HR Audit
A structured review of your people practices, documentation and compliance position, with findings ranked by risk and a practical plan.
Find the exposure before someone else does
Most compliance problems aren't discovered by the business that has them. They're discovered by an employee who leaves and takes advice, a union official reviewing rosters, a client running supplier due diligence, or a regulator responding to a complaint.
By then the problem has usually been running for years, and it's compounded across every affected person for the whole period.
The alternative is unglamorous and considerably cheaper: look properly, once, and fix what you find.
You might be dealing with
- A suspicion that contracts, policies or records aren't right
- Employment contracts that haven't been reviewed in years, or don't exist
- Uncertainty about which award or agreement applies to whom
- Classification and pay rates you're not confident about
- Record-keeping and payslip obligations you've never checked
- A client, tender or insurer asking for your HR compliance position
- Growth from a handful of people to a real workforce, with the paperwork left behind
- A near miss: a claim, a complaint or an inquiry that made the gaps visible
- A new HR person who has arrived and found a mess
What we do
- HR Audit A structured review of your people practices, documentation and compliance position, with findings ranked by risk and a practical plan. HR Audit
- HR Compliance Award and agreement coverage, classification, entitlements, record-keeping and the obligations that carry real penalties. HR Compliance
- HR Policies & Procedures A policy framework that's current, coherent, owned and, crucially, usable by a supervisor. HR Policies & Procedures
- Employment Contracts Contracts that reflect the actual arrangement, the applicable instrument, and the protections the business needs. Employment Contracts
Why foundations matter more than they sound
- Penalties are per contravention. A single error applied across a workforce for several years is not one problem.
- Directors and managers can be personally exposed. Involvement in certain contraventions carries personal liability, which tends to focus attention.
- Clients increasingly ask. Supplier and tender processes routinely require evidence of compliance, and "we've never had a problem" isn't evidence.
- Good documentation wins disputes. A well-drafted contract and a properly maintained record are worth more in a dispute than any argument made afterwards.
- It's the cheapest work we do. Almost every serious matter we're called into would have been smaller, or wouldn't exist, if the foundations had been right.
Our experience
Building HR foundations from the ground up in businesses that had none (contracts, policies, frameworks, systems and governance) and rebuilding them where they'd accumulated without design.
That work spans resources, construction, energy, manufacturing and aviation, and translates directly to any employer with a workforce: the obligations are largely the same, and so are the gaps.
Common questions
Where should we start?
An HR audit. It's the cheapest way to find out what you're actually dealing with, and it means whatever you spend afterwards is spent on the right things.
We're small. Does this apply to us?
Yes. Obligations around minimum entitlements, record-keeping and pay slips apply regardless of size, and small businesses are less likely to have someone checking.
We use a payroll provider. Aren't we covered?
Not necessarily. Payroll providers process what they're configured to process. If the classification or instrument is wrong, the system reproduces the error accurately and forever.
We think we've found an underpayment.
Establish scope and quantum before deciding anything else, and get advice early. Self-identified and voluntarily corrected sits very differently from discovered by someone else.
Ready to talk?
Tell us what you need and we'll take it from there.
Related services
All services →HR Compliance
Award and agreement coverage, classification, entitlements, record-keeping and the obligations that carry real penalties.