Personnel Records & Audit - Wage and salary administration, Human Resource Management | Human Resource Management - B Com PDF Download

Personnel Records & Audit
A personnel or human resources audit can keep your company out of bankruptcy. Litigation arising out of human resources missteps and unfair employment practices is costly and time consuming. Employers who find themselves on the witness stand justifying their workplace policies may have avoided the expense of litigation by simply conducting regular human resources audits.

1. Generate an employee census report and use variables such as position, tenure, salary and EEO categories to sort the information. You will need this to conduct an audit of your compensation practices as they relate to internal and external pay equity. Internal pay equity refers to the manner in which you compensate similarly qualified employees. Analyze wages and salaries according to sex, race and other factors protected by Title VII of the Civil Rights Act of 1964, the Equal Pay Act of 1964 and the Lilly Ledbetter Fair Pay Act of 2009.

2. Select a cross-section of employee personnel files to audit for compliance with workplace policies, and federal and state laws concerning record-keeping processes. Research federal and state laws for personnel file retention, and make a note of the length of time required to retain employee files for general employment information, employee medical and insurance information, and payroll and compensation data.
 

3. Review your human resources policies to ensure you have written communication about your company’s performance management system. Typical performance management systems consist of several components, such as job descriptions, specifications, performance standards, disciplinary and corrective action forms, employee feedback notes and annual performance appraisals. Your employee handbook and new hire training materials should contain information about performance management, and should be distributed to employees upon their first day on the job.

4. Conduct an extensive review of personnel files to determine that all employees received copies of their job descriptions and that they receive regular feedback from their supervisors. In addition, if your organization has an annual evaluation process in place, every employee file should contain the most recent performance evaluation as well as previous evaluations and performance improvement documents.

5. Examine your organizational management policies related to human resources. Your leadership should be aware that they are accountable for managing their department functions; however, they must also be held accountable for employment actions. Employment actions for which supervisors and managers are responsible range from disciplinary review to suspensions and terminations. Read leadership training materials, management development curriculum and transcripts from management meetings to determine the frequency with which managers are notified of their obligations and responsibilities.

6. Check employee files to ensure all managers have documentation to support their employment decisions. For example, when an employee is terminated for poor performance, the employee’s file should contain feedback and notes the manager prepared that describe performance deficiencies. A well-defined paper trail of manager-generated documents should justify every employment action a manager takes.