Personnel Files

Coronavirus leave: Start keeping HR records

03/24/2020

The Families First Coronavirus Response Act is an attempt to keep income flowing to employees who may not be able to work because of coronavirus- or COVID-19-related conditions. The government has not yet specified exactly how employers will be reimbursed for the associated leave expenses. However, it is safe to say that Uncle Sam will require detailed records of which employees took leave and how much they were paid.

Years later, termination records still win cases

12/12/2018

There’s a good reason to retain the employment records of poor performers. In fact, the argument can be made that you should keep those records indefinitely.

Seek confidentiality order if employee wants access to co-workers’ disciplinary records

12/06/2018

A federal court hearing a Pennsylvania case has concluded that plaintiffs seeking to compare the discipline they received with that of other employees are entitled to the information, but must keep it confidential.

Warn supervisors: Never delete texts and emails related to employee’s complaint

07/24/2018

Be sure to warn supervisors and managers that if an employee has filed an EEOC or internal complaint or a state or federal lawsuit, deleting texts or emails related even tangentially to the underlying complaint can be risky.

M, F or X: How to deal with ‘nonbinary’ genders

01/23/2018

Some HR professionals are facing a new record-keeping hurdle: employees who identify as “nonbinary”—that is, neither male or female.

Rule of thumb: Good records win cases

04/12/2017

When an employee turns down an offer of a benefit of some sort, make sure you note that she did.

Are departing employees legally allowed to demand a copy of their personnel files?

03/23/2017

Q. If an employee is leaving the company and they request to take with them a copy of their complete personnel file, do they have the right to receive it? If so, does that include all records from their separate medical file and any confidential files?

Practical advice for better HR records management

10/25/2016

Here’s advice on controlling record storage costs and ensuring business continuity if records are compromised.

Why should we worry about job descriptions?

09/22/2016

Q. We are working on updating our job descriptions for our production employees. Are there any legal considerations we should take into account? We do not have any job descriptions for our office employees. It is hard because those jobs change so much. Is this a problem?

Document customer gripes: It helps win lawsuits

09/05/2016

Customers may not always be right. But it’s wise to document their complaints at the time they make them.