or Governance or Data Governance [and] Enterprise Content Management (see Dept. of Health position announcement). In addition, a large number of records analyst and supervisor positions have opened recently with a focus on Public Disclosure and the Public Records Act (search for “Forms and Records Analyst” positions or “Public Disclosure” on the www.careers.wa.gov site). With the increase in public disclosure litigation and media coverage of public records issues nationally and locally, this is not a big surprise to records management professionals in public agencies here in Washington. Additional reading… WA State Archives – Information Governance (IG) Initiative – http://www.sos.wa.gov/archives/recordsmanagement/ig-initiative.aspx Aside … I’d be happy to talk with other MARA students interested in the public sector and public disclosure generally – you can email me at susandhaigh@gmail.com