The single staff register: digitize your personnel records with an employee management system

The single staff register is a document for identifying all the employees of a company or charity. This personnel record is increasingly maintained in digital form so that it can be more easily kept up to date. What is the best way to manage a single staff register? How can it be digitized? We will explain.

What is a single staff register?

The single staff register (called “Registre Unique du Personnel” or RUP in French) is a document, or computer file, containing the current employee list of an organization (company or charity). Mandatory data must be included in order to enable an employee and their job to be accurately identified within the organization.

Who is responsible for the single staff register?

Employer, employee or intern… who is responsible for managing the single staff register? Let’s take a closer look.

A legal obligation for the employer

All employers in France are obliged to maintain a single staff register. There are only two exceptions: private individuals and charities using employment checks.

All other employers must keep up-to-date personnel records for their organization from the moment they hire their first employee.

A single staff register per place of business

The requirement to maintain a single staff register applies to each place of business of a company. Where there are several locations, the employer must hold a separate personnel register for each one.

Which employees must be listed in the personnel records?

The personnel records must include all the company’s employees regardless of their status. Every member of the workforce must appear in the register from their first day of employment.

Staff who must be listed in the personnel records:

• Employees on fixed-term contracts or open-ended contracts
• Employees with foreign nationality
• Interns
• Workers on apprenticeship or vocational training contracts
• Civic service volunteers
• Interim workers
• Staff working from home

How should a single staff register be completed?

The personnel records must contain the same mandatory information for all employees. Additional information is sometimes required, depending on the worker’s status.

What mandatory data is required?

For every employee, the employer must include identification data and information about their job.

Worker identification data

The first names and surnames of all employees must be indelibly stated in the register in chronological order according to their start date.

In addition to the names, the employer must include the nationality, date of birth and gender of the staff member.

The required details are:

• Surname
• First name
• Nationality
• Date of birth
• Gender

Information regarding the employee’s job role

In addition to data for identifying the worker, the employer must also include information about the employee’s job role.

The following information must be included:

• The type of position held by the employee
• The professional title
• Start date at the organization and, if applicable, the end date
• If relevant: work permit or dismissal authorization or if this is not yet available, the date of the authorization request

What additional information may be required?

In addition to the mandatory information, other details relating to an employee’s specific circumstances may be required.

Current specific circumstances

The following information may be required depending on a worker’s status:

• “part-time employee”
• “temporary worker”
• “fixed-term contract”
• “employed by a consortium”
• “apprentice”
• “vocational training contract”

This information is required for any worker to whom one of these terms applies.

The rules relating to interns

Another specific case is the management of interns. They must also be listed in the single staff register like other employees. However, they do not appear in the same place on the list but in a separate section where they must be listed in chronological order by their arrival date.

In this separate section of the records, the following data must be recorded:

• Names and surnames of interns
• Placement start date
• Placement end date
• Names and surnames of placement supervisor
• Location of placement

Single staff register: what is the applicable employment law?

Besides the information that must be stated in the personnel records, what legislation applies to the single staff register in France? How long must the data be retained and what are the risks in the event of an inspection? Let’s review the main legal requirements.

1.  Is it mandatory to have a single staff register?

As mentioned above, French labor law requires all companies to maintain an up-to-date single staff register (with the only exceptions being private individuals and charities who use employment checks).

2. A list that is up to date, complete and indelible

One of the main requirements relates to keeping the list up to date. All changes (new employee, change of job, new contract, employee leaving…) must be recorded at the point they occur.

The legislation also requires the list to be of an indelible nature: names must be recorded in perpetuity.

3. Data retention time period

Employee data must be retained for a minimum of five years after the staff member has left the organization. In order to comply with GDPR rules, personal data must not be kept any longer than necessary.

4. What form should a single staff register take?

Employment law does not specify a required format for the single staff register. However, the register must meet the requirement to be of an indelible nature with regard to employees’ names, as well as to be secure against unauthorized access of the data.

Authorized formats

Both paper and digital formats are permitted. Choosing one or the other will depend mainly on the size of the company. Single staff registers are increasingly taking a digital form, in order to enable simplified management or remote access.

5. Who is permitted to access the single staff register?

Every employee has the right to view their own data recorded in the personnel records. For obvious GDPR reasons, employees are not permitted to view information relating to their colleagues.

