April is National Records and Information Management Month! National Records and Information Management Month was started in 2002 to promote good record keeping and information management and to emphasize the importance of maintaining organized records. Essentially, Records and Information Management Month is spring cleaning for all the records you keep! This month, KRESS would like to help you make sense of the rules for keeping your background checking records:
1. Your human resources (HR) department should always retain and destroy personnel records in accordance with your company’s corporate policies on business records retention, as well as federal and state laws governing record retention.
2. Pre-employment testing results and background check information records are required to be maintained in segregated personnel files, just like I-9 forms and medical records.
3. Drug-testing results and background check information is required to be kept from the inception of the event until three years past the termination date.
4. After the 3rd anniversary of the termination date, paper personnel records and confidential employee data should be destroyed in accordance with the record destruction policies set forth by your company.
5. If an ethics report, harassment claim, etc. is related to an employee, then it is best to extend the retention period for that particular record or utilize a potential “litigation hold” policy of some kind to keep those records from being destroyed until you exceed the legal limitation period.
6. It is also a best practice for the HR department to work with the IT department periodically, but no less than twice annually, to review and ensure that the HR department’s corresponding electronic records are properly purged.
7. Additionally, companies wanting to follow best practices should keep good documentation of their destruction policies, as well as all activities to comply with those policies. Don’t forget to include any remote employees who keep confidential files.
So take this opportunity to review your retention and destruction policies and procedures, and spring clean your HR records! Celebrate by using #SpringCleanHR to post on social media!