Industrial and compliance review

The problem

• An order, undertaking or agreement sets out obligations, but the evidence of meeting them is spread across rosters, payroll, HR records and correspondence.
• Payroll configuration has drifted from the award or agreement over years of changes, and nobody can say by how much.
• Suspected underpayments or overpayments have no reliable size, so the board is asked to provision for a worst case.
• Small errors, such as rounding, repeat in every pay run and grow unnoticed for years.
• Rostering, time and attendance, payroll and HR systems each hold part of the picture, and they don't agree.
• Findings may be read by employee representatives, a regulator or a tribunal, so overstating them is as risky as understating them.
• Remediation has been paid once, but the configuration errors that caused it are still there.

Three ways in

Industrial evidence assessment

For HR, industrial relations and legal teams who need to show what has and hasn't been done.

1. Set out the obligationsThe relevant instruments, orders and agreements worked through with your HR, industrial relations or legal team, and each obligation turned into something that can be tested.
2. Identify the evidenceFor each obligation, what would show it has been met, and where that evidence lives: rosters, time and attendance, payroll, HR systems or records.
3. Test from sourceThe source data analysed, not summaries, and each obligation tested against it.
4. Report what the data can and can't showFor each obligation, whether the evidence supports it, doesn't, or can't answer the question, and why.
5. Show what to fixWhere the evidence shows a gap, the cause and the practical fix: a process, a system setting or a record-keeping change.

Every conclusion can be traced to the test that produced it and the source data behind it.

Payroll compliance and remediation

• Pay rules, pay codes and calculations reviewed for every employee type, against the award, agreement or legislation that applies.
• Leave reviews, including annual leave, alternative days off, long service leave and public holidays.
• Suspected underpayments and overpayments investigated. Nova often finds overpayments too: the same setup error that underpays one group can overpay another.
• Liability calculated per employee and per period from actual pay, roster and time data, so the number isn't inflated by overly cautious assumptions.
• Independent review of another firm's liability method and calculations, before the numbers are relied on.
• Remediation support: calculations, payments, employee queries and communications for current and former staff, and options for handling overpayments, worked through with your advisers.

Small errors that add up

Some of the costliest problems are too small to notice in a single pay run. Nova tests the full pay data, not a sample, so patterns like these show up:

• Rounding of hours, rates or leave at one step of a calculation. A cent or a minute per shift looks like nothing, but repeated across every shift, every employee and every pay run for years, it scales.
• Allowances and regular extras left out of leave and holiday pay where they should be included.
• Public holidays that fall during leave, paid at the wrong rate or not recognised at all.
• Shifts that cross midnight, a weekend or a public holiday, where the rate should change partway through the shift.
• Rostered, recorded and paid time that don't match because each system rounds or records time differently.

Payroll systems, data and testing

• Systems and integrations: payroll, time and attendance, rostering and HR systems reviewed, along with the links between them.
• Data cleansing across payroll and HR systems, so every employee record matches.
• Testing before go-live: test scripts written and run, with parallel pay runs, before payroll changes go live.
• Training for new pay calculations and processes.
• Checking tools and dashboards for leave, overtime, night shifts and visa conditions, so you can keep checking after the review.
• Ongoing validation of pay runs and investigation of issues, reported monthly.

Supporting legally privileged engagements

Nova can work directly with your legal advisers to deliver specialist investigations, financial analysis and advisory services in circumstances where legal professional privilege may apply.

Don't have an employment lawyer? Nova can put you in touch with employment law specialists it knows, so privilege and the legal questions are covered from the start.

How Nova works

• Honest about limits. A clear statement of what the evidence supports, what it doesn't, and what data is missing.
• Sensitive by design. What goes in writing is agreed up front, along with what is briefed in person and what stays confidential.
• Both directions. Underpayments and overpayments are reported alike, so the fix is right for staff and for the business.
• Fixes that last. Configuration, process and data fixes, plus the tools to keep checking.

Work Nova has done

Nova's team has worked on payroll compliance for many employers with head offices across Australia and New Zealand. One example:

Case studies are anonymised and published with each client's agreement.

Frequently asked questions