06:33:00 Personnel Records

Purpose

The purpose of this policy is to establish the criteria and process regarding personnel records.

Policy

I. General

The following policy on personnel records shall apply to all employees of Walters State Community College.

II. Access Authority

Under the provision of TCA 10-7-503, personnel records are considered public records, and may be inspected, extracted or copied by any citizen of Tennessee during normal business hours in accordance with reasonable rules of access and release. However, T.C.A §10-7-504(f)(1) treats as confidential the following information: home telephone and personal cell phone numbers; bank account information; social security number; driver license information except where driving or operating a vehicle is part of the employee’s job description or job duties or incidental to the performance of his/her job; residential information, including the street address, city, state, and zip code for any state employee; and the same information of immediate family members or household members. This information must be redacted wherever possible, but access to otherwise public information shall not be limited or denied because a record contains confidential information. Further, this information is available to law enforcement agencies, courts, or other governmental agencies performing official functions.

T.C.A. 10-7-504(a)(25) treats as confidential the following information:
 

1. Job performance evaluations, including but not limited to job performance evaluations completed by supervisors, communications, concerning job performance evaluation scores, drafts, notes, memoranda, and all other records relating to job performance evaluations.
    
2. This does not include evaluations completed by students or other such informal surveys.
    

As defined in T.C.A. § 10-7-301(b), public record(s) or state record(s) is defined as all documents, papers, letters, maps, books, photographs, microfilms, electronic data processing files and output, films, sound recordings, or other material regardless of physical form or characteristics made or received pursuant to law or ordinance or in connection with the transaction of official business by any governmental agency.

III. Official Custodian

The assistant vice president for Human Resources is designated as the official custodian of permanent personnel records at this institution. Personnel records for adjunct faculty members are maintained in the Office of Distance Education; personnel records for non-credit adjunct instructors are maintained in the Office of the Division of Workforce Training, and personnel records for student workers are maintained in the hiring department. Members of the Human Resources staff are granted access to personnel records as required in the day-to-day operation of the human resources function.
Nothing in this policy shall require the maintenance of any record for any period of time in excess of any retention period established by the Institution, the Board of Regents, or State or Federal Law.

IV. Procedures

A permanent personnel record is established and maintained on each member of the faculty and staff of this institution. The records are stored in locked, fire-resistant file cabinets in the Human Resources Department. Individual employees are invited to review the materials contained in their respective records upon request of the official custodian. Procedures governing the release of information from personnel records are contained in WSCC Policy No. 06:45:00 Release of Records Information. An employee may request copies of items in his/her personnel file. Ten copies or less will be made free of charge. For copies in excess of ten, a charge of $.25 per copy will be made.

10/95; 8/04; 3/06; 2/13; 05/16