E-Folder Must-Have – What Legal and Technical Requirements Must It Meet?

The e-file is employee documentation maintained electronically. To comply with applicable regulations, it must meet a number of legal and technical requirements. What are these requirements?

File structure

Employee personnel files in the file should be divided into 5 parts:

A – applying for employment,

B – contract initiation and work course,

C – termination/expiration of the contract,

D – disciplinary liability,

E – sobriety check.

Additionally, the employer is obliged to keep records of working time and employee requests.

Document numbering

Documents must be numbered chronologically by date of receipt. The numbering should be updated with every change to the file contents, i.e., after adding or removing a document.

Table of contents

The system should monitor changes in the e-file and allow creating an up-to-date table of contents after each operation on documents.

Storage of penalties

The file must allow grouping documents related to individual employee penalties (reprimand, warning, or financial penalty). For example, if there are three documents related to one penalty, number them as follows: D1.001, D1.002, D1.003. The next ones should be numbered: D2.001, etc. Penalties that have been expunged must be removed from the file. The electronic system should enable automatic identification of such documents

Procedures

The following procedures must be mandatorily prepared procedures:

● documentation security,

● system security,

● data access,

● backup creation,

● storage,

● periodic effectiveness assessment,

and a documentation retention plan and a threat audit schedule.

Document deletion

A regular user should not be able to delete a document from the e-file. Permanent deletion should only be performed by an administrator – this is based on our experience.

Document retention

The e-file must allow permanent deletion of documents and metadata after their retention period. Document removal deadline depends on the employee's employment date and statutory retention period. Ideally, the system automatically calculates the permanent deletion date of the files.

Access logging

Access to the e-file should be granted only to authorized persons after logging in. The tool must allow registration of all events (viewing and modifying documents) to enable later auditing.

Qualified signature

Every paper document submitted by the employee must be scanned and certified as compliant by affixing a qualified electronic signature. A signature is also required when exporting documents.

The e-file should support qualified signature software compliant with the European eIDAS standard and the PAdES format (PDF Advanced Electronic Signatures).

Export of files and metadata in XML

Each document in the e-file should be accompanied by an XML file with the same name. These are metadata containing additional information about the document.

Metadata include:

● document identifier
●         documentation identifier
● document type
●         document creation date
● date of digital representation marked with a qualified electronic seal or qualified signature
● PESEL number or type and number of document
● employee's first and last name
● employer's name
● date of creation of the document set containing the document

Issuing original documentation

The employee may collect original files at a date agreed with the employer.

The e-file should support the process of issuing documentation and allow storing a receipt confirmation and any authorization.

Issuing copies of documentation

The employee may request a copy of the documentation The employer has 30 days to fulfill the request. The e-file should allow exporting the entire file and support the transfer process.

PDF format

Scans of paper documents must be stored in PDF format.

Scan resolution

Scanned documents must meet minimum technical requirements for digital reproductions. For black-and-white printed texts in A4 or larger format, the minimum resolution should be 200 dpi.

Technical requirements depend on the type, color, and format of the document. Detailed guidelines are included in the annex to the regulation.

ZUS OSW, ZUS RIA

To shorten the document retention period to 10 years (for selected employees), the following documents must be submitted to ZUS:

• ZUS OSW – Declaration of intent to submit informational reports,
• ZUS RIA – Informational report.

The system should support the process of creating and submitting data to ZUS.

These requirements arise directly from:

• Regulation of the Minister of Family, Labour and Social Policy dated December 10, 2018, on employee documentation
• Acts of January 10, 2018, on the amendment of certain acts in connection with the shortening of the period for storing files and their electronization

Wondering how to choose an e-file from the maze of offers? Read another article on our blog and discover 11 elements of the perfect e-File!