When you’re in charge of HR documentation and employee handbook organization, as an HR department, you might have some question when it comes to the documentation process and maintaining employee files.
What do you need a written record for as an HR department?
How does HR documentation factor into your documentation process when it comes to evaluating an employee’s performance?
And, if something goes wrong, what formal documents and permanent records do you need to provide in a trial situation to ensure compliance?
Like it or not, these are questions you as HR professionals might have to answer when it comes to HR documentation.
An employee handbook might provide some of the everyday protocol for employee documentation, but court proceedings are still an element of HR departments’ benefit to their businesses.
A human resources department is responsible for providing proper documentation and documenting employee performance.
With legal compliance and company policies, HR processes are much more complex than just “Let’s keep everything” or “Let’s throw away anything we don’t see as necessary.”
Both federal and state laws have record-keeping requirements that involve everything from specific timeframes to the written history of incidents.
This legislation, as well as other company policies that might regulate employee documentation, are legally mandated elements of what a human resources department provides to a business.
Following best human resources practices when it comes to proper documentation is essential for federal, state, and local compliance to policy and protocol that will protect you in litigation scenarios.
Assume the worst and prepare accordingly with accurate employee records.
It doesn’t matter if you’re a fantastic employer. It doesn’t matter if you implement performance correction or a performance improvement plan instead of terminating an employee.
It doesn’t even matter if you choose additional training over disciplinary action. Your employee, at some point, is very likely to sue your company.
And when that happens, you need written proof that you’re not in the wrong.
Do you have that prepared?
Here are some examples of employee documentation that are absolutely necessary for any human resources department to retain.
Employee files
Employee documentation files are one of the most important documents you will maintain during your career. The documentation in an employee file can help protect the company in the event of a lawsuit.
In these files, you as the human resources department need to keep good documentation from the original job description for which new employees are interviewed to personnel files that follow performance evaluations and the employee’s manager’s record.
Make sure to document job descriptions, health insurance, the recruitment process, attendance records, the employment contract, performance appraisals, and everything in between to protect all parties involved, both you as the employer and the employee themselves.
Equal Employment Opportunity records
The purpose of Equal Employment Opportunity (EEO) and civil rights laws is to protect employees from workplace discrimination or other unfair treatment.
This is different than other employee documentation; instead of keeping it in a file, you should keep EEO files separately in a written account for legal compliance.
Believe it or not, these documents aren’t just for new employees or a current employee.
If a potential employee sues (one that could have been a new employee but wasn’t hired for some reason), it’s up to you as human resources to provide the EEO HR documents or any document related to the reason why they are suing.
For potential employees, they’re often suing because EEO-protected topics are brought up during the interview process.
While new employees might not feel the need to discuss this breach of the law since they got the job, potential employees will be aware that the law requires employers to treat certain topics with respect.
To make sure you have proof that you did indeed follow EEO law, make sure that your hiring process includes HR documents that will record the questions you asked.
And this isn’t an uncommon occurrence. EEO employee discrimination suits are incredibly common, and such documentation as EEO HR documents need to be a part of your daily process of hiring and consolidating data.
And EEO complaints don’t stop with potential employees. The entire process of managing your employees (your human resource) depends on your ability to treat them with respect.
For both the business and the employee, it’s crucial that you both understand one another’s position and determine the best way to move forward should there be a conflict.
From clarity of job descriptions to performance improvement to a well-defined employee handbook, making sure that you and your employees know exactly how to speak to one another is a critical element of following EEO protocol.
Examples of claims that fall under EEO compliance include:
- wrongful termination
- harassment
- sexual discrimination
If you keep careful record of the EEO documents suggested, and make sure your HR personnel are present in the event of any dispute, you protect your company from any concerns about compliance and keep your HR team prepared to go into court with enough knowledge to refute any false claims.
Avoiding disciplinary actions in court as a business when you’re accused of race, sexual, or disability discrimination or retaliation can be difficult if it devolves into a “he said, she said” or a conversation about his or her discussions of something of which there is no record.
To keep yourself protected, require documentation at even a hint of conflict.
Make sure that your employee handbook and company policy make it very clear that your choice to terminate an individual wasn’t for a protected reason but rather for a business choice.
If the employee’s explanation isn’t backed up by the data you have, the court is a lot less likely to believe them than you.
Human resources professionals are here for more than managing a poor performance for an employee.
You are the documentation professionals.
And you need to be constantly prepared for both performance management and every responsibility you have that includes permanent records.
Keeping up with federal laws about documentation isn’t an easy job. But it’s what’s included in your job description when it comes to protecting documentation and future actions.
From the employee’s offer letter to the documents required for termination, documentation of every element of an employee’s journey in your company is under your responsibility.
[/et_pb_text][et_pb_text _builder_version=”4.4.4″]Thank you,
Your VertiSource HR Team
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