“There has been a 77% rise in lawsuits tied to wage-and-hour disputes since 2004.” – Replicon.com
Wage and hour lawsuits continue to be the hot ticket for employment related litigation. It is critical for employers to provide specific and concise guidelines for overtime, clocking in and out, and meal and rest periods to name a few! Without these policies in place, employers open themselves up to liability and potential for astronomical amounts of money and time lost due to costly legislation. Conducting a self-audit and analyzing the “nickels and dimes” of it within your organization can really help to beef up your policies and defense against claims of unfair wage and hour practices. Here’s how to prepare for a self-audit in your organization. And if this all seems too daunting, time-consuming, or otherwise out of your wheelhouse, give us a call and we’d be happy to discuss our human resources audit services with our qualified team of HR professionals who know exactly what to look for and what to avoid.
Key Steps for Self-Audit:
- Decide if you need an attorney or 3rd party expert
- Define the scope of your audit – what does this audit include? Wage and hour only or a full-scale HR audit?
- Identify the laws and regulations that apply to your specific workplace
- Get your toolkit ready – how will you go about conducting this audit? What tools will you use (and do you have them, need them, and know where to find them)?
- Get your team together – who’s on board for this project and who will conduct business as usual (because trust us, this will take up a LOT of the time of those involved!!)
- Execute the audit – easier said than done, but this step is critical to actually getting the work done!!! The other steps are useless without follow-through here.
- Summarize the results of your audit
Implement the changes needed as a result of your audit and results summary