Talent is the part you can't simply learn. It's the who, why, and how of a person, according to Buckingham and Coffman. Talents such as the love of challenge, the ability to inspire others, or an optimistic approach to life and work can help to explain why two employees with the same skills and knowledge may perform very differently in the same work situation. The manager's challenge, say Buckingham and Coffman, is not only to figure out what talents are needed for a job and then hire people with those talents, but to balance the work team with staff members whose talents complement each other. Managers, supervisors, and other staff whose responsibilities include maintenance of personnel files received answers to these and other questions on the basics of creating, keeping, and sharing the contents of these files at a December brown-bag information session.
New questions come up at each session.
It's important to remember that a personnel file is not just a folder of documents. Anything that can be reasonably retrieved regarding a person's employment may be considered a part of the employee's record. The e-mail contents in question meet that definition, whether they are printed or not. Questions also arise regarding specific documents and whether or not they should be part of the personnel file. You may want to print a copy and store it in your Guide to Managing Human Resources.