Every HR team eventually asks this, usually when a subject-access request or an audit lands and someone discovers files from people who left in 2011. The honest answer is "it depends on the record and on where you are" — but that is not a policy, so here is how to build one.
Why "keep everything" is not safe
Data protection laws in most jurisdictions require personal data to be kept no longer than necessary. Holding a former employee's medical notes for fifteen years with no reason is a breach in itself, and it multiplies the damage of any leak. The goal is a defensible period per record type.
Different records, different clocks
Retention is set per kind of record, not per employee. Typical anchors — check your own jurisdiction's minimums, which vary:
- Contract, job history, performance reviews — the limitation period for employment claims after leaving, often several years.
- Payroll, tax and pension records — usually the longest statutory minimums, set by tax and pension law rather than employment law.
- Right-to-work / identity checks — a fixed period after employment ends in most countries.
- Recruitment records for unsuccessful candidates — short: months, not years.
- Disciplinary and grievance files — the employment-claim window, unless the matter is live or was referred onward.
- Health and safety, accident and exposure records — often decades, because the harm can surface late.
- Medical and occupational-health records — sensitive; keep only as long as the specific purpose requires.
Turn the table into dates
The leaving date is the trigger. For each record type, leaving date plus the retention period equals the review date. Write it down as a rule attached to the employee file so that closing the file sets the dates — nobody has to remember. In Herarx that is an automation on the employee-file template; the case's timeline shows when the review falls due, and a rule can ask the HR lead to confirm disposal when it does.
Review, then dispose — and record both
When the date comes, ask whether a reason to keep the record still exists: a live claim, a regulator's request, a related matter. If not, dispose — and log that you did, when, and under which rule. The log is what you show an auditor; the content is gone. We cover the mechanics in how long to keep a closed case.
Keep a skeleton
After disposal, keep the minimum needed to answer "did this person work here, when, in what role?": name, dates, job title. That answers reference requests and pension queries for years without holding the file.
Access while you hold it
Retention is only half of it. While records exist they should be visible only to the people who need them: the employee's own manager does not need the medical file; payroll does not need the grievance. Per-file access — not a shared "HR" folder — is what makes that true. See HR case files for how a grievance is structured.
