Personnel File Management Of Old And Left Employees

Hello seniors,
Good day,
We have Thousands of files of old employees and existing employees which not arranged properly till date and I need expert advise to keep those files properly maintained so in future it will be easy for others to access it.
Either I arrange it employee Id wise?
Or department wise?
Or according to last day of working wise?
Which will be the best method to keep records safe and well maintained...
Need some reflection from seniors.. to keep things uptodate..
Thank you

Dear friend,
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 then physical arrangement does not matter. On the soft copy (preferably Excel sheet), it becomes easier to search through employee's name or LWD or Employee No. In the soft copy, include shelf No or Rack No. where the file is kept.
Earlier there was discussion on "Retention Period of Documents of Ex-employees". You may click the following link to refer 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 a software or excel because they offer great functionality to sort.

Dear Friend,

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

For existing employees, arrange the files employee ID wise, for employees who have left the organisation either keep it employee ID wise 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 to locate any file very easily.

Employees who have left long back (before 1+ years), you can keep them together in a box (these too must be arranged employee ID wise 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 one which you feel will be easier to locate any personal file.

But make it a point to have a soft copy for all the employees (current + ex-employees).

For your reference, I have attached a file which would have all the data for all the employees at one place - Master Data. Make a new file every month.