Should external HR system forms be in your documents?

We are a small engineering consultancy firm and have an external HR department. Some HR type activities are undertaken internally (e.g. timesheets and holiday requests). Most are documented and submitted through the HR Consultancy website. For items such as these, (Appraisals, Paternity leave etc), should those empty forms be downloaded and put into our system, or should a matrix of all forms be listed with directions to log in to your profile to submit in order to maintain version control. Obviously those managed internally have a copy on our system - just not sure about the ones that go through the agency. Many thanks!

 

According to ISO 10013:2021 (Guidance for documented information) section 4.2.4.10: "Forms and checklists can be considered documented information to be maintained, while completed forms and checklists can be considered documented information to be retained". How you will control the external HR forms will depend on how you use them. If you need to keep copies of the forms to know the latest version to use, then control them in the same manner that you control the internally created documented information that your organization need to maintain. If you keep the filled out forms, then control them as you control your organization's internally generated records.

Whatever approach you chose, you still need to demonstrate conformity with ISO 9001 clause 7.5.3.2 which specifies: "Documented information of external origin determined by the organization to be necessary for the planning and operation of the quality management system shall be identified as appropriate, and be controlled".

 

Great - many thanks Andy and Tony. Thank you for your speedy replies and apologies for my slow reply - Im only in once a week!

This really helps and I think we have got a solution and will have some on our system that are relevant to our QMS and processes but others on the system that are not. Thanks so much!