Interview ?'s in Personnel Files

HCCADC · February 2004

Where is the best place to put interview questions? Do you file them in the employee's personnel file or keep them separate? Thanks, Have a good day!

POPEYE · February 2004

Can you give a little more detail? Are you talking about applicant / hiring interviews or fact-finding investigative interviews?

HCCADC · February 2004

Sorry I didn't clarify enough. The interview questions that I ask in the interview, I write down (and so does the Manager) answers that were given. When I hire one of the candidates, I don't know where would be the best place to put the answers to these questions. Should it be in the Personnel file? Also, we have a rating sheet. Should I also put this rating sheet with the interview questions in the Personnel File?

Don D · February 2004

Assuming they have any relevance at all post-hire, I would put them with the application and offer letter, in the personnel file.

HRGddss · February 2004

I would put them in the job file that is purged far more often. Keeping them in the personnel file lets the employee potentially see them if they ever access the file. It also keeps the interview questions around a lot longer (as long as the employee stays) than if they are in a job file (which is purged every few years). Should there be a question of discrimination, etc. then you also have the whole batch of interview notes in one place to access/compare.

POPEYE · February 2004

Ditto to Don D. The reason for my question about the type of interview was that I keep a file for investigative interview separate from the personnel file. Only if there is disciplinary action do I file in the EE's file.

AJ SPHR · February 2004

I agree with the poster who keeps them separate and then purges them. I don't keep interview notes or comments in the HR file - too subjective and I believe it becomes an official part of the record if they're stored there and could be subject to subpoena (worse case scenario). I also am careful not to make notes on the resume, but keep it all on separate forms. I thought I remembered some direction a couple of years ago pertaining to this issue, about a hiring discrimination case that ended up having legs because of a stray comment a manager had written on a resume about physical attributes. And that the guidance at that time was to keep interview notes separate from HR file. Anyone else remember that?

Don D · February 2004

I can tell you for certain that just because you keep notes, files, other documents separate from the official personnel file does not exempt any of it from subpoena. It might be easier to trash (which is illegal); however everything from your hard drive to your post-it-notes is discoverable if the subpoena is worded properly. Even your thoughts are discoverable, once you get on the stand.

mwild31 · February 2004

I'm in agreement with Don. I keep all of my interview notes/questions with the application & in the personnel file. My supervisors/Managers and I have nothing to hide - they've all been trained on what questions to ask & what not to ask. AND even if it isn't an issue of "hiding" as that may be too strong a word, I still keep 'em. The information was valuable enough to hire the ee with, so it's valuable enough to keep with the ee in their file. Candidates that are interviewed & not hired, then their information is purged after being on file for one year.

Cinderella · February 2004

I agree with Don and Mwild. I worked at a company once where the director gave me the argument that purging them protects the company from subjective info getting in to lawsuits, etc. I gave her the counter argument: do you want to tell the judge
A) yes, your honor, these are my interview notes
or

sorry your honor - I know the plantiff says I took notes when I interviewed her, but I throw them out on a regular basis to cover my a$$ in situations like this

#-o

Parabeagle · February 2004

Sorry, I prefer to err on the side of maintaining a separate file for interview notes. I did a personnel file audit at one of our properties shortly after I came here and was appalled at the interview notes being kept in the employee files. The (unenlightened) hiring managers asked all sorts of inappropriate questions and it was right there in black and white IN THE FILE (a copy of which our employees are entitled to my state). I know that a separate file is just as discoverable as any other relevant document in court, but I would prefer that employees NOT have ready access to review such notes every time they look at their personnel file - especially if they contain inappropriate entries.

Don D · February 2004

If unenlightened people were involved in the process and it continued, it really doesn't matter where they kept their notes. Chances are if they screwed up with the notes, they screwed up everything else in the file. I would never want to have the notes taken by other staff in their process, in the personnel file or any other file. I would advocate only having my own notes.

Parabeagle · February 2004

Yes, but there had been no HR rep (not even as an additional duty for an existing ee) before I was hired and no training had been done. Only reason I was hired was after they extricated themselves from an ugly mess that could have been prevented -like inappropriate notes in personnel files.

HRGddss · February 2004

Not all interviews are for new hires... but if you keep interview notes in for new hire shouldn't you keep them for each and every other interview they do there (promotions, transfers, etc.)? and while they were good enough to hire they might not be good enough to promote. Thus when they see their file and see all that in there, does it cause more harm than good?

DougK · February 2004

I keep a separate file of all hiring paperwork for that particular position. Once the new employee passes the orientaion period (usually 6 months) that resume only is moved to the personnel file and the rest is filed separately for EEOC (or whatever) review if necessary.

mwild31 · February 2004

To answer your question, no, I don't think so. Promotions or even lateral transfers all have one thing in common, it's a different job - assuming different responsibilities and skill sets than the one the person was originally hired for.

To the original poster, as you can tell, many of us have different practices & they are just that "practices". There's nothing legally that says you have to file the interviews separately from the application, so it really boils down to what you and your company are most comfortable with or whatever practices have already been developed.

Don D · February 2004

I learn something new every day. And, Doug has just satisfied my quota for today. Please do not consider sttting up or keeping a separate file of anything 'just in case the EEOC needs it later'. If you think something might be needed later by the COMPANY to defend against a charge, by all means retain it. But never should anything be kept just in case the EEOC might need it, unless you're required by statute to retain it for a period of time. Perhaps I misunderstood, Doug, in which case, please correct me.

HCCADC · March 2004

Thank you all for your answers. It is nice to hear how other HR professionals are conducting business.

Interview ?'s in Personnel Files

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