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Manage conversation retention and legal holds

A retention schedule helps HR review employee conversation records when they may no longer be needed. It does not delete or anonymise anything automatically.

You need separate permission to manage conversation retention. This permission does not give access to preparation, private notes or conversation summaries.

Create a retention schedule​

  1. Open People, then Employee conversations.
  2. Select Retention, then Create retention schedule.
  3. Explain why the records are needed.
  4. Choose whether the schedule covers the whole organisation, one employing country or one department.
  5. Set a review period for each information group.
  6. Record why the schedule is appropriate and add the approval or decision reference.
  7. Save the draft, then select Review and publish.

The review period begins when a conversation is completed. Publishing makes the schedule active; it does not remove records.

What is reviewed separately​

  • Private preparation and notes are reflections that belong to an individual participant.
  • Shared preparation and agreed summary are the information shared for the meeting and its agreed outcome.
  • Conversation history includes participants, dates, status and lifecycle changes.

Each group can have a different review period because it serves a different purpose.

Use a legal hold only when a documented obligation means a specific conversation must be protected, such as a legal claim, regulatory requirement, employee rights request or internal investigation.

  1. Open the conversation.
  2. Under Legal hold, select Place legal hold.
  3. Choose the reason and enter the approved case or decision reference.
  4. Select Confirm legal hold.

The reference is kept with the protected record. It is not shown in ordinary conversation views or copied into the security history.

Release the hold only when the documented obligation no longer applies. Releasing a hold does not delete the conversation. It makes the record eligible for its normal review schedule again.

Accountability​

Publishing a schedule, placing a hold and releasing a hold are recorded in the Activity log. The history contains identifiers and the approved reason category, never conversation text, employee names or case details.