Managing Personnel Records - International Records Management ...

PAYMENT
The authority to pay salaries lies with the personnel department. A central payroll
unit usually makes the actual payments. The unit must be notified of all changes in
individual staff circumstances such as promotions, demotions, part time and overtime
working, transfers and secondments. If pay rates change, for example on account of
inflation, the Payroll Unit will make the necessary alterations.
Records Issues
Each time they are paid, staff should be provided with a pay slip for their own
records. Payroll and wage records, including details on overtime, bonuses and
expenses, and details of any other benefits in kind, should be kept by the payroll
department for the statutory period under taxation legislation, which may vary, but the
period is unlikely to be shorter than six years. The same retention periods are likely
to apply to income tax records and annual returns of taxable pay and tax paid.
SUMMARY OF PERSONNEL DOCUMENTS
Figure 6 below is a summary of the types of documents discussed in this lesson. In
most cases, the documents will be filed on master personal files, although some will
be held on working personal files. Master files are those permanent files containing
the primary, comprehensive source of information about an individual’s career.
Working files are those held for convenient reference or that relate to the management
of a particular function; they are usually not permanent records.
These two types of files are described in greater detail in Lesson 3. Some of the
documents identified here may also be found on policy and operational files or on
case files relating to particular functions, such as public service commission
appointments.
Figure 7 illustrates the ways in which these records might be held on file series. The
list is not definitive; the series established will vary from country to country in
relation to the way the personnel function is managed.
The principles of creating files series, to reflect
different functional activities or requirements, are
explored in Organising and Controlling Current
Records.
The series created to support the personnel function will depend upon the functions
and work patterns and size of the government or the organisation concerned. In
particular, policy and operational files may be organised into series supporting
broader or narrower activities. In a large organisation, series will need to be more
MANAGING PERSONNEL RECORDS
44