Human Resource Blog

What items should go in a the employees confidental file

What items should go into an employees confidental file? T from Tennessee

Hi T!!

The confidential file should contain all medical information on the employee, including doctors notes, and any information about a reasonable accommodation to a disability. This is because under ADA, the Americans with Disabilities Act, an employer cannot consider medical information when making decisions such as promotion, salary, training, evaluation, etc. So the best practice is for supervisors and other decision-makers to have access only to the personnel file, not the confidential file. For this reason, the confidential file needs to be in a separate location from the personnel files, one where supervisors and most managers will not have access to it on a regular basis. The supervisor should see the confidential file only if necessary to grant a reasonable accommodation for the employee.

Any information pertaining to the employees religion — such as a request for Jewish holidays off as a reasonable accommodation — should also be kept in the confidential file.

In addition, many employers keep aptitude test scores, background checks and credit reports in the employees confidential file, although they are not required to by law.

Also, if the employer keeps copies of I-9 forms and supporting documents, those should be in a file or notebook separate from both the personnel files and confidential files.