41 CFR § 60-1.12 - Record retention.
(a) General requirements. Any personnel or employment record made or kept by the contractor shall be preserved by the contractor for a period of not less than two years from the date of the making of the record or the personnel action involved, whichever occurs later. However, if the contractor has fewer than 150 employees or does not have a Government contract of at least $150,000, the minimum record retention period shall be one year from the date of the making of the record or the personnel action involved, whichever occurs later. Such records include, but are not necessarily limited to, records pertaining to hiring, assignment, promotion, demotion, transfer, lay off or termination, rates of pay or other terms of compensation, and selection for training or apprenticeship, and other records having to do with requests for reasonable accommodation, the results of any physical examination, job advertisements and postings, applications, resumes, and any and all expressions of interest through the Internet or related electronic data technologies as to which the contractor considered the individual for a particular position, such as on-line resumes or internal resume databases, records identifying job seekers contacted regarding their interest in a particular position (for purposes of recordkeeping with respect to internal resume databases, the contractor must maintain a record of each resume added to the database, a record of the date each resume was added to the database, the position for which each search of the database was made, and corresponding to each search, the substantive search criteria used and the date of the search; for purposes of recordkeeping with respect to external resume databases, the contractor must maintain a record of the position for which each search of the database was made, and corresponding to each search, the substantive search criteria used, the date of the search, and the resumes of job seekers who met the basic qualifications for the particular position who are considered by the contractor), regardless of whether the individual qualifies as an Internet Applicant under 41 CFR 60–1.3, tests and test results, and interview notes. The term “personnel records relevant to the complaint,” for example, would include personnel or employment records relating to the complainant and to all other employees holding positions similar to that held or sought by the complainant and application forms or test papers submitted by unsuccessful applicants and by all other candidates for the same position as that for which the complainant unsuccessfully applied. Where a compliance evaluation has been initiated, all personnel and employment records described above are relevant until OFCCP makes a final disposition of the evaluation.
(b) Affirmative action programs. A contractor establishment required under § 60–1.40 to develop and maintain a written affirmative action program (AAP) must maintain its current AAP and documentation of good faith effort, and must preserve its AAP and documentation of good faith effort for the immediately preceding AAP year, unless it was not then covered by the AAP requirement.
(c) Contractor identification of record.
(1) For any record the contractor maintains pursuant to this section, the contractor must be able to identify:
(i) The gender, race, and ethnicity of each employee; and
(ii) Where possible, the gender, race, and ethnicity of each applicant or Internet Applicant as defined in 41 CFR 60–1.3, whichever is applicable to the particular position.
(2) The contractor must supply this information to the Office of Federal Contract Compliance Programs upon request.
(d) Adverse impact evaluations. When evaluating whether a contractor has maintained information on impact and conducted an adverse impact analysis under part 60–3 with respect to Internet hiring procedures, OFCCP will require only those records relating to the analyses of the impact of employee selection procedures on Internet Applicants, as defined in 41 CFR 60–1.3, and those records relating to the analyses of the impact of employment tests that are used as employee selection procedures, without regard to whether the tests were administered to Internet Applicants, as defined in 41 CFR 60–1.3.
(e) Failure to preserve records. Failure to preserve complete and accurate records as required by paragraphs (a) through (c) of this section constitutes noncompliance with the contractor's obligations under the Executive Order and this part. Where the contractor has destroyed or failed to preserve records as required by this section, there may be a presumption that the information destroyed or not preserved would have been unfavorable to the contractor: Provided, That this presumption shall not apply where the contractor shows that the destruction or failure to preserve records results from the circumstances that are outside of the contractor's control.