The HR Audit: Finding What You Don’t Know
I'd like to introduce you to the HR Audit. I believe it's a tool every small business should have in the toolbox, and something worth revisiting year to year as your needs change.
Here's our approach. We look at 14 key focus areas — many of which most owners aren't reviewing on any regular basis — organized into three buckets:
Compliance — the legal exposure you may not know you're carrying
Day-to-day HR — how things actually run
Strategy — the bigger questions, like why your attrition rate is so high
All three matter equally, and we look at all three.
Four Reasons a Company Needs One
1. You need to know what you don't know. This is the big one. HR problems are usually invisible right up until they're expensive. We come in and help with that discovery.
2. You need to compare yourself to your competitors. What are other companies in your space doing on benefits, pay, and policy? You're competing with them for the same people, whether or not you're watching.
3. You need expertise. Our team includes 25-year HR professionals. Most small businesses need that HR-director-level perspective and have no way to access it otherwise.
4. You need peace of mind. Knowing you're in legal compliance is worth a great deal — especially in areas like employee classification, where the rules keep shifting.
What It Actually Takes From You
This is the part people are relieved by: about five hours of your time. We do the rest.
You complete a questionnaire.
We meet for two to three hours, in person or virtually.
We do the analysis.
We deliver a detailed written report on your current state of HR.
We hold a follow-up meeting to walk you through it.
That follow-up is my favorite part, and it's where the real value lives. We don't just hand you a report card. We give you recommendations going forward — what to change, in what order, and just as importantly, what you're doing well and should keep doing.
Most owners expect to hear only what's broken. Learning what's working is often just as useful, because it tells you what to protect.
The Bottom Line
We've been doing these for 10 years, and I'd say the feedback from clients is what should sell it — not me. It's an affordable way to look across all your HR practices and find out where you're exposed and where a few tweaks would make you a better employer.
You can't fix what you don't know about.
Curious what an audit would turn up at your company? Grab a free 30-minute session with one of our HR experts, and let's talk about whether it's the right starting point for you.