How Should I Organize Employee Files for Easy Access and Maintenance? Seeking Expert Advice

We have thousands of files of old employees and existing employees which are not arranged properly until now. I need expert advice on how to keep these files properly maintained so that it will be easier for others to access them in the future. Should I arrange them by employee ID, department, or according to the last day of working? Which method would be the best to keep records safe and well-maintained?

Seeking Expert Advice on File Organization

I would appreciate some insights from seniors to ensure things are kept up to date.

Thank you.

Do you have soft data of the ex-employees? If you do not have that, then first create it. Once you have the soft data, physical arrangement does not matter. On the soft copy (preferably Excel sheet), it becomes easier to search through employees' names, LWD, or Employee No. In the soft copy, include the shelf No or Rack No where the file is kept.

Retention Period of Documents of Ex-employees

Earlier, there was a discussion on the "Retention Period of Documents of Ex-employees." You may click the following link to refer to it: https://www.citehr.com/513844-person...employees.html

The above link may not be directly useful, but it will be useful to you indirectly.

Thanks,

Dinesh Divekar

You mean sorting it? Then, for physical copies - ID wise. For electronic copies, you don't really need to worry if you use software or Excel because they offer great functionality to sort.

I completely support Dinesh's advice to keep a soft copy of all the data that you have (very, very important).

Organizing Employee Files

For existing employees, arrange the files by employee ID. For employees who have left the organization, either keep them by employee ID or in the descending order of their last working day.

Keep the arranged files in drawers and give numbers to the drawers, which will help you locate any file very easily.

Handling Files of Former Employees

Employees who left long ago (more than one year) can be kept together in a box. These too must be arranged by employee ID or in the descending order of their last working day. From the suggestions you have received and the ones you will receive from our seniors and experts, find out the method that you feel will be easier to locate any personal file.

Make sure to have a soft copy for all employees (current and former).

For your reference, I have attached a file that contains all the data for all the employees in one place - Master Data. Create a new file every month.