Collecting Employee Information

After an applicant accepts a position with your business, you'll need to gather some personal information about your new employee. Presumably, you already have the person's name, address and phone number, from either their resume or your application form. It's good practice to set up a personnel record that gathers the following information.

Name, address and contact information (home phone number, e-mail, pager, cell phone). The amount of contact information you'll need will depend on the nature of the new employee's duties. If a person is going to be on call or otherwise required to respond to business issues whenever they arise, you should obtain all possible contact information. In contrast, if a person will work a fixed shift and it's unlikely that you'll need to find them in a hurry, a home phone number may be enough.
Emergency contact information. It's an unfortunate fact of life that accidents happen and you need to be prepared if an employee is hurt. If an employee is injured, you'll need to contact someone who you can rely on to look out for the employee's interest. You don't want to be placed in the position of making medical or other major decisions on behalf of an employee. Ask the new employee for the names of at least two people you can contact in an emergency. Keep this information current and readily accessible.
Compliance information. In order to comply with tax and other laws, you'll need to gather additional information and have the employee complete several forms.
New hire reporting information. Federal law requires all employers, even those with just one employee, to report all new hires to the appropriate state agency. In turn, these state agencies must turn over the information to a national directory of new hires, maintained by the Department of Health and Human Services. The information will be used primarily for two purposes: to help prevent unemployment compensation fraud, and to track down parents who owe child support.

You must report each employee's name, address, Social Security number, and your business's name, address, and federal employer identification number. The easiest way to do this is to use a copy of the Federal W-4. Where you file the reports varies by state, so consult a phone directory to identify the appropriate agency. Under the federal law, reports must be submitted to the appropriate state agency within 20 calendar days of the date of hire, although some states may have shorter reporting windows.