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today we're going to discuss one of the most essential if not the most glamorous tasks in HR management employee record-keeping knowing which records to keep how to store them and for how long can spare you administrative and legal headaches we'll take a look at how record-keeping works and offer you some easy-to-follow do's and don'ts to guide your efforts welcome to HR over coffee a series from the experts at HR 360 where you'll learn how to effectively hire manage and terminate employees employers typically keep a number of different employee records often called personnel files as a way of documenting an employee's relationship with a company in certain instances documentation in a personnel file can provide important support of data for example to show an employee's discipline history in support of a termination the personnel file can also track performance goals leaves of absence and any employment related agreements in addition to being a good business practice employers may be required to keep certain types of records in order to comply with specific provisions under both federal and state law these laws mandate what information should be collected what your company may or may not do with that information and how long employee records should be kept for the purposes of today's discussion we're going to divide employee records into two categories personnel records and confidential records personnel records and files typically include basic information about the employee documents related to the hiring process and performance review records including such things as commendations awards and basic notes on performance issues or disciplinary actions the personnel file is also a good place to keep employment related agreements such as non disclosure or non-compete agreements as well as compensation records such as w-4 and finally the personnel file is the place to store documentation related to an employee's termination such as an exit interview termination or resignation notices information regarding post employment benefits and the like the second category of employee records is confidential information it's good idea and in many instances can be legally required to keep certain employee records and information in a confidential file separate from the personnel file the confidential file may include such items as medical records leave documents background checks and documents pertaining to an employee investigation both personnel files and confidential files may contain information that is legally required to be kept under state and federal law federal record-keeping acquirements generally fall into three categories compensation and benefits employment matters and equal opportunity in employment specific laws dictate the particular records that must be kept and for how long for example the Federal Fair Labor Standards Act or FLSA requires employers maintained for all non-exempt employees basic payroll records including the employees full name social security number and address along with details on hours worked and wages paid these records are required to be kept for at least three years and records on which wage computations are made such as time cards...