How long to keep background check info

How long should we keep background and recruitment info for people we hire? We're a government agency, and I know the state requires 1 year.

But I can imagine situations where we might wish we could prove that the person had no red flags for criminal or driving. It could help us avoid negligent hiring charges if the person turned out to be a wacko.

Thanks,
Half HR

Comments

  • 2 Comments sorted by Votes Date Added
  • I personally keep that info forever. One never knows when you might need it! To the best of my knowledge there are no regulations that cover this.
  • Although some say it should not be kept in the personnel file (assuming the employee might have rightful access to that file), I too think it should never be disposed of until the file itself is purged and destroyed according to your policy and federal law.

    There are many good reasons to have this sort of information retained. One of them which sometimes proves handy is the ever-popular questioning of why someone was hired, two or three years down the road. Seems a frequent comment is, "I don't believe you checked this guy out at all. If you had, we would probably not be having these problems today."





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