Dianne Pajo
Any company that employs more than one person should take the time to create a good system to track and store information on their employees. This information is vital when you employ someone, but it loses value when they no longer work for you. While you don’t want to get rid of some important information, there are good reasons to dispose of old employee data.
Maintaining Employee Privacy
Keeping all the information on your employees means you’re storing sensitive and private information. While this isn’t an issue by itself, you do increase the likelihood of that information getting out without the ex-employee’s permission. Destroying that information helps eliminate that possibility.
Protecting Confidential Information
These records aren’t just full of private information—they can contain confidential information relating both to you and your business. Destroying these files means you don’t need to worry about all the data that can put your company and its employees at risk.
Following Laws
It’s vital that you don’t just destroy information the moment someone quits or stops working for you. There are laws and record retention rules you need to follow before you can get rid of any information. For example, some states have you keep records of employment for up to three years after they stop working for you. Afterward, you can get rid of the files. Following these laws is important as you can receive fines for every file not in your records. These fines mean that you could lose a lot of money if you destroy data without following the proper procedures. Learning more about the common ways to destroy data is always a good idea.
Clearing Out Space
While the main reason to destroy old data is to protect your company, you also benefit from having the extra room. Employee records can take up a lot of space, but clearing them out allows you to use the physical or digital room for something else.
Employee data is necessary for the operation of your business, but you don’t want to store it for too long since you don’t need it anymore. That’s why you should destroy it when enough time has passed in accordance with record retention rules.
