Personnel files

Patti

Is there a law (Wisconsin) that states what you must keep in a personnel file? Our HR assistant recently went through each file to make sure everything was in order. She added a new insert into the files (Disciplinary actions), which she put any performance improvement plan or disciplinary measure. Is there a plus or minus to keeping disciplinary actions separate?

HRCalico

I can't speak for Wisconsin specifically, but I can share what I do. My main personnel file has four parts - 1) training info, 2) application and interview notes, orientation info, 401 (k), etc. 3) insurance enrollments, 4) performance reviews and disciplinary action.

In a separate drawer, I keep one file for medical info (work comp, FMLA, etc.) and one file for financial info (wage verifications, child support, garnishments, etc.).

We are audited frequently on various things, and I can have an auditor say "show me how X employee is trained on my parts" and I can open to the training section and show them. That way, they aren't rifling through insurance enrollments and evaluations.

E Wart

Just food for thought... you can include life, LTD, w/c in your "insurance enrollment" file. However, we have been advised by the in house attorney with our broker that we should keep all group medical enrollment forms in a separate locked drawer due to HIPAA privacy. This information can reflect that they have group insurance which is a privacy issue.
E Wart

HRCalico

I checked online, and one definition of protected health information (PHI - it's at the heart of HIPAA, I think) is "information that can be linked to a particular person and that is created, used, or disclosed in the course of providing a health care service (i.e., diagnosis or treatment)."

Another definition:
Protected Health Information is any information pertaining to
a) Past, present, or future physical or mental health or condition of an individual;
b) The provision of health care to an individual; or
c) The past, present, or future payment for the provision of health care to an individual.
PHI may be information that is recorded electronically, on paper, or orally. PHI may concern living people or decedents (dead people). PHI does NOT include de-identified information or biological tissue with no accompanying information, such as an accession number or code
number, that may be linked to an identifier.

I'm not sure that having group insurance is an indication of any provision of services or other health care information. Let me also say that our enrollment forms have zero health information on them - name, address, ssn, dob, doh, dependents, etc. That may be the clincher - I would say that any forms that disclose past, present, or future health of a person should definitely go in the medical file, separate from the personnel file.

Thanks for clarifying that!