Based on current NZ legislation, you need to keep complete records of employees for 7 years. After that, we recommend you delete their data from the MyHR platform.
- Why do I need to delete someone after 7 years?
- How will I know if I need to delete someone?
- How to delete inactive people from MyHR
- Who can delete inactive people from MyHR?
- Can I delete someone before they have been inactive for 7 years?
- How do I make someone inactive?
Why do I need to delete someone after 7 years?
Under the Privacy Act, you should only keep personal information for the purpose it was collected, and you must not keep personal information for longer than is necessary.
Following this logic, you collect personal information for the purpose of employment, and employment legislation says that you need to keep employment records for 7 years post employment. After 7 years, employment records need to be deleted to avoid any privacy risk.
Due to the fact that when an employee record is deleted and there is no possibility to recover as it cannot be resurrected, the team at MyHR needs to know you are happy for inactive records to be deleted.
We do our part by reaching out when a record has been inactive for 7 years, but it is your responsibility to decide if the inactive record can be deleted, and to delete it. If you do not delete the inactive record, the privacy risk sits with you.
How will I know if I need to delete someone?
After an employee record has been inactive for 7 years, we will email you.
This email will go to the default owner of the account, to alert them.
If you need any help with deleting someone or have any questions, please email help@myhr.works or contact us via the chat bubble.
How to delete inactive people
Before learning how to delete an employee record that is inactive, please note the following: Once someone is deleted from MyHR, there is no way we can resurrect the information so please be sure you are happy to delete them before you do.- Log in to MyHR and go to 'My People.'
- Select the 'inactive' tab on the left hand side.
- Search or scroll for the person, click on their profile.
- Select Manage, you should then see the following options:
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Click 'Delete Person.' Once clicked, this will direct you to another page (example below) to double-check that this is what you want to do. IMPORTANT DISCLAIMER when you delete the person, that is it. Their record is 100% deleted and we cannot recover it at all, there is no undo, no chance to resurrect the profile.
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Click Delete, and that person is forever removed from your MyHR account.
Who can delete inactive people from MyHR?
Only MyHR account users have Owner permission or a Manager with department permission and permission to manage people.
Can I delete someone before they have been inactive for 7 years?
No, unless you delete your entire account with MyHR, or ask us to delete the person for you. Unless there is a very valid reason for this person to be deleted permanently from your account, you will likely get pushback on this request.
A person's record that has been inactive for 7 years, triggers the delete button to appear on their profile. Again, this is only visible to users of the MyHR account, who have Owner permission or a Manager with department permission and permission to manage people.
How do I make someone inactive?
Read this article on how to make someone inactive, and this article on why it is important to do so.