Information to Keep

Throughout the recruiting and hiring process, we encourage you to create a personnel record for each person you hire, and to retain application materials from those who you don't hire. Many of these records can help establish that an employment action you took was appropriate, in the event of a civil suit charging wrongful conduct on your part. By documenting every step of your reference and background checks, you can show that you acted reasonably in hiring the applicant based on the information that you had.

To that end, create and keep the following documents as you perform reference and background checks:

a list of all references checked
the name of the person who actually contacted the references
how you contacted the references, namely, by telephone or by letter
notes on all telephone conversations made
name and job title of every person you spoke with
a copy of the return letter
copies of actual records received, for example, credit bureau checks, driving records, and so on.
the fact that you made every reasonable effort to contact the reference listed but could not do so
the fact that you did contact the reference given but could not get sufficient information from the source.

Federal law. If you have 15 or more employees, federal antidiscrimination laws administered by the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission require you to keep records of all applicants, hired or not, for one year to ensure that you aren't excluding people in protected groups from consideration for employment.

Documents you must keep include:

completed job applications
resumes
other forms of employment inquiries and hiring materials
job orders submitted to employment agencies and any ads related to job openings
records of promotions, demotions, transfers and other job actions
copies of any tests or examinations administered and the results of those tests (including physical tests)
materials relating to selection for training or apprenticeship
employee requests for physical job accommodation