WITH the ever- evolving growth in Labour legislation as with the new Labour Act, the obligations on employers to ensure compliance with Labour legislation become more difficult and burdensome. Statutory compliance with Labour Legislation is non-negotiable, no matter how much such compliance may, as it often does, frustrate employers. This ever-expanding list of employer obligations promotes the need for employers to conduct frequent audits which focus on compliance with Labour Legislation and HR best practices. This is to avoid statutory penalties and fines and also to minimise the potential that non -compliance has to spawn labour conflict. My own experience with employers is that HR audits are conducted on annual or bi-annual basis. Furthermore, such HR audits are invariably best conducted by external professional HR consultants so as to confer greater objectivity and credibility on the process and outcomes. HR audits are typically conducted by way of quantative and qualitative audit processes. Put differently, individual questionnaires are constructed and analysed, company policies, practices and procedures are examined, and interviews are conducted with individual employees at random, with focus groups completing the qualitative phase of the audit. In light of the fact that about 80 % of all Namibian Labour disputes are dismissal-related, it is vital to incorporate all aspects pertaining to workplace discipline and dismissal into an audit, with performance management similarly receiving attention. Ordinarily a comprehensive HR audit can be completed in five days with the results thereof with recommendations being submitted subsequent thereto. HR audits provide employers with an opportunity to identify statutory shortcomings and dysfunctional HR practices before they are uncovered by labour inspectors or external third parties. HR COMMUNICATOR Until next time, Yours in HR Copyright ÃÆ’Æ‘ÀÃ…ÃÆ”šÃ‚© 2005 PricewaterhouseCoopers. All rights reserved. PricewaterhouseCoopers refers to the individual member firms of the worldwide PricewaterhouseCoopers organization.