Managing personnel records

As they contain sensitive personal and health information, personnel records must be handled with care and in line with the NSW Government Information Classification, Labelling and Handling Guidelines.

Types of personnel records

Personnel records cover a wide range of information, including:

• Employee-specific records: Individual files detailing employment history, service, and separation, often called personnel or employee files.
• Non-employee-specific files: Organised by activity or topic, such as procedural files, recruitment records, or policy documentation.
• Data in management systems: Information stored in systems like talent management, recruitment, payroll, or performance management platforms.
• Attendance and leave records: Often managed within business applications, for example, SAP systems.

Regulatory and organisational considerations

It’s important to understand the regulatory framework for personnel records, as these requirements need to be incorporated into the design of recordkeeping systems for personnel records, and policy and procedures for managing records.

The following should be considered in managing personnel records:

• Retention periods for personnel records are specified in General retention and disposal authority: administrative records (GA28), General retention and disposal authority: local government records (GA39)
• Privacy and Persona­­­­l Information Protection Act 1998 (PPIP Act)
• Health Records and Information Privacy Act 2002 (HRIP Act)
• Government Sector Employment Act 2013and associated guidelines (see also Government Sector Employment Regulation 2014)
• Awards or enterprise agreements which identify salaries, wages and conditions of employment, e.g. enterprise agreements of universities establish rules, conditions and entitlements of employees
• Policies and procedures from the NSW Public Service Commission including the NSW Government Personnel Handbook
• Policies and procedures for access/privacy/security
• NSW Government Information classification, handling and labelling guidelines
• Organisational policies and procedures

Designing systems to manage personnel records

It’s important to design systems to manage personnel records. 

Here are some design tips:

• Ensure that an adequate summary record of each employee’s service history is created and retained. The summary record should include employee’s name, date of birth, dates of employment/service, positions held and salary, and locations worked.  These summary records are required as State archives.
• Manage personnel records with short retention periods separately to personnel records with long retention periods or required as State archives, as this enables the public office to manage the retention and disposal of records. Examples include:
  • grievance records see GA28 – Personnel – Grievances 
  • staff performance management records see GA28 – Personnel – Performance management 
  • conflict of interest declarations see GA28 – Personnel – Employee service history
  • applications for leave see GA28 – Personnel – Leave, attendances and absences.
• Include access and permission controls in the system design to ensure that personnel records are secure, that access is restricted to authorised users, and that systems are designed to manage records that are short and long term retention - as some personnel records must be kept a minimum of 75 years after date of birth.