Basics on Employment Forms
Employment forms go well beyond the basic job application form that candidates are required to complete. By maintaining the proper employment forms, your company can abide by national and state employment law, keep employee information in order, and create documentation that can be used as a solid defense in the face of an employee lawsuit. Here are some of the employment forms every organization needs to maintain.
General Employment Forms
It is important for your organization to keep on file for each employee a W-2 form (Wage and Tax Statement) and a W-4 form (Employee’s Withholding Allowance Certificate). You also need to maintain written annual performance evaluation forms and employee contract forms.
Wage and Hour Employment Forms
Basic employment forms under this category should cover such employee information as…
- Name and address
- Occupation
- Grade of pay
- Weekly compensation, deductions from compensation, and written authorization for deductions from compensation
- Hours worked for employees nonexempt from overtime and overtime paid
For immigration issues, you need to maintain an I-9 (Employment Eligibility Verification Form) form, forms for expiration of right to work visas in the United States, and leave of absence forms.
Post-Employment Form
This type of employment form, to be completed only
after an employee has been hired, is not mandatory but is helpful to have for each employee. This form contains such basic information as date; employee name, address, phone number, and e-mail address; employee’s Social Security number, birthday, blood type, and license plate (for parking lot control); and name, address, and phone number of person to be contacted in case of emergency.
This form can also contain a checklist for the HR professional including questions about whether the employee’s Social Security number has been verified, W-4 and I-9 immigration forms have been completed; and that the new employee has signed off on all the necessary deductions, such as disability insurance.
Keep These Employment Forms Separate
It’s important to know the proper way to file employment forms. Federal law requires that certain records be maintained apart from main employee files.
Even if not legally required, however, separating certain employment forms and records can reduce your vulnerability to discrimination claims. If a supervisor has access to any employment forms containing certain personal information about a worker, that employee could file a discrimination claim based simply on the access, whether or not the supervisor sought and used that information. Therefore, an employee’s main personnel file should not include any information that can be construed as discriminatory, such as date of birth, age, gender, marital status, record of dependents, medical history, or other personal information unrelated to the job or company.