Employee X-Files: Keep These Employee Documents As Records

In an age of email, Google Drive, and Dropbox, our files tend to be scattered everywhere. Rarely they're where we need them when we need them, but most of the time that’s okay. When you’re starting a company though, there are a few employee documents you are legally required to keep and a few we would strongly encourage you to keep.

Employee Documents You Have To Keep

W-4 - This is the Employee’s Withholding Allowance Certificate. This document tells you how much federal income tax to withhold from each employee’s paycheck.

I-9 – This is the Employee Eligibility Verification Form I-9. This is needed to prove that all of your employees are eligible to work in the US. The USCIS (immigration services) can request these files at any time, and you need to keep them for at least 3 years. 

Employment Application – You should keep all documents associated with an employee's job application. The Age Employment and Discrimination Act of 1967 (ADEA) requires you to keep it for up to 1 year after the employee is hired.

Certain employee data – According to the Social Security Act, you need to hold onto all employee names, SSNs, addresses (including zip code) for at least 4 years. You also need to keep date of birth, gender, occupation and marital status for at least 3 years according to the Age Discrimination Act and the FLSA Equal Pay Act.

Employee Documents You Should Keep

Offer letter and/or employment contract – This is what establishes your relationship with an employee. It’s good to have and handy to refer back to when negotiating with your employee.

Changes to initial offer or employment contract – If you amend an employee’s responsibilities, salary or equity, we’d advise getting it in writing and having both parties sign a copy. This will help establish clear expectations in your working relationship. 

Proprietary Information and Non-Competition Agreement – This kind of agreement will help protect your confidential data and will establish ownership of intellectual property. Have ‘em sign it and add it to the files. 

Job description – Some employers like to create a job score card that goes into a level of detail beyond the offer letter. We’d suggest keeping this for both your and the employee’s reference when performance reviews roll around. Speaking of which… 

Performance Reviews – Keeping a copy of these will help you understand how an employee is doing over time. We’d also suggest sharing this with an employee to help them see the same progression.

Stock Option Grant – If you’re a startup, you’ll probably need this. Most startups, like us, give their employees equity and it’s important to keep an record of the quantity and exercise price for each grant.

If you use Justworks, we'd suggest keeping these in your Doc Center. The Doc Center allows you to assign documents to specific employees and make it either visible or invisible to the employee themselves. You can also share docs across the entire organization such as the Employee Handbook.