Retention

Onboarding files: what to keep, what to shed

Hiring packets expand quietly — passport scans, certificates, chatty interview notes — until nobody remembers why a folder still exists.

Split candidate data from employee data

Rejected applicants and hired employees are not the same retention story. Create two paths in your ATS and shared drives so “we might need it someday” does not become the default for every CV.

Name a purpose for each artifact

If a document has no employment, statutory, or dispute-related purpose, it is a candidate for deletion after the hiring decision. Interview doodles and unnecessary ID copies are frequent leftovers.

Calendar the review

Retention policies fail when they live only in a PDF. Put quarterly reminders on the HR calendar to purge or archive according to your written schedule. Small employers in Germany often succeed with a simple spreadsheet owner rather than a complex tool.

Train managers who keep side folders

Shadow files in managers’ inboxes undo careful HR work. A ten-minute briefing during onboarding for new people leaders prevents parallel archives.

Explore related practice in the course listing, especially the flagship desk program’s retention module.