Knowing in advance what auditors look for during a HR audit can help businesses proactively plan to avoid some of the most common mistakes made.
A HR consultant may look at processes relating to:
If documents or contracts are incomplete or missing during a HR audit, the business could face expensive consequences. Documents such as the Right to Work in the UK, disciplinary warnings or contracts of employment should be securely stored and complete.
Whether businesses intend to or not, employers may well be drawn towards a certain gender, age or ethnicity. Conduct a blind CV exercise, where all personal information is removed from the CV. This will prove to an auditor there has been no bias when initially selecting who to interview.
Keeping any CVs or interview notes for at least six months will also be beneficial should an interviewee want to see what was written about them.
A HR audit may look for how quickly a contract has been issued. Organisations should be issuing a written contract of employment within eight weeks of a start date, ideally sooner. Consequences of this not being done could mean any potential dispute further down the line, the employer cannot show the terms on which the employee was employed.
Letting long term performance issues carry on, alongside no documented evidence of issues being managed can impact a company’s performance. High-performing staff seeing under-performing staff ‘getting away with it’ and lead to big problems within your team.
Regular performance reviews with well documented processes, will ensure you’re ready for a HR audit.
Sticking to what you know is understandable, there is so much law and legislation in HR that introducing a change can sometimes offer no real benefit. But sometimes change is needed. With HR automation technology, the investment is often recouped as it stabilises and de-risks your processes. All documents and processes will easily be available for a consultant to see during a HR audit, alongside any revisions to documents, as well as who’s had access and when.
Read our Ultimate guide to Employee Management Software to understand how it can help your organisation.