Organized, Efficient and Legally Compliant

With so many tasks that need to be completed for the day-to-day operations of a business, proper management of personnel files is often put on the backburner. However, personnel files are essential paper trails of your employees’ pertinent information most often used when making employment decisions or for documentation in legal situations. Maintaining your personnel files is necessary not only to comply with legal requirements, but also to keep needed information organized and easily accessible for the appropriate parties.

The first step in personnel file management is setting up a comprehensive filing system. This consists of determining what information should be kept in a primary file, secondary file, and separate files in accordance with legal requirements. The primary file contains information such as pre-employment forms, compensation, promotions, training, and performance management. The general rule of thumb is never keep potentially discriminatory information in the primary file. The secondary file is for information that does not relate to employment status or could be discriminatory if used when making employment decisions such as personal data or medical information. Some documents such as leaves of absence and investigations would be grouped and filed separately.

Next, detail out where each type of document should be placed within each file, where the files will be located within your company, and who has access to which files. This will not only ensure that you are being legally compliant, but this will also help keep consistency within the files, make it easier to find what you need quickly, and limit access to the correct individuals.

Once you have established how your files will be maintained, it is imperative that you follow legal requirements governing how long different types of documents need to be retained. Compile a retention plan for your company’s files and how documents are to be disposed of once they have passed the retention time. However, you may choose to keep documents longer than the minimum retention requirements.

Now that you have set up a personnel filing system, the most important step is to communicate it to your HR staff and all managers.  Don’t forget to create procedures for any managers at remote locations as well. It is crucial that all relevant individuals know about and comply with the established filing system, retention requirements, and limited access procedures.