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Pertinent records to carefully keep.
Sooner or later in our increasingly litigious environment, many companies face legal hurdles over their maintenance of documents in human resources.
Potential threats lie in handling HR documents in Family Medical Leave Act certifications to job descriptions.
Managers using best practices in compliance, who are aware of the latest trends and avoid common errors, fare the best against civil litigation, criminal allegations and other matters.
Managers using best practices in compliance, who are aware of the latest trends and avoid common errors, fare the best against civil litigation, criminal allegations and other matters.
Overview of best practices
1. Important for your recordkeeping: Immediately write notes, incident reports and warnings. Do not try to recreate any records later.
2. Be sure to use factual and objective language. Do not record any emotional judgments or subjective opinions.
3. Maintain strict file separation using distinct, restricted files to avoid any violations in anticipating audits. Such records should include I-9 documents, payroll files, and confidential medical records.
4. Record all disciplinary measures and details of personal improvement plans.
5. Save any and all interview and investigation logs. Be sure to you use question and answer formats
6. During investigations, use question-and-answer formats. Record key quotes verbatim with quotation marks. Document the date, time, location and names of attendees.
Employee Records: Which Ones to Save and for How Long
How to prioritize the most-salient documents:
Equal Employment Opportunity records
Civil rights and EEO or Equal Employment Opportunity laws are, of course, intended to prevent employment discrimination. Such documents for each position should be maintained apart from employee and medical records.
Civil rights and EEO or Equal Employment Opportunity laws are, of course, intended to prevent employment discrimination. Such documents for each position should be maintained apart from employee and medical records.
Records for both employees and applicants should be kept.
Applicant records must be kept in the event applicants later sue the organization over mistakes in interviews. Mistakes usually involve asking the wrong types of questions. It’s advisable to maintain such records for at least two years after hiring decisions are made – not just when people apply.
Best Practices with HR Records to Guard against Legal Risks
Employee files
It’s vital to keep employee-agreement files for a minimum of seven years. Benefit and disability records should be kept for four years. Employee and group-insurance data should maintained for six years.
Benefit documents
Preserve benefit plans, COBRA and ERISA records for 6 years.
Medical information
Employee medical records must be maintained separately from the employees’ files in order to stay in compliance with The Americans with Disabilities Act.
Employee medical records must be maintained separately from the employees’ files in order to stay in compliance with The Americans with Disabilities Act.
Companies must establish a documented culture of safety to avert issues. That’s because countless personal injuries are a magnet for employee lawsuits involving worker’s compensation insurance.
Best Practices for Disaster Planning Include HR, Payroll
Payroll information
You probably know how sensitive pay is to employees. Problems can easily arise from hours worked, time cards, overtime, pay rates and total wages paid in pay periods.
Special attention must be paid to overtime pay. The Fair Labor Standards Act (FLSA) has overtime requirements for non-salaried or hourly workers.
Keep your payroll and wage data for three to four years under Internal Revenue Service and FLSA rules.
Guidelines to Meet FLSA Responsibilities for Remote Workers
I-9 documents
I-9 documents must also be maintained separately for a period of three years or for one year after the employee leaves. Companies must use I-9 documents to verify employment eligibility.
Naturally, the documents can’t be used to discriminate in an applicant’s citizenship, immigration status or national origin.
Final precaution
As soon as any possible legal problem arises, such as a government audit or threat of legal action, immediately stop any and all document destruction plans and actions.
Conclusion
To protect your company from losing an employment lawsuit, be sure to keep all pertinent records. That means you should maintain contemporaneous, legally compliant and objective records.
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“The employer generally gets the employees he deserves.”
-J. Paul Getty
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