What a records retention schedule should look like

Organisations should create and maintain a records management policy supported by a records retention schedule.
The schedule should contain:

a list of the categories of records that must be maintained for legal, regulatory and business (more about those in the next paragraph) requirements

a default retention rule for each category of records

any exceptions to the default rules for specific records within a category

the legal, regulatory or business requirement that necessitates the retention of a particular category of records or a specific record

the period for which the category of records or specific record must be retained; and

the event that triggers the start of the period.

HERE IS AN EXTRACT FROM ONE:

Category of information assets

Employees

Description

Information relating to:

Recruitment and selection
Induction and training
Performance and reward
Employee assistance and counselling
Employee relations
Employee contract management
Equality and diversity statistics and submissions
All information housed in or extracted from the HR system
Policy and procedure development relating to human resources

Information asset owner

Director of HR

Default retention period

Term of employment + 3 years

Exceptions to default retention period

Day-to-day employee records which do not form part of the Central and Local Staff Files - Date of document creation + 3 years
Cancelled or spoiled employees’ tax certificates - Keep until the Commissioner requests surrender
Collective agreements, arbitration awards, and determinations concerning employee terms - Date of event or end of event period +3 years
Unsuccessful applications for employment - Date of refusal + 1 year
Register or record of earnings and other prescribed particulars of all employees - date of last entry in record or register + 4 years
Employment equity plan - Date plan is no longer in use + 5 years (all employers)
Employment equity plan - Date plan submitted to the Director-General + 5 years (only applicable to ‘Designated Employers’ as per Section 1 of the Employment Equity Act)
Pension fund records - Conclusion of pension fund liability + 3 years