How to Conduct an Effective Labor Compliance Audit in Your Company

Labor compliance is no longer an abstract concept—it has become a real necessity, especially for SMEs that are growing and consolidating their teams. Beyond meeting regulations, an effective labor audit helps prevent penalties, optimize costs, and most importantly, provide legal certainty and peace of mind to company management.

In this article, we outline step by step how to structure a labor compliance audit, the common risks that SMEs face, and how Adlanter supports businesses with specialized labor management services.

 

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What is labor compliance and why is it essential?

Labor compliance ensures that a company meets all its legal obligations regarding labor relations, occupational risk prevention, equality, compensation, and workers’ rights.

It’s not just about “passing an inspection without fines.” A labor compliance audit helps to:

• Detect non-compliance before it becomes a sanction.

• Anticipate labor conflicts and act with legal certainty.

• Improve internal processes, from hiring to termination.

• Build trust among employees, clients, and partners.

Steps to an effective labor compliance audit

Planning and scope

Define what you want to achieve with the audit: prepare for an inspection, review contracts, verify working time records, or analyze labor costs. From there, determine the scope and collect key documents (contracts, payslips, collective agreements, internal policies).

Analysis of key areas

In this phase, essential aspects are reviewed such as:

• Hiring and contracts: ensuring all modalities are correct and free from fraud.

• Working hours and time recording: mandatory for all employees, accessible, and reliable.

• Compensation and social security contributions: verifying payments, salary structures, and social security contributions.

• Occupational Risk Prevention (ORP): prevention plans, risk assessments (including psychosocial), training, and health monitoring.

• Equality and non-discrimination: checking the existence of equality plans when mandatory and the absence of pay gaps.

• Internal policies: digital disconnection, use of technological resources, and anti-harassment protocols.

• Relations with employee representatives (RLT): ensuring obligations of information and consultation are respected.

Risk identification and action plan

Detected breaches are classified by severity (minor, serious, very serious) and the likelihood of resulting in sanctions or contingencies. Specific corrective measures are proposed for each deviation, assigning responsibilities and implementation deadlines. For example, if there is no time-recording system, the corrective action will be to implement one following consultation with employee representatives.

Final report and follow-up

The audit should conclude with a clear report that includes:

• The scope and methodology of the audit.

• Findings and detected non-conformities.

• A risk map.

• An action plan with proposed corrective measures.

It is essential to carry out periodic follow-ups to verify that corrective measures have been properly implemented and are effective.

What are the common risks in SMEs?

These are the most frequent issues found when auditing SMEs with up to 100 employees:

• Lack of time recording or ineffective systems.

• Temporary contracts without cause or poorly drafted.

• Mismatches between the collective agreement and actual practices.

• Absence of psychosocial risk assessments.

• Poorly optimized salary structures that increase costs.

• Lack of internal protocols (digital disconnection, equality).

Detecting them in time helps avoid fines that can reach up to €7,500 for a serious infraction.

✅ How can Adlanter help?

At Adlanter, we have designed a comprehensive labor management service for SMEs, with a specialized focus on:

• Labor relations management: from hiring to termination.

• Prevention of legal risks: preventive audits that reduce exposure to penalties.

• Optimization of labor costs: reviewing salary structures, bonuses, and subsidies.

• Support in labor conflicts: mediation, negotiation, and representation before authorities.

If your company is growing and you want to safeguard the legal security of your HR area, a compliance audit is the first step. Discover how we can support you with our labor compliance services for businesses.