HR Solutions: Most companies must meet record-keeping requirements

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Companies need to conduct self-audits to ensure compliance with personnel laws and regulations within their own firms.|ret||ret||tab|

Legal demands abound regarding employment records to maintain on new, existing and terminated employees. Confusion arises because of the differences in federal and state laws; when both pertain, the stricter of the two is utilized. In addition, some statutes involve the majority of employers, but several apply mainly to government contractors and subcontractors. The purposes of the record keeping also dictate the conditions.|ret||ret||tab|

Missouri law stipulates compliance with the Age Discrimination in Employ-ment Act if a company has at least six associates. Federal law is less stringent, with a 20-worker prerequisite. |ret||ret||tab|

Payroll records must be kept for three years and show staff names, addresses, dates of birth, occupations, rates of pay and weekly compensation. Maintain personnel records reflecting promotions, demotions, transfers, selection for training, layoffs, recalls and discharges. |ret||ret||tab|

Keep job advertisements, postings and applications. Hold benefit plans, seniority system policies and merit pay procedures. Retain all records for one year unless a lawsuit is filed; then reserve relevant paperwork until final disposition of the charge.|ret||ret||tab|

The Americans with Disabilities Act applies to businesses with at least 15 staff members according to federal law, but six employees by Missouri law. Detain applications, personnel records and requests for reasonable accommodation for one year from creating the record or taking the personnel action. Preserve payroll data for three years. Keep pertinent information until final disposition of any lawsuits.|ret||ret||tab|

The Civil Rights Act of 1964, Title VII, orders identical record keeping as the Americans with Disabilities Act, with the exception of reasonable accommodation data. An EEO-1 report must be filed ind held by federal contractors with more than 50 associates and noncontract companies with more than 100 jobholders.|ret||ret||tab|

The Immigration Reform & Control Act charges organizations to have each new employee and the employer complete an Employee Eligibility Verifi-cation Form, or I-9.|ret||ret||tab|

Maintain the documents for three years following the date of hire or one year after discharge, whichever is later. Secure the forms separate from personnel files, since the Immigration & Naturalization Service or the Department of Labor may request the forms during inspections.|ret||ret||tab|

The Uniform Guidelines on Employee Selection Procedures covers records that consist of applications, tests and other types of selection procedures used to render employment decisions, such as hiring, training, promotion, transfer, demotion and termination. For companies with fewer than 100 staff, prepare a yearly report reflecting the number of people hired, promoted, and terminated. Provide detail concerning the sex, race and national origin of applicants hired for each job opening. |ret||ret||tab|

For organizations with 100 or more workers, ready a report by sex for each racial and ethnic group constituting at least 2 percent of the labor force in the applicable labor area. All employers must conduct an adverse impact analysis of the selection process annually to ensure zero discrimination due to race, color, religion, sex and national origin, |ret||ret||tab|

If discrimination is found, modify or eliminate the procedure that produces the adverse impact and keep the records for two years. Retain this knowledge separate from personnel files to ensure the information is not used to make personnel decisions. For federal contractors, make data available from the current year, as well as the prior year's analysis, during a compliance review from the Department of Labor's Office of Federal Contract Compliance Programs.|ret||ret||tab|

Federal contractors must prepare an Affirmative Action Plan for minorities and women based upon Executive Order 11246. Hold on to any paperwork supporting employment decisions. Update plans annually and preserve documentation of good faith efforts for two years. Retain personnel employment records for one year if you have fewer than 50 laborers or your contract is less than $150,000. Otherwise, the requirement is two years.|ret||ret||tab|

Compliance with these laws is mandatory. To ensure accurate record keeping, companies need to create an internal auditing system and ensure associates remain up-to-date concerning changes in personnel law.|ret||ret||tab|

(Lynne Haggerman is president /owner of Haggerman & Associates, a retained search, outplacement, management training, and human re-sources consulting firm.) [[In-content Ad]]