As a manager, administrator, or executive, you often have piles of paperwork to contend with. Even if your company is paperless, the electronic images can be difficult to handle if there isn’t a clear filing system in place. Use these lists to organize and maintain employee files.

An employee’s personnel file should include records related to employment, such as:

• Employment application, resume, and college transcripts.
• Completed New Hire Packet, minus the I-9 and EEOC information
• Signed Handbook Acknowledgement Form and job description
• Promotion, demotion, transfer, layoff, rates of pay, other forms of compensation and education and training records.
• Letters of recognition, disciplinary notices, and performance evaluations.
• Test documents used by an employer to make an employment decision.
• Exit interviews.
• Termination records.

There are some protected documents that should always be maintained in separate, protected files. They often include confidential information that could put the employee in a protected class and therefore should not be considered in his or her general employment. These include:

• Medical Records—the American with Disabilities Act requires employers to keep all medical records separate.
• EEOC-To minimize claims of discrimination, separate documents that identify an individual's race, sex, disability, or veteran status
• Immigration (I-9) Forms—It is recommended that all I9 forms are maintained/stored together in an easily accessible place, chronologically by year. This method reduces the opportunity for an auditor to investigate unrelated information should they be stored together with other employee information.
• Safety Training Records—Keeping this information separate will protect the employer from an OSHA auditor investigating other information in the personnel file.