Multiple personnel files

KathiHR

For those of you who have a corporate office (with corporate HR) & multiple branch offices with no HR on site, what kind of personnel information is kept at branch offices? I'd like to hear how this information in maintained at other companies. We recently had an incident that turned this issue into a real hot potato & now I'm reviewing our policies, trying to look at every angle.

Don D

We have one corporate office in Ohio and 200 locations in the U.S. All files are maintained in the office of the individual facility. Nothing is forwarded to the corporate location. It's like they're on Mars and don't exist. The rubber hits the road here and that's where the file needs to be. As long as you have competent HR staff in a location, I would not recommend sending the file elsewhere.

HR in Okla

If there is no HR on site, who would maintain the file? Years ago, I was "office mgr." for a branch office of a national firm. I maintained the personnel files on-site. All I sent to corporate was what they needed to set up payroll.

KathiHR

When you were the office manager with no on-site HR, did you have a policy about what could be maintained in those on-site files? What about access - were they locked & under only your control? And did you ever get a subpoena for one of those files?

HR in Okla

This was years ago and I honestly don't remember details, except that I sent in the same things Kent mentioned and kept the master file in the office. We were a small office and I never encountered any problems.

Good luck with what sounds like a major problem.

Kent

We have a division corporate office and the national corporate office along with about 200 local locations. We send a copy of the employment application, I-9, w-4 and any state tax forms to the national office where payroll is completed. We keep all of the originals and other personnel related items at the locations. I accumulate various pieces of informtion, copies of ui investigations, disciplinary action documents, payroll change documents etc..in files at the division office. I'm curious as to the hot potato. is this a problem?

KathiHR

The hot potato was actually 2 separate issues from 2 different offices. In one office, an office manager was demanding very personal information from employees that she said was required for the personnel files. I got wind of the problem through a disgruntled employee 1 week before we were due for an accreditation audit. I went the next day unannounced to audit the files & couldn't believe the information she had accumulated on employees. I don't even understand why they would turn it over to her without raising a stink, but its been going on for a few months now.

From another office in a different state I got word that an employee's personnel file was missing a copy of his college diploma, transcript, professional certification, & license to practice. Needless to say, the employee is furious (rightfully so) & has had to notify his licensing body that his credentials were possibly stolen. His professional "number" now has to be monitored for malpractice and medicaid billings, which could be medicaid fraud. I've given you the short version, because both of these situations get complicated, but obviously, what we're doing now is not working. Our local offices are for clinical work...no HR on site.

Parabeagle

We have eight locations with no HR and I am the HR mgr. at corp. HQ. At each location we have two salaried managers whose complete personnel files I maintain here at Corp. All hourly employees' files at the properties are maintained at the property level by the manager and only the bare minimum necessary to set up in payroll is sent here. Each time I visit a property (usually three/four times in the course of a year) I do a file audit to make sure the appropriate information is being kept on the hourly employees.

madison31401

We are an organization of 4500 employees in our Business Sector with us acting as "Corporate" HR.
We have approximately 100 locations throughout the US. The "master personnel files" are kept in our offices. The offsites keep a "shadow file" with whatever they feel is necessary information. BUT .... in case of audit (Wage and Hour, OFCCP, etc. the "master personnel files" are here in Rockville, MD. The audit takes place here. We ensure we have the originals of all of the new hire paperwork (offer, iv evaluation, application, resume). We keep the orginal of all performance appraisals and our Personnel action forms reflecting salary actions, changes in personal information and disciplinary actions and appropriate back-up. The offsites usually make a copy of what they send. This has worked well for us for many years. We have been working on going "paperless" for the past year - but it's really difficult. Maybe someday...... anybody have any insight to a paperless office?

Pork

KATHIHR: We have a corporate office in NC, but this division is set-up as a stand alone company with an HR staff in Mississippi. We have 15 different work sites in this division. Each site has a temporary working file maintained by the manager. All original personnel forms and reports are placed on file in the "locked file room under the control of the HR staff". Working files at the working sites are not the official file of the company; we do not take personnel actions on any document unless it is the original.

PORK

E Wart

We have 8 locations (with from 7-35 employees each) throughout the US with one Corp. office with one HR person (me.) The actual personnel files are kept at each location by each GM. (Each location is run sort of like a stand alone company with the GM in charge.) All original payroll info (tax forms, ect.) are mailed to corp. to be input into payroll. Also all original insurance enrollment and 401(k) enrollment/beneficiary changes are sent here due to beneficiary reasons and enrollment which we handle. We do maintain the Corp. pers. files and also one location where there is no GM.
Most of the large office's GM's have an office person who helps them with the personnel files and some HR paperwork (getting employees enrolled in benefits, sending in the time worked each week). However, all HR issues are handled between me and the GM.
I have to give each location instructions on how to handle personnel files and review them when I visit. So far, this hasn't created a problem.
I have a "working file" on each person here and a HIPAA file (as does each location). Use them for maintaining information on employees that I get involved with (group claims paid, benefits enrollment, etc.)
E Wart

psrcello

In a previous life, I worked for a manufacturing company that had seven field construction offices. We kept all of the official personnel files at the corporate office, which was in the sam location as the manufacturing plant. As HR manager, I made a swing through all of the field office locations at least once a year, helped the office manager with any questions about HR issues, and provided training to the field managers in hiring, interviewing, discrimination, harassment, corrective action, performance evaluation, etc. This system worked great for us - that is, until we were taken over by the Canadian parent company and told that HR wasn't an important part of their corporate philosophy.