HR Audit

The aim of this service is to check everything you do from an Employment Law perspective and make sure you’re operating in-line with current legislation and protecting the organisation against any risk.  

Businesses usually look for Human Resources support on the back of one of these three scenarios:  

1) You’ve heard about Human Resources and feel that getting HR advice for your business and employees is the right thing to do and the next step for your organisation.  

2) You’ve been bitten by a bad experience either with a troublesome employee, Employment Tribunal claim or a difficult Trade Union rep and want to protect yourself and your business from further instances. 

3) Someone has made a comment about HR / personnel or employment law support and you wanted to find out more.  

Whatever your situation, to find out exactly where your organisation is in terms of HR, and what the priorities are, an audit is the best starting point.  

I work with either yourself, or appropriate individuals that you nominate throughout the audit.

They will be my point of contract to ask questions to about your current practices and I will ask them for existing documents and forms.  

My audit will cover your:  

Contracts of employment – do your existing employees have contracts of employment? Do you use templates or is each contract made up at the time? Are they legally compliant and up to date with recent legal changes? When do you issue contracts to new hires? Do you have copies of contracts for all of your employees? How do you communicate changes e.g. promotions to new roles? 

Human Resources Policies – do you have a set of policies for your organisation? Are they legally compliant and up to date? What practices do you have in the organisation and do they warrant another policy to document the rules.  

Employee handbook – do you have one? Is it up to date and legally compliant? Does it set the right tone for your organisation? What is missing?  

Right to work – When hiring new employees do you check Right to Work? How? Do you keep copies of Right to Work documents? Do you have employees on visas? When were they last audited? Is there any risk? 

GDPR – do you have personal files for your employees? Where are they stored and how? Who has access? How are they kept up to date? What happens to someone’s file when they leave your organisation?  

The output of the audit is a traffic light report, showing you quickly and concisely the priorities:  

Green: What you’re currently doing really well – this means you should continue as you are, and nothing needs to change.  

Amber: What you COULD start to do or do differently. For example, you might always give full pay during sickness absence but you don’t include it in your contracts of employment or have a policy  that confirms the rules for employees or line managers. This practice doesn’t open you to risk (as long as it’s done consistently), but it’s always best for clarity to have the rules documented.  

Red: What MUST be done as a priority because your organisation is currently open to risk of Employment Tribunal Claims, Fines or even Imprisonment of Directors. For example, not checking that new employees have Right to Work documents (passport / visa etc) leaves you open to a £40,000 per employee if the Home Office audit your organisation and you don’t provide any copies of documents seen.  

I will go through my report with you to discuss my findings and how I can work with you to move any Red items into Amber or Green and mitigate that risk to your organisation.