Seek Advice Regarding Personal Documents Of Old Employees

Dear All,

I have just joined this company where I found that we don't have any certificates or records of our old employees, such as educational and technical certificates, or documents like address proof, ID proof, and birth proof. Their personal files only include a photo or a single biodata. What do you seniors think? Should I ask for those documents, and if yes, why? What importance do they hold? I need your opinion.

Regards,
Bhavna

Hi Bhavna,

The problem that you are facing, I had also faced the same during my last assignment. The steps that I took were:

1. Preparation of a checklist in an Excel sheet which contains all the names of documents required for a personal file.

2. Go through all the personal files and mark in the checklist which documents are present and which are missing.

3. Now you have a checklist with details of whose file is missing which document.

4. Get a printout of the same and consult with each of them during convenient times to talk with them. Inform them of the documents they need to bring and specify a time period.

5. Another thing you can do is after preparing the checklist, put a notice on the board that some documents are missing from the personal files of employees. All are required to consult with the HR department to confirm the same and specify a time interval when you will be available to work on this issue. Then you may confirm their status from the checklist and ask them to deposit the same as soon as possible.

I followed the same practice and successfully collected the documents.

Hope you will also achieve success.

Looking forward to your reply on the same.

Regards,

Amit Seth
amitmhrm@sify.com

Hi Amit!

Greetings!

Thanks! Well, but I have one more question. The employees I am talking about have been working for the last 10-15 years. As a new joiner, if I suddenly ask them for the documents, you could imagine their reactions. That's why, is it really that important to collect the docs?

Regards,
Bhavna.

Bhavna - I completely agree with Amit. Please do that exercise, and you should not be worried about older employees' reactions because:

1 - You're bringing discipline to a chaotic workplace.

2 - You'll be commended for doing a good job... which you should be!

Like both of you, I've been through the same myself... I have nagged all and sundry into submitting all the required documents :)

Hi Bhavna,

Yes, that's true because it was the same case with me. I had to ask for the documents even from old employees. However, I did the same and was appreciated for taking such a disciplined action. Just go ahead with the same approach; you will definitely get a good response from them.

Regards,
Amit Seth