Employee Record Storage Time? - Pdf Download

For How long does a company needs to store Employee records once the employee leaves the organization ?

we have to maintain all employees record in a separate file till their presence in the company. once he/she releaved or retired from company we have to close that file And keep in releaved employees yearly file. that file must contain all the personal info from his/her application, appointment letter till resignations letter original, experience letter copy, and pf closure document copies, and all settlement documents.

Dear friend,

Beginning from your name, you could have given a little more information like why you are asking this query, are you the custodian of employee records, are you from HR and so on. These are the basics of business etiquette.

Secondly, you need to use the correct heading while raising a query. It is not "Employee Record Storage Time" but "Retention period for the documents of the ex-employees".

If the separation of the employee were under normal circumstances, then many companies preserve the employee file for at least five years. However, if the separation is because of disciplinary reasons, it may be ten years or more.

In some companies, the records of past employees are divided into three categories viz green, yellow and red.

Green is the one where separation happened in absolutely normal circumstances, yellow is the one where there was some problem, and the employee was told to put in papers. But in such a case, a note is preserved on why the employee was told to put in papers. The red is the one wherein an employee was terminated or dismissed on disciplinary grounds. The retention period of the documents of these employees is obviously for a longer period. In some companies, it is at least 15 years. In modern HRIS there is provision to categorise past employees accordingly.

There is no specific rule on the retention of the employee documents. You have to devise your own rule and retain the records.

Thanks,

Dinesh V Divekar
+91-9900155394

If the company uses an automated HRMS, ex-employees information can be kept as historical data for any length of time, along with scanned copies of important personal documents.
Otherwise, Mr Dinesh has given above a very comprehensive reply to the query raised. His statement "There is no specific rule. You have to devise your own rule and retain the records" is important. In Govt. departments, to the best of my knowledge, retention of financial records of an employee (such as Payroll data) for a period of 10 years (after retirement) is mandatory.

Dear Members,
In certain context the employee record is to be maintained for many years like PF record. As employee can may come to get the details of the PF account even after 10 years.

Dear All,
I would welcome the question put forward by Nck Love. How long do we need to retain the record of ex employees or what is the retention schedule for such records. The replies posted above throw some light on the subject which is apparently experienced based response. Although it may be agreeable by many that there is no specific rule on this subject but I would record my opinion with reference to certain provisions of law of the land.
The Income Tax Act requires that a company should maintain its record for ten years. From this an inference can be drawn all records financial or otherwise should be retained for a minimum period of 10 years.
Secondly I would like to draw a reference to the Law of Limitation. After an employee leaves the job or is retired on attaining the age of retirement or is terminated/dismissed his full and final account is to be settled. After the date of settlement of final accounts, it is necessary to keep the record for a minimum period of three

Check the acts that apply to you
Payment of wages act requires registers to be kept for 3 years father the last entry
PF can raise a query for 8 years as can income tax (eg for Tds purpose).
So you need to keep records accordingly.
Now a days, lots of companies have started to digitalise their records, by converting it to scanned copies. We got the same done for a client recently. Then you can keep records for a very long time as the storage cost is negligible

My above reply has been posted incomplete. Please read further as under:
Secondly I would like to draw a reference to the Law of Limitation. After an employee leaves the job or is retired on attaining the age of retirement or is terminated/dismissed his full and final account is to be settled. After the date of settlement of final accounts, it is necessary to keep the record for a minimum period of three years. However with regard to PF liabilities, it is assumed that company is remitting all subscriptions and contributions to EPF A/c with the concerned RPFC. Therefore the employee has to contact EPF Dept. for transfer/withdrawal/settlement of his EPF claims. The company has to forward claim forms of such employees to EPF Dept. In case of an exempted establishment the company has to settle the EPF A/c within thirty days of his resignation/termination/retirement/superannuation.
And it has been correctly posted by Mr Bhatia that where a company uses HRMS or any other ERP Software Sy

Dear Love,
Normally any employees left their services records pertaining to them should be kept for minimum for 5 years.
In case for any employee/s for any pending issues like PF and Gratuity you can keep them safe until these issues are over.
Otherwise also you can keep all the left employees files / records minimum of 5 years and then you may destroy it....
- regards - venkat - bangalore -

I've also heard that companies keep records of ex-employees for 5-6 years only. Wondering how could they verify employment history of employees that left more than 5 years ago?