What an HR health check actually covers

This article is general HR operations information, not legal advice. A health check is not a hunt for every possible policy you could own. It is a look at whether the basics are findable and whether the gaps that would hurt first are obvious. Start with the roster. Names, hire dates, and who someone reports to. If that list is wrong, every other file is harder to trust. Then the hiring paperwork. Applications or resumes you decided to keep, offer letters, and handbook acknowledgements. The question is not whether the wording is elegant. It is whether a new manager could tell what the person was hired to do and what they received on day one. I-9s get their own pass. Are they stored apart from the personnel file? Is Section 1 complete? Is Section 2 dated? Are you keeping forms you no longer need? Corrections are specific. Do not guess at them, and do not send copies of identity documents through a public web form. Personnel files come next. What you keep, who can open them, and whether medical information is mixed in with performance notes. Small employers often have one folder per person and no rule. A one-page checklist beats a new software system. Required postings are the unglamorous finish. Federal and Alabama posters, plus anything your industry adds. If people work remotely, decide how they can see the same notices. The report from a health check should be short. What is missing, what to fix first, and what can wait until the next hire. Most small employers do not need a fifty-page audit. They need a sequence. If you want that sequence for your own files, start with a consultation. Bring questions, not Social Security numbers or identity documents.