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All-in-one HR platform · v2.0
14-day free trial · No credit cardhello@HrMagix.com
All-in-one HR platform · v2.0
14-day free trial · No credit cardhello@HrMagix.com
Most employee documents are collected once and never looked at again. A few are different: they expire, and when they do, the employee may no longer be permitted to do the work, drive the vehicle, operate the equipment or remain in the country.
This guide is about those documents. It covers identifying them, storing them with dates rather than as files in a folder, and running reminders that reach the right person early enough to act.
01
Start with a list by role. Office staff may have few expiring documents. Drivers, field technicians, healthcare staff, security guards and foreign nationals can have several.
02
A scanned file in a folder cannot remind anyone of anything. For each expiring document, record the document type, number, issue date, expiry date and the employee it belongs to, alongside the file.
HRMagix's Documents feature keeps employee and company documents in one place. Whatever system you use, check that the expiry date is a field you can report on, not text inside a filename.
03
A reminder seven days before a visa expires is useless. Set the first reminder according to how long the renewal process realistically takes, and add a second and a final reminder.
Decide who receives each reminder: the employee, their manager and HR. The employee usually has to do the work; the manager needs to know the risk to the roster; HR needs to know to follow up.
Watch for itWork permit and visa rules, including what an employee may do while a renewal is pending, should be checked with an immigration adviser for each case.
04
Reminders get missed. A monthly report of everything expiring in the next quarter, by team, gives HR and managers a second line of defence.
Include documents already expired. They should be a short list, and each one should have a named owner and an action date.
05
Write down what happens if a required document expires before renewal: whether the employee may continue in the role, move to other duties, or must stop the activity the document covers. Decide this before it happens, so managers do not improvise.
Record the lapse, the action taken and the date the renewed document was received.
Every guide ends here rather than in a summary. If a line below is not true yet, that is the next thing to do.
Any document whose lapse affects whether the person can do their job: work permits, visas, driving licences, professional registrations, certifications, medical fitness certificates and fixed-term contracts.
Early enough for the renewal to be completed. That varies by document, so set lead times per type based on how long the renewal usually takes.
Usually the employee does the renewal, while HR tracks and follows up and the manager plans for any gap. Say this in your policy.
Follow a rule set in advance on whether the person can continue in the role or must stop the affected activity, and record what was done.
The checklist above is generic by necessity. Bring your own structures, states and rota and we will tell you which lines are already true and which are not.
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