The agency employee file
Configure the required-document checklist so every employee sees what is missing and HR sees the gaps by department. Verify each document when it is uploaded; a signed NDA with a missing page is no NDA. Client-specific undertakings belong in the file of every person who works on that account, so add them when someone joins an account team, not only at hiring.
- ID and address proof, PAN and bank details
- Signed appointment letter with confidentiality and ownership of work clauses
- Client NDAs and account-specific undertakings
- Portfolio policy note for creative staff
- Education and previous employment documents
- Platform certificates for digital and media roles
- Passport for staff who travel for shoots or festivals abroad
Freelancer contracts are not employee files
Freelancers and consultants sign contracts that cover scope, fees, confidentiality and ownership of the work they deliver, and those belong with your vendor and finance records, not in an employee file. Keeping the two separate means an audit or a dispute cannot mistake a freelancer for staff or the other way round. When a freelancer is converted to an employee, start a fresh employee file with a proper appointment letter.
Expiry dates and travel documents
Platform certificates, passports and visas for international shoots or award festivals all expire. Record the expiry date when each is uploaded and review expiries every month, so a producer is not stuck without a valid passport a week before a shoot in Dubai or Bangkok. Platform certificates also feed new business pitches, so an up-to-date count of certified people is worth keeping.
Access to files and letters
Account directors may need to see their team's NDAs and client undertakings, but not salaries. Use Access Control to give them document access for their department with salary and bank fields masked, and keep full access with HR and finance. Share files outside the agency, for example with a client's legal team, through time-limited download links. Keep experience, salary certificate and relieving letter templates in the HR letter library, because creative people move often and ask for letters years later.
How to set it up in ZeniaHR
- Set the required-document checklist with the appointment letter, NDAs, client undertakings and portfolio note.
- Add client-specific undertakings to each person's file when they join an account team.
- Record expiry dates on passports, visas and platform certificates as they are uploaded.
- Let account directors see their department's documents while salary and bank fields stay masked.
- Keep freelancer contracts in vendor records, and open a fresh employee file when a freelancer converts.
Read more about employee documents in ZeniaHR.
Roles this applies to
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What documents should an advertising agency keep for employees?
Identity and address proof, PAN and bank proof, education and past employment records, a signed appointment letter with confidentiality and ownership of work clauses, client NDAs and undertakings, a portfolio policy note for creatives, and platform certificates and passports where relevant. Check each document on upload and note the expiry date of anything that lapses.
Should agencies keep freelancer contracts in the HR system?
Freelancer contracts are commercial agreements, so they usually sit with vendor and finance records rather than in employee files. Keeping them apart avoids treating a freelancer as staff by mistake. If a freelancer becomes an employee, open a new employee file with an appointment letter and the standard joining documents.
How do agencies protect client confidentiality through HR documents?
By making confidentiality part of the appointment letter, adding client-specific NDAs for account teams, limiting who can see files, and removing access when people move accounts or leave. Confidentiality training at joining, with completion recorded, completes the picture and shows clients the agency takes it seriously.