Most of the information collected about employees should be kept in a confidential manner. Personnel files should be kept in a secure location, such as in a locked cabinet or on a password-protected server, and employers should permit only a few key individuals to have access to the files. In addition, the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA) and the Family and Medical Leave Act (FMLA) as well as Iowa’s civil rights, employee drug testing and workers compensation laws require medical information to be kept separately from other personnel records.
There are no Iowa or federal laws governing what specific information must be included in a personnel file. The contents of personnel files are likely to vary widely depending on the industry or business involved. Personnel files generally include the following basic information: