Your New Year's resolution: Get those HR files into legal shape!

HR documents can be your legal lifeline (or albatross) if you're dragged into court. The start of a new year is an excellent time to review those documents --both electronic and paper--to make sure you're in compliance. Some tips:

1. Keep track--in writing--of decisions related to an employee's hiring, initial training, ongoing training and disciplinary action. If you find that what you're doing doesn't jibe with the policies in your employee handbook, align them ASAP.

2. Know how long you must legally hang on to each document. Learn the retention periods for 200 different kinds of business records in our free white paper, located at www.theHRSpecialist.com/records.

3. Create a checklist that shows your HR colleagues:

   * What they need to record and keep.

   * How to document that information.

   * How long to hold onto it.

4. Choose an electronic format that you know you'll have access to in seven years (one of the most common records-retention standards). That ensures you will be able to retrieve those records when you need them. Anything currently saved to CDs is outdated. Best bet: Convert documents to PDF files or pictures...