In addition to the staff members themselves, the employee records can also be accessed by the social and economic committee (staff representative body within a company), as well as by the relevant authorities responsible for ensuring compliance with labor and social security legislation.

6. Employee records, social and economic committee and labor inspectorate

All employers must be able to provide an up-to-date single staff register at any given time.

On request, the register must be provided immediately to members of the social and economic committee, civil servants and officers responsible for ensuring compliance with labor law and social security legislation, in accordance with article L1221-15 of the labor code.

What are the penalties for non-compliance?

If the single staff register is lacking, unavailable, incomplete or inaccurate, the employer is liable for significant financial penalties. For each employee affected by the non-compliance, the employer is liable for a fine of €750. This amount relates to individuals. For companies, the fine can be up to €3,750.

The fine is therefore multiplied by the number of employees affected by the non-compliance, which means the total amount can rise quickly.

How to create a computerized employee management system?

When personnel records are kept in a paper format, old files and folders can quickly mount up. The paper format is increasingly being left behind as companies go digital. How can a single staff register be digitized? We’ll explain.

Employee software: the prerequisites for digitizing your personnel records

The first question to ask is: can I digitize my employee records? As long as you comply with certain conditions, it is permissible to do so.

The first condition is that the digital staff register must meet the same requirements as the paper version: it must be indelible and tamper-proof. It must also allow employees to be recorded in chronological order by their start date. In general terms, it must provide a guarantee of accuracy and control identical to the paper version.

The second condition is prior consultation of staff representatives (the social and economic committee or other representatives), before embarking on the digitization project. The employer will then need to provide a copy of the opinion to the labor inspectorate.

Once these two conditions have been fulfilled, attention can turn to choosing a digital solution that meets the requirements relating to securing the stored data.

What impact can a digital employee management system have?

Using a digital employee management system brings numerous benefits. The main ones are:

• Ease of management and daily updating
• Accessibility of the information
• Guarantee of a complete and compliant single staff register available at all times

Besides the time saved in managing staff and their documents, a digital employee management system will guarantee company compliance with labor law.

Ensuring legal compliance is a capability particularly sought after by companies in the construction sector, for example, who have a large number of workers spread over several locations and are subject to very strict legislation.

1. Easier management of the workforce and administrative documents

With software designed to simplify the management of personnel records, you are able to easily update your staff list as and when new employees start. Save time when managing your employees’ administrative records:

• Automate the recognition and reading of legal or administrative documents
• Be alerted to any anomaly or missing data
• Quickly update the staff list for all types of workers (employee, interim…) and add documents with just a simple click

If you have teams working across various sites, you will know how complicated mobile employee management can be. With a digital staff register and a document management software solution designed for mobile personnel, forget about these complexities and enable your administrative managers and field teams to save precious time.

2. Better access to information through an employee management app

Where is the single staff register? How can I access it immediately? These questions are no longer relevant with a digital employee management system.

Access the staff list and administrative records wherever you are.

This accessibility is particularly important for companies who have staff out in the field (on sites or at maintenance locations…). Does this apply to you? Discover a mobile employee management app for tracking attendance and monitoring administrative compliance wherever you are.

The information is transferred automatically through the employee management app into our document management platform, which enables real-time administrative monitoring and a single staff register that is always up to date.

3. Guaranteed compliance

If you have a variety of employee profiles, or if your staff are spread across several sites, you will know: it is not always straightforward to maintain up-to-date staff lists and administrative records.

A digital single staff register helps you to guarantee and maintain your administrative compliance at all times, in order to avoid exposing yourself to the risk of incurring financial penalties.

When it comes to a mobile workforce who work on sites, an employee management system software solution provides tools that are customized for use in the field in order to maintain the same level of control and updating for the single staff register as for office-based staff.

Traxxeo, your solution for a single staff register of mobile employees

A software company specialized in the management of a mobile workforce, Traxxeo’s employee management app provides a digital solution for managing the single staff register that is designed for mobile employees.

Companies in the construction, civil engineering, infrastructure and energy sectors… find out why they have put their trust in Traxxeo for the digitalization of their employee management.

Discover our digital single staff register solution through a short video call with our teams!