The constantly changing nature of HR management demands that HR professionals participate and contribute fully to their organizations as true strategic business partners. An audit helps an organization understand whether its HR practices help, hinder, or have little impact on its business goals.
The audit also helps quantify the results of the department's initiatives and provides a road map for necessary changes. Audits can also help the organization achieve and maintain world-class HR practices.
A systematic formal process like any other audit, the HR audit is designed to objectively review and evaluate the strategies, policies, processes and procedures, structure, systems, and documents of the organization’s human resource management in view of enhancing organizational performance.
It does so by:
• Ensuring that legal compliance and governance requirements are being met
• Confirming that business and talent management objectives are achieved
• Identifying, assessing, and managing human resources management risks
• Warranting the organization’s human resources add value
The HR audit is based on the principle that HR processes are dynamic and have to be re-addressed and refreshed constantly if they are to keep on being quick to respond to needs that are changing all the time.
HR audit, thus, contributes towards the best possible use of internal resources and maximizing the effectiveness of human capital in the organization. At the same time, it is useful in streamlining the HR processes and practices with the industry's best practices and standards.
