The best protection for HR files is an anonymous brown box, simply marked with a 
bar code. Once you start getting into security tape, extra protection, 
isolation, etc., you start drawing attention to the box as something of 
potential value. When it is one of several thousand virtually indistinguishable 
boxes, no one can simply walk in and find it on a whim. The same goes for 
transport -- although there you have some additional challenges simply because 
the box may be addressed to HR. There are a couple of ways to manage that. 
First, when HR wants a personnel file, if they can trust you to remove the file 
from the box and place it into a secured pouch (pouches used by banks that you 
can put a numbered seal on work well for this -- I bought reusable 
custom-lettered pouches from:  http://www.arifkin.com/), you avoid the risk of 
having 20 to 100 files in transit. If they require an entire box, you can obtain 
plastic totes (like these: 
http://www.usplastic.com/catalog/item.aspx?itemid=23507&catid=846) that can be 
either locked or sealed with a numbered seal. While that draws attention, it 
becomes more positive attention because people handling those things know that 
they are sealed and they can be held accountable for a broken seal -- the tape 
doesn't do it, because you have to break the seal and then remove all the tape 
so you can put a fresh layer of security tape on -- and that will degrade the 
box over time or make it very difficult to determine when the box was opened.

The biggest hurdle is often getting HR to trust you and your staff. I think a 
big part of getting the trust is simply to show them how your records center 
operates and how responsible your staff is. If you have been audited or had a 
security risk assessment, that's certainly a plus. Bottom line is that your 
staff will handle lots of boxes in a given day, and their boxes are just a few 
more. Your staff will be vetted in the same manner as any other employee, sign 
the same NDAs as any other employee (including HR), and understand very clearly 
the consequences of mis-use of the records entrusted to them, probably moreso 
than any other employee in the company.

 Patrick Cunningham, CRM, FAI
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"Perpetual optimism is a force multiplier." 
-- Colin Powell

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