Most employers fail this audit in the first five minutes: one folder per employee, and inside it — performance reviews stapled to FMLA certifications, a doctor's note behind a written warning, drug test results next to the W-4. The ADA and FMLA both require medical information kept in separate, confidential files with restricted access. A mixed file isn't a technicality; it's discoverable proof that decision-makers had access to medical information.
This checklist implements the five-file system: what belongs in the general personnel file, what must live in the confidential medical file, the narrow rules for supervisor working files, payroll records, and investigation files kept apart from everything — plus an access-and-retention table and a quarterly audit to keep the discipline from decaying.
Who should use this checklist
- Small employers with 'one folder per employee' filing
- HR teams migrating paper files into an HRIS
- Anyone preparing for a records request, audit, or agency charge
- Organizations where supervisors keep their own employee files
What it helps prevent
- ADA/FMLA confidentiality violations from mixed files
- Medical details visible to supervisors making promotion and discipline calls
- GINA exposure from family medical history sitting in personnel files
- Records requests that expose the whole mess at once
- Retention failures that delete records still legally required
What’s inside
- File 1 — General Personnel File (supervisors may see)
- File 2 — Confidential Medical File (restricted access)
- File 3 — Supervisor Working File (tightly limited)
- File 4 — Payroll File
- File 5 — Investigation Files (separate from all personnel files)
- Access and Retention
- Quarterly Audit
Before you process payroll, terminate, classify, deduct, or respond to a claim, get the decision reviewed.
Faulkner HR Solutions helps Texas employers, nonprofits, municipalities, and growing businesses fix the people systems behind recurring workplace problems. If this resource raised a risk flag, do not guess your way through the next step.