What I Learned from Investing in a Human Resources Audit

What I Learned From Investing In a Human Resources Audit

No doubt about it, I have a growing team. I have had a remote team long before the pandemic and have no plans to change that. I’ve hired for talent, skill and a “can do” attitude. Mike Michalowicz says this in Clockwork– “Don’t hire people you like, hire people you respect.” I’ve taken that to heart and only want people working for me that truly believe in my passion to help my clients understand their finances.

With a growing team, I decided I didn’t know enough about employment laws and policies and needed to invest in a Human Resource (HR) audit. I hired an HR firm and came out with a passing grade. That’s not to say I didn’t have things to improve on, just to say I was doing a good job keeping up with everything I needed to do.

Whether you have 1 part-time employee or a team of full-time employees, we all still need to be in compliance with employment law.

The audit I had covered the following areas:

Recruiting, On-boarding employees, Employee Handbook, Employee documentation, How I stored employee documentation, Harassment training, Labor posters, Trainings – like safety training, Compensation packages, Benefits, Performance Evaluations, Off Boarding employees and Work Comp.

It was very comprehensive, and I learned a few things that will help me stay out of trouble with government agencies. Brene Brown talks a lot about being vulnerable, and I thought I would try it with you.

I thought I would highlight 3 things I learned and have corrected from the audit.

I9 Storage – We all know we need to collect an I9 from the employee when they are hired. It is kept on file and if we get audited, we can pull it out and say that we know all our employees are legal to work in the United States. I was keeping that in their employee files. This is incorrect. I9’s are to be stored separately from the employee file.

Harassment Training – I was aware of the new law that requires us to provide training to our employees. We are good there. What I didn’t know is that my employee handbook should have an acknowledgement page that they have received the training. I thought the certificate they gave me at the end of the course was enough.

Safety Training – This was new to me. I will admit I wasn’t doing any safety training since all my employees work from home. I wasn’t even sure how or what to train on. My HR Consultant gave me a list of things to do and we came up with adding it as part of our team monthly meeting.

So, how are you feeling? Do you need to take a look at your Human Resource practices and see if you are compliant? Don’t let the cost deter you as it is far better to be proactive than to get caught in a lawsuit and have the employee win on something small and simple to fix.