Maintaining Personnel Files
dhnyct
155 Posts
Recently read an HRHero article entitled "Tips for Maintaining Personnel Files" which lists what to keep/not to keep in a personnel file. "What to Keep" includes "copies of I-9 forms...keep the originals for all employees in a separate I-9 file."
How many times have we been told NOT to keep I-9's in the personnel file??? Is it okay to file a copy of the actual form, just not any supporting documents?
How many times have we been told NOT to keep I-9's in the personnel file??? Is it okay to file a copy of the actual form, just not any supporting documents?
Comments
We keep our I-9's separate, no supporting documentation with them either, we just "spot check" because we also learned that if you do not record the identification exactly as it is issued and you have a copy with the I-9, that can also be considered a violation (seems a little picky if you would just say State of Florida instead of Florida Department of ...). If we need to get a copy of the drivers license or ss card, we keep those in the Confidential File.
>opening yourself up to a lot of trouble by keeping the I-9 in the
>official personnel file. We were told that if Immigration comes in to
>audit your I-9s, and if you do not have them separated, you must hand
>over the entire personnel file in which they are contained. And while
>the Immigration officer is reviewing the I-9s, if he spots any other
>violations, he is entitled to report those violations to the agency
>that governs that issue. I don't know how often this may happen, but
>it certainly does not seem like anything you would want to do.
>
>
The INS and USDOL have a "cooperative" enforcement role with regards to I-9's. This means if you are a government contractor for Affirmative Action purposes, it may be the OFCCP who reviews your I-9's not INS. So, under the scenarior above you would have to turn the entire personnel file-of every employee-over to your OFCCP Compliance Auditor; not a great idea.
Both INS and USDOL have advised me on multiple occasions 1) keep only the original I-9 form, and one (1) copy of the supporting documents and 2) keep them filed separate from all other personnel file documents. I find keeping them in a 3-ring binder and filed alphabetically is the easiest way to do this.
I like the 3-ring binder idea, but what about terminated employee's? Have an I-9 terminated employee binder by year?
Thanks for any suggestions....
Margaret Morford
theHRedge
615-371-8200
[email]mmorford@mleesmith.com[/email]
[url]http://www.thehredge.net[/url]
I have all the employees files broken down into 4 folders.
Personnel
Payroll
Workers Comp/Medical Information
Managers file
I keep the I-9 paper work in the payroll file, is this ok?
Once the employees leaves, I still keep the files broken down into groups under term. employees.
Not only did this make retreival easy, but when it came time to purge the files, we purged a year at a time. The multiple year approach would be a little more cumbesome to purge. This system was audited once by the INS, and at least three times by various USDOL personnel and in each case they praised the system.
One thing I highly recommend is keeping photocopies of the documentation the employee presents. While it is not required, howelse you going to prove to actually saw the document noted. That way if an employee looses a driver's license, or other document and you get audited, you are not at their mercy to avoid a fine. One DOL employee even suggested date stamping the photocopies to authenticate when they were viewed-I feel that is a little over the top, but if you have lots of turnover, it might be worth the effort.
Now, remember that just filing these documents is not enough. If you hire someone who presents a "time sensitive" document as ID, you have to track those and update them as they expire. For example, most work visa's have a difinite time limitation, so if a new employee presents a work Visa with an expiration date, you will have to be able to track that, and go back to that employee when it expires to obtain a new verification of his/her right to work in the US.
I am not understanding why I have to keep the medical information and worker's comp stuff spearate from one another. Also, why do I need to keep my worker's comp/medical folder separate from all of the other folders. All four folders are together in one cabinet under lock and key. Does this have something to do with hippa?
What do you all do with the medical info upon term of an ee -- do you keep it with the medical files or file it with (or in a separate section) for term ees? I have limited space and need to purge my medical information along with my terminated ee files.
What I would do is purge the paper files, but as you do, scan the medical records of each terminated employee into some form of image file. Your image files can be very large, so I would use one image file for each document. If you use Windows operating system, you can create file folders for each employee, save the image files in the folders, and then copy/burn them to a CD or other high volume removable storage medium.
You can purchase good qualify scanners for less than $300.00, that can handle high volume multipage input. A very good quality CD/RW (CD Read/Write) drive can cost less than $200.00.) You can store a lot more CD's in a desk drawer, file cabinet or safe than you can paper files.