How to Prevent Employees from Hoarding Electronic Documents

Hoarding electronic documents—whether emails, documents, or outdated records—carries more risk for many organizations than the accumulation of paper documents. While some digital content is legitimately important or required for retention, a significant portion of what employees save is either duplicative, obsolete, or lacking in business value.

Every year, these files pile up on desktops, file shares, cloud platforms, and external drives, intensifying data storage and eDiscovery costs. They also raise privacy and intellectual property concerns. Unfortunately, attempts to curb this growing digital glut often fail, largely because organizations overlook human behaviors and fail to take an effective approach.

Hoarding Behavior Is a Learned Habit

People do not start hoarding documents overnight. In today’s work environment, creating and saving files or emails is practically effortless. Employees can store emails in a local personal storage table (PST) file, back them up in cloud drives, or keep decades’ worth of documents on network file shares. Migrating to cloud-based environments typically does not resolve hoarding; it sometimes makes it even easier to stash massive amounts of information. Over time, this practice solidifies into a workplace culture of unbridled data accumulation.

Telling employees to stop hoarding, or threatening them with punitive measures, rarely works. Even the most robust policies and sophisticated technologies will fail if employees disregard them. Instead, change management—addressing the underlying attitudes and routines—is essential for success.

Create a Modern and Compliant Records Retention Schedule

A strong records retention schedule is the bedrock for any initiative aimed at managing information more efficiently. It should define how long various categories of documents need to be kept, clarify what is considered a “record,” and specify disposal timelines. Developing this schedule often begins with understanding real-world workflows and needs.

In our experience, interviews with employees can be more revealing than surveys. While surveys show “what” is happening, interviews uncover the “why,” revealing deeper motivations and pain points. By discovering issues such as “We are overwhelmed by emails” or “Finding specific files is a nightmare,” organizations can reshape both their retention policies and user behaviors in a way that reduces risk and helps employees find information more efficiently.

Save Information in the Right Place with the Five-Second Rule

For employees to follow policies consistently, storing and classifying content must be quick and intuitive—ideally within five seconds. If the correct action takes too long or is confusing, employees will likely circumvent the process.

Making it simple to place files in designated folders or to add necessary metadata is one strategy. Another is adopting user-friendly systems like SharePoint or an enterprise content management platform, where employees can drag and drop documents and emails to the right repository without extensive manual tagging. By eliminating friction, such processes make employees less inclined to hoard data in unsanctioned or scattered locations.

Focus on Getting Control Rather Than Mass Deletion

Contrary to what some might believe, the initial aim should not be mass deletion but rather establishing control. Control implies placing files and emails in central repositories where policies—particularly automated retention settings—can be systematically applied.

By disabling local PST files and migrating data into an email archiving system, organizations can manage retention globally. This approach also facilitates legal holds, because content can be quickly identified and preserved for litigation or compliance matters. Once data is centralized, organizations can establish automated disposition strategies to defensibly remove outdated information without placing the burden on individual employees.

Use Automated Disposition to Make Older Documents “Fade Away”

Automated disposition is a core component of successful information governance. When files have reached the end of their retention period, they should be systematically purged or archived according to policy, rather than lingering forever because no one has the time or inclination to remove them. Over time, this helps lower storage costs, reduce discovery burdens, and mitigate risks associated with sensitive or private information staying accessible longer than necessary.

Change Management: The Engine of Cultural Shift

Information governance change management focuses on modifying user behaviors, not just deploying new IT tools. Before employees alter their habits, they need clear, consistent reasons for doing so. Organizations must investigate what drives them to hoard: Are they saving emails because a manager once told them never to delete a message? Are there conflicting instructions from Legal or Records Management? Are departmental processes inherently reliant on old files?

This exploration often reveals that employees have genuine business reasons—or perceived obligations—to save everything. Identifying these drivers is the first step in designing interventions that show employees a better way.

Sell the Wins for Employees

Employees will not discard long-standing practices without understanding what benefits the new approach provides. A communications strategy that highlights “wins” is vital. For example, many workers hate mailbox quotas. Switching to a time-based retention policy can eliminate size constraints, granting users a sense of freedom while still facilitating automated removal of aged items.

Time-based retention is usually more effective in the long run than size-based restrictions, as it results in consistent, scheduled cleanups. This change can also improve search functionality, eliminating the need to root around multiple PST files.  Organizations should promote these advantages prominently, using emails, posters, lunch-and-learn sessions, and town halls to spread the word. The more employees understand the positive impact, the more willingly they will adopt new policies.

Don’t Forget to Measure

No change management initiative is complete without metrics. Start by collecting a baseline: How many PST files exist? How large are they? Where are files stored across the network? After rolling out new policies, compare the situation against this initial benchmark to see how effectively hoarding has decreased. Metrics might include reduced data storage footprints, fewer PST files, or increased adoption of official repositories like SharePoint.

Equally important is assessing behavioral shifts: Are employees classifying records correctly? Are they complying with retention schedules? Identifying areas of noncompliance allows you to adjust training and communication. This iterative cycle of measurement and refinement ensures that the organization keeps progressing toward its information governance goals.

Conclusion

When properly executed, efforts to curtail electronic document hoarding can produce impressive results. One organization defensibly disposed of 45 million emails, representing about 65% of its stored messages, after implementing these measures. Another saw a 50% drop in unstructured data volumes. Achieving such outcomes requires sustained commitment to policies, technology, and above all, the cultural and behavioral shifts that make those tools effective.

It’s important to develop a robust communications and training program, produce clear and resonant messaging, and ensure employees have the resources they need to adapt. Ultimately, preventing employees from hoarding electronic documents protects businesses from legal, financial, and operational risks. It also improves employees’ daily work experience—a significant win for everyone involved.