Information-reference documents are the most important component of modern office work. They are the most often replenished correspondence of institutions and enterprises of any form of ownership.
Meaning and features
Information and reference documents primarily play a subsidiary intermediary role in relation to other papers of personnel policy. They are not mandatory and do not contain instructions, but only provide information on the actual state of affairs in the enterprise, they provide information that serves as the basis for making decisions and drawing up orders. Information-reference documents have a distinctive feature, which consists in their directionality in the control system from the bottom up, ie. From the ordinary specialist to the head of the department, from the head to the deputy director or directly to the general director. But there are exceptions, for example, correspondence (service letter, telegram, e-mail, etc.) serves to develop communications between employees with equal duties.
Classification by species
Reference and information documents have many varieties, including: references and reports, summaries, acts and reviews, explanatory notes and letters, telegrams and telephone messages. Their addressee can be both internal and external. So:
• reference documentation means papers with an individual character that are issued on a one-off request and concern only one employee;
• reporting and reference is determined by the specific periodicity of the assignment to the addressee and the availability of certain standard forms, the frequency may be quarterly, annual, weekly;
• analytical is issued both on individual (one-time) and on periodic (regular) requests, has a consolidated nature, serves to collect general information.
Unification of documents
The composition, structure and procedure of registration of information management is determined at each enterprise individually in the regulatory acts of personnel policy. However, it is mandatory to bring all documents to a certain uniformity in composition and form. Unification of documents is the establishment of the optimal uniformity of the format, the collection and fixation of requisites. Unified are business papers created by uniform standards and rules, containing all the necessary information for decision-making. Information and reference documents are not an exception and are also subject to standardization. Conducting the unification is necessary in order to simplify and improve the quality of work with documents, streamline the process of their search, preparation and execution, typify forms, reduce the complexity of processing and develop progressive methods, and to reduce the list used. Guidance on the organization and control of unification is assigned to the parent organization for the coordination and management of the USD and OCSE.