I don’t even know what I don’t know — and that’s the scary part!”
Our client’s words sum up the situation for so many managers. This executive director of a nonprofit thought he was doing a decent job managing his human resource function, but he wasn’t sure. We decided to perform an HR review to assess the situation. We had a conversation about his organization’s HR practices and policies. Next, we performed a detailed review of the employee handbook, job descriptions, and hiring process, among other items. By the end, we’d created a roadmap for his organization to follow. To his surprise, the organization was in a better place than he thought.
“But now I’ve got peace of mind, and that’s extremely valuable,” he said.
An HR review — or “audit,” if you like to use a scarier word — is the process of assessing an organization’s HR policies and practices for compliance and effectiveness. It recognizes practices that are strong and identifies those that should be strengthened or implemented. A review will also identify other areas that require more time and resources to assess and improve. Simply put, it’s an HR check-up.
HR reviews can take many forms. Often, and understandably, clients are most focused on compliance issues — they want to stay out of hot water. This is a fundamental component and should be included in the audit. However, we know organizations are more than the laws and rules that govern them. Full HR reviews should consider the organization’s strategic focus and plan. The review should also have clearly defined objectives and goals in mind: What does success look like and how will we know when we get there?
The HR review process can become quite overwhelming, quite quickly. In these instances, a basic self-assessment can be a good tool for gauging the organization’s overall HR strength score. For the organization interested in a basic HR audit, one strategy is to look at the employee lifecycle. By tracing the experiences of an employee throughout their time with your organization, you get a sense of the big areas that need to be covered from the all-important employee perspective.
Do you have a written record of your organization’s rules and regulations? HR Fit offers custom HR solutions to employers of all types and sizes. To get started, contact us or call (309) 635-3745.
