HR Audit and Strategic Alignment Training Course

Participants can create a risk-based audit universe and control framework for HR activity.

• Audit universe structures HR processes, entities, employee populations, and locations
• Risk and control matrices connect objectives, threats, controls, and evidence
• ISO 31000 likelihood-impact scoring calibrates inherent and residual HR risks
• Control design tests assess preventive, detective, manual, and automated measures
• RACI analysis exposes unclear accountability for workforce decisions and control ownership
• Sampling plans define population, sample method, confidence, and exception treatment

Participants can assess whether HR governance and policy arrangements create accountable, compliant practice.

• Policy hierarchies distinguish principles, policies, procedures, guidance, and local supplements
• Delegations of authority tested for hiring, pay, disciplinary, and termination decisions
• Employment-law obligations converted into auditable control requirements and evidence sources
• Policy exception registers reveal recurring deviations, approvals, and unresolved risk acceptance
• Document retention schedules tested against personnel-file, payroll, and investigation requirements
• Governance committees assessed for mandate, membership, escalation, and decision records

Participants can plan fieldwork and gather sufficient, reliable audit evidence from multiple sources.

• Audit programmes sequence objectives, procedures, evidence sources, and expected control results
• ISO 19011 principles guide independence, confidentiality, professional judgement, and evidence
• Walkthroughs trace a workforce transaction from trigger through approval and recording
• Interview protocols separate factual evidence, management explanation, and unsupported assertion
• Document inspection tests policy evidence, approvals, records, and version control
• Workpapers record procedures performed, exceptions found, conclusions, and reviewer sign-off

Participants can audit workforce planning, recruitment and onboarding controls against strategic workforce needs.

• Workforce plans tested against demand forecasts, budget assumptions, and critical-role requirements
• Headcount requisitions traced through business case, approval, posting, and appointment
• Recruitment controls assess candidate screening, conflict declarations, and selection documentation
• Structured interview records tested for scoring consistency and decision traceability
• Pre-employment checks reviewed for completion, exceptions, expiry, and escalation
• Onboarding workflows examine contracts, access provisioning, probation, and mandatory training

Participants can test talent-management and reward processes for fairness, consistency and strategic contribution.

• Performance-cycle controls test objective setting, calibration, approvals, and completion rates
• Rating distributions analysed for manager bias, grade drift, and unexplained outliers
• Learning governance links capability gaps, mandatory training, completion, and effectiveness evidence
• Compensation controls test job evaluation, salary bands, approvals, and payroll implementation
• Incentive plans examined for eligibility rules, performance evidence, and payment authorisation
• Succession plans assessed for critical roles, readiness criteria, and development actions

Participants can evaluate employee-relations controls, case handling and misconduct governance.

• Case-management workflows test intake, triage, investigation, decision, and closure controls
• Grievance records reviewed for timeliness, confidentiality, documentation, and appeal handling
• Disciplinary decisions tested against policy, evidence standards, consistency, and authorisation
• Speak-up data analysed for themes, retaliation indicators, repeat issues, and escalation
• Investigation files assess terms of reference, independence, evidence, and findings
• Employee relations dashboards connect case trends with workforce, location, and manager risk

Participants can assess HR data quality, access controls and payroll-related change processes.

• Data lineage maps employee information from source entry through reporting outputs
• HRIS access reviews test role design, segregation, recertification, and termination controls
• Master-data changes traced through request, approval, system update, and audit trail
• Payroll interface reconciliations test completeness, accuracy, timing, and exception resolution
• Data-quality rules identify duplicate records, missing fields, invalid dates, and anomalies
• Privacy controls assess lawful access, retention, minimisation, and breach escalation

Participants can turn audit evidence and HR data into prioritised findings with credible root causes.

• Exception analysis compares policy requirements, population data, and tested transaction results
• Trend analysis identifies persistent failures across periods, locations, grades, and managers
• Five Whys separates immediate error from process, governance, and capability causes
• Fishbone diagrams structure root-cause analysis across people, process, systems, and controls
• Finding ratings combine impact, likelihood, control failure, and management attention
• Cause-effect statements distinguish observed condition, standard, consequence, and root cause

Participants can report HR audit results and establish accountable remediation linked to strategic priorities.

• Executive summaries present material findings, strategic implications, ratings, and required decisions
• Audit reports distinguish control weakness, root cause, risk consequence, and recommendation
• SMART action plans assign owners, milestones, evidence, dependencies, and closure criteria
• Management responses tested for feasibility, accountability, residual risk, and target dates
• Follow-up protocols verify remediation evidence and formally close validated actions
• Ninety-day application plans sequence stakeholder engagement, audit scope, and early actions