Personnel Files

Teach supervisors how to manage HR-related documents and files

02/25/2014

In their quest to tidy up, supervisors sometimes discard documents that should actually have been submitted to HR and added to an employee’s official personnel file, e.g., FMLA leave requests. Here are tips for deciding which documents to retain and which to pitch.

IRCA: Hiring Immigrants

02/22/2014

HR Law 101: Two laws govern U.S. immigration policy: the Immigration and Nationality Act of 1952 and the Immigration Reform and Control Act (IRCA) of 1986, which was amended in 1990. For each new employee hired, U.S. employers must complete a Form I-9, Employment Eligibility Verification. The I-9 establishes the employee’s identity and legal work status.

Acceptable Documents for I-9

02/20/2014

HR Law 101: Under the Immigration Reform and Control Act, new employees must provide to employers proof of identity and employment eligibility with documents listed on the I-9 Form ….

Progressive Discipline

01/18/2014

HR Law 101: The most reliable way to protect your organization from charges of wrongful discharge is to establish and enforce a system of progressive discipline. Make it clear to all your supervisors that they’re expected to abide by your policy …

Making copies of documents won’t replace duty to fill out I-9

11/07/2013

There’s no shortcut for completing the Employment Eligibility Verification (I-9) form for each new hire, as a Washington state company learned recently.

To do: Complete and file 2013 EEO-1 surveys by Sept. 30

08/06/2013

You should have an envelope from the EEOC in your in-box. The contents: the 2013 EEO-1 Survey. By law, affected employers must file their EEO-1 reports by Sept. 30.

There’s a reason for all those disciplinary rules!

07/31/2013

You should be able to easily pull up every employee’s disciplinary history and show that the employee received a copy, acknowledged an oral warning or was counseled. Consider what happened in the following case when recordkeeping lapsed.

Discuss firing only with those who need to know

07/30/2013

As a general rule, you should only discuss a worker’s termination with those who really need to know about it. That’s especially true in sensitive cases involving alleged fraud, theft or falsifications. You don’t want to lose a defamation case because a manager decided to make an example of a fired employee.

Looking for a document shredding firm? Consider 10 points before hiring

07/12/2013

Whether you have pallets of sensitive documents or just a few boxes you need destroyed, you may be considering using the services of a professional document shredding company. But do you know what to look for to get the best deal? Here are 10 pointers to guide you in the right direction, from Corporate Storage Services of Clifton, N.J.

How long must we retain personnel files?

07/05/2013

Q. We are moving to another office and want to take this opportunity to purge outdated or unnecessary documents. How long do we have to keep our personnel files?