An HR audit is a review of policies, personnel files, job classifications, and day-to-day employment practices against the rules that apply to your workforce. The point is a prioritized list of gaps, not a scare memo. OPES Companies, in North Kansas City, Missouri, does this as a consulting project. You do not have to outsource payroll to get it, and it is not legal advice.
Owners usually call when they are about to grow, add a state, buy or sell, or they have a feeling the files would not survive a request. Do the review before the request. Afterward, the facts are already fixed.
What actually gets opened
OPES HR consulting scopes an HR audit up front. You should know which drawers, systems, and people will be looked at, and what you will hold at the end. A “compliance checkup” with no file list and no deliverable is a conversation, not an audit.
A typical review covers four piles.
Policies. The handbook, offer-letter templates, and any one-page rules managers have invented since the handbook was last touched. The question is not whether a PDF exists. It is whether the PDF matches the floor.
Personnel files. Applications or new-hire packets, acknowledgments, status changes, and the documents you would need for an unemployment claim or an agency request. I-9s are their own file and should be stored so you can pull them without dumping the whole personnel folder.
Classifications. Who is treated as exempt from overtime, who is nonexempt, and whether the job they do now still matches the title on the offer letter. Contractors who work like employees belong in this pile too. This is a practical comparison of duties and pay treatment, not a legal opinion. Counsel still owns the legal call if a classification is close.
Practices. How time is kept, how PTO is approved, how similar situations were documented for different people, and who actually receives a complaint. Practices are where the audit stops being a paper exercise.
Kansas City companies often have people on both sides of the Missouri-Kansas line. The audit has to say which employees sit under which state’s rules, not treat the metro as one jurisdiction. Headquarters in North Kansas City, Missouri, does not make every worker a Missouri employee.
Where the gaps usually hide
The same problems show up often enough to name them. They are patterns, not a finding about your company until someone looks.
Exempt titles that no longer match the work. Someone was salaried and called a manager when the company was smaller. They now spend the week doing the same tasks as the people they “manage,” with no real authority over hiring, discipline, or schedules. The title stayed. The job did not. An HR audit catches that by reading the description next to a week of actual work, not by trusting the org chart.
I-9s with missing pages or late completion. The form is in the folder, but section 2 was finished weeks after the start date, the document title is blank, or a rehire is still on the old form. These sit quietly until someone asks for the file. They are administrative, which is why they are so common in companies where the office manager also runs payroll.
A handbook that contradicts practice. The book grants PTO the company never pays, describes a discipline ladder nobody uses, or tells people to report harassment only to a supervisor who is the problem. That gap is worse than a missing policy. How a usable book gets written is in employee handbook development for Kansas and Missouri. An audit tells you the book and the floor disagree. It does not, by itself, rewrite the book unless that rewrite is in the scope.
Inconsistent records for people in similar roles. Two employees with the same job, two different stories in the file: one has signed acknowledgments and written warnings, the other has nothing. When you later treat them differently, the empty file is the exhibit. Inconsistency hides in the cabinet, not in the policy.
Timekeeping that the handbook does not describe. People clock on a phone, edit punches, or track jobs across two rates, and the written rule still says a paper timesheet. Wage questions start there. The audit should sample records, not only read the policy.
New-hire packets that were never finished. A missing handbook acknowledgment, a benefits enrollment that was “going to get done,” a rate change that lives in a text message. The person has been employed for a year. The file still looks like day one.
Multi-state silence. You added a Kansas employee or a remote worker and never said which handbook, which tax setup, or which leave practice applies. The gap is the absence of a decision, which is easy to miss if the reviewer only samples the Missouri office.
None of these require a co-employment contract to find. They require someone who did not build the current system to open it.
What you should get back
The deliverable is a list you can act on, in order. Not every gap has the same urgency. A missing I-9 page and a handbook sentence you might tighten next quarter are not the same item.
Ask for:
- What was reviewed, and what was sampled rather than read in full
- What is wrong, in plain language
- What to fix first
- What is an HR work item versus a question for your attorney
- What “done” looks like for each item, so the next audit is not a repeat of this one
OPES does not provide legal advice. If a finding has legal exposure, the audit should say “take this to counsel,” not pretend to answer it. The practical fixes (complete the form, align the job and the classification, rewrite the policy you do not follow, make the files consistent) are HR work.
Many clients stop there. The audit was the project. Payroll stays in-house. That option is the point of HR consulting services versus outsourcing.
After the list
Fixing the list is a second decision.
A handbook that failed the audit needs a rewrite, which can be the same consulting relationship or a follow-on project. Files that failed need a cleanup with a deadline, not a promise to “get to it.” Classifications that failed need a duty review and, where the legal line is unclear, an attorney. Do not change someone’s exemption status based on a blog post or on pride in a job title.
If the audit shows the gaps come back every time someone is busy, the problem is capacity. Then look at administrative services outsourcing: payroll and files handled on an ongoing basis, plus compliance support, and you still keep your EIN. Buy that because the calendar is broken. Do not buy it because one audit made you nervous.
If the only reason you called was a specific complaint about a person, you may need an investigation, not a general file review. Those are different projects. The broader menu is in HR consulting for audits, handbooks, and investigations.
An internal generalist can help gather the files. They are a weak choice to audit practices they installed. That is not an insult. It is why outside eyes are the product.
Questions to ask before you start
- Which files, policies, and roles are in scope, and what is a sample?
- Will you look at both Missouri and Kansas employees if we have both?
- What do we receive, and how will items be ordered?
- Which findings will you fix in this project, and which are recommendations only?
- Where do you stop and our attorney starts?
- Do we have to outsource HR to do this? (No.)
If the proposal cannot answer those, you do not have an HR audit yet. You have a sales meeting.
Frequently asked questions
What is an HR audit?
A scoped review of policies, personnel files, classifications, and employment practices, with a written list of gaps and a recommended order of work. It is a consulting project. It does not move your EIN or your payroll unless you later buy a different service.
What do reviewers usually find?
Exempt jobs that no longer match the work, I-9s with holes, a handbook that contradicts practice, and inconsistent files for people in similar roles. Multi-state employers also find silence about which state’s rules apply.
Is this legal advice?
No. The audit identifies practical gaps and flags items that need counsel. Attorneys assess legal risk. OPES does the HR review.
How is this different from an investigation?
An audit looks across the system. An investigation answers a specific complaint. You can need one, the other, or both. They should not be stuffed into the same vague “HR support” line.
Do we have to outsource payroll to get an audit?
No. Many employers do the audit and keep HR in-house. Outsourcing is a later choice if the same gaps return because nobody has time to keep the files current.
Look before someone else does
An HR audit is cheaper to run on your calendar than on an agency’s. The value is the list: what is wrong, what is first, and what is a lawyer’s question. Everything else is implementation.
OPES Companies is at 214 E 18th Avenue in North Kansas City. If you want a scope that names the files and the states, not a generic checkup, schedule a consultation. Call 816-994-9190.