Michelle,

Here are a few thoughts from one of our customers, on what they include in
their index to HR records:

(1) Employee Name
(2) Company Code
(3) Employee Location
(4) Employee Number
(5) Document Type - (if needed, since personnel files can be rather bulky)
(6) Salary Classification
(7) Date Hired
(8) Date Terminated

Those are but a few possibilities.  I'd recommend determining the most
likely retrieval criteria, and that you minimize the number of index entries
to those that are important to the organization.  

In so far as imaging is concerned, many organizations have or are converting
from paper-based systems to document imaging solutions for the management of
personnel files.  Is that "legal"....yes, but I'd be certain to check all of
those things that you need to do in order to ensure that all documents are
faithfully captured, that there is an audit trail in place, that the files
are not subject to alteration, and that you've taken appropriate steps to
prevent unauthorized access to or disclosure of the contents of the files.
Must you retain a paper copy of imaged files?  No, not if you are able to
demonstrate that your imaging system provides for a reliable record.

Finally, as for data loss.... Hopefully there's no data lost.  I'd look
through the files carefully, however to ensure that the documents are
legible and can be captured by a scanner without the loss of information.
I'd also ensure that the indexing is done carefully, and that it is verified
against ...perhaps an extract of the employee database for the key indexing
fields.  There is always the possibility of a data entry error in the index
as well, so taking steps to prevent that from arising as a problem would
make good sense.

Those are a few thoughts... Hopefully others here will have additional
recommendations.

Doug Allen, CRM, CDIA+

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