The College maintains personnel records of employees in order to document employment-related actions/decisions/benefits and to comply with federal recordkeeping regulations. The College restricts access to these records to authorized personnel, in accordance with College policy and federal/state laws.
Purpose/Reason for Policy: To provide guidance on access to, and updating of, personnel files, due to the confidential nature of personnel records.
Scope/Covered Persons: All Guilford College employees
Definitions: Personnel File: For the purposes of this policy, a personnel file consists of any employment-related or personal information retained by the College about a Guilford College employee, former employee or applicant for employment.
The Policy:
The College maintains a personnel file on each prospective and current employee which contains confidential, work-related information. This file is the property of the College and is located in the Office of Human Resources. It contains information relevant to employment, including but not limited to, employment applications, evaluations, leave records, pay, benefits, etc. The College respects the privacy of its employees by maintaining the confidentiality of personnel matters. This information may be released only in limited circumstances and in accordance with North Carolina Law.
Employee Access: Current employees may review their personnel files by appointment with a representative from the Office of Human Resources. Employees may make notes from documents contained in the respective personnel file but no documents may be removed. If an employee disagrees with items contained in the file, then the employee may provide a written statement of the disagreement to the Office of Human Resources representative and the document may be added to the file.
Manager Access to Employee Files: Access to information about employees in College files is restricted to those administrators or managers who have a legitimate need to know. Examples of a legitimate need to know might include:
- Managers who are evaluating an employee for the purpose of promotion or transfer.
- New managers of departments may review the files of the employees in their departments.
- The senior administrator of each division has access to the files of all employees in that division.
- The College’s legal counsel is permitted access to the records as authorized by the director of Human Resources.
- The President has access to all employee files.
Faculty Files: The Office of the Vice President for Academic Affairs will maintain personnel files for all faculty members.
Roles and Responsibilities:
- Human Resources: Responsible for maintaining accurate personnel records and securing their confidentiality.
- Employees: Responsible to keep the College up-to-date with accurate personnel information. Examples of status changes that could affect employment category or benefit eligibility: A change in marital status, number or status of dependents, employment status or work schedule, mailing address, Medicare/Medicaid eligibility, or a domestic relations order.
Compliance: Failure to report changes in status may result in loss of benefit eligibility, or in extreme cases, disciplinary action, up to and including termination of employment.
Procedures: Employees who experience status changes should submit the revised information to the Office of Human Resources in writing as soon as possible but not later than 30 days after the qualifying event, as they may be eligible to change benefit elections.
Approval Authority: The College President
Responsible Office: Alisa Quick, Director of Human Resources, King Hall 101D, 336.316.2135, quickat@guilford.edu
Revision History: Updated in the Employee Handbook revision of 2018