Just like many HR professionals, you probably never want to hear the words “HR Audit” much less conduct an audit. However, HR audits are essential to ensure we are managing our HR department consistently and legally as well as to assess the effectiveness of the department. The main reason for completing an HR audit of your department is to make sure you are compliant with all federal and state employment laws. It is very easy to alter a process that may not be the correct way (or legal way) to do it, therefore, a good best practice is to audit your department.
What you choose to cover in your audit really depends on your HR department. Some typical areas included in the audit process include your recruiting and selection process, I-9’s, background checking process, new employee orientation, training initiatives and personnel files. You are able to tailor your audit to fit the needs of your department but it is suggested that you focus on the compliance pieces of it first to ensure you are legal especially when it comes to your I-9’s and personnel files. Looking at your I-9’s is important to make sure you have the forms completed appropriately with correct identification. Personnel files are another important part of the process to ensure your filing system has files included in the appropriate places (i.e. personnel, medical, confidential, etc.).
An additional core piece of an HR audit is to look at your employee communication efforts. It is important for management to understand how communication impacts and affects employees and making it a part of the audit process could be a great way to discover positive and negative impacts of your employee communication efforts.
Once an audit is complete, an important step is to determine action plans and timelines for making appropriate changes within the department. Getting upper level management support is important to make sure you can make necessary changes to get your department operating efficiently. Conducting HR audits can be done internally or with an external consultant. Having an external consultant conduct your audit is a great way to receive an unbiased audit. They are able to report to you what you are doing well and where you have improvement areas. If you choose to conduct your own audit, make sure you have a clear plan in place for conducting the audit and decide on your time frame for completion.
As always, Catapult is a valuable resource with HR audits. Contact our Advice Team at 919-878-9222.
Written by a Catapult Advisor
