HR Foundation Review
Our HR Foundation Review is a practical assessment of your HR function. We score where you are today across the areas that matter most and give you a prioritized plan for what to do next.
Instead of guessing, or waiting for a problem to arise, you get an outside perspective on how your HR function is operating and a clear, ranked plan for improving it.
What the HR Foundation Review Is
The HR Foundation Review assesses your organization’s HR practices, from compliance and pay to hiring, engagement, and manager support. We evaluate how you operate today, score each area on a 0 to 100 scale, and turn the results into an actionable report.
We interpret what your score means for your organization and map exactly what to do next. You come away with three things:
1
A clear score and rating. One number for your overall HR function, plus a rating from Foundational to Advanced, so you know where you stand.
2
Your strengths and biggest risks, ranked. What’s working, where you’re exposed, and what deserves leadership attention first.
3
A prioritized action plan. Specific next steps sequenced over your first 30, 60, 90, and 180 days, each with the reason behind it and what you’ll have when it’s done.
Who It’s For
The HR Foundation Review is built for organizations that want an objective read on their HR before they put more time or money into fixing it. It’s especially useful if:
You’re an owner or executive who ended up responsible for HR without a background in it.
Your organization has grown and your HR practices haven’t kept pace.
You’re an HR department of one, carrying everything and unsure what to tackle next.
You’re weighing a larger HR investment and want to scope it correctly before you commit.
You’re dealing with a specific issue, like rising turnover, inconsistent managers, or a compliance scare, and want to understand the root cause.
What an HR Foundation Review Assesses
We look across every major HR discipline. Depending on your organization, the review covers:
Employment Compliance
Policies, required postings, documentation, and day-to-day practices.
Compensation & Pay Practices
Pay structures, employee classifications, and how you benchmark, grounded in ERC’s regional pay data where it helps.
Recruiting & Selection
Job descriptions, hiring process, interviewing, and onboarding.
Employee Engagement & Retention
What keeps your people, and what’s driving them out.
Employee Relations
How employee concerns, difficult conversations, and documentation are handled.
Benefits & Leave Administration
Your offerings, leave handling, and related compliance.
Training & Development
Manager readiness and skill-building across your team.
What You Receive
Your findings come together in an HR Foundation Review report, written for leaders and HR professionals.
Foundational
Below 60
Developing
60-74
Effective
75-89
Advanced
90-100
- Executive summary with your overall score, rating, top strengths, and priority opportunities.
- HR Discipline Scorecard with a score and a plain-language observation for each area.
- Strengths and priority opportunities, mapped by impact and effort so it’s clear what to tackle first.
- Detailed findings by subject, each with the specific issue, the risk it carries, and a recommended action.
- A recommended action plan sequenced across 30, 60, 90, and 180 days, with the purpose and deliverable for each step.
The HR Foundation Process
1
Scope
A short conversation to understand your organization, your concerns, and how you’d like to work.
2
Gather
You share key documents and complete the assessment. We hold intake conversations to catch the context behind the paperwork.
3
Assess & Score
Our consultants evaluate your practices, apply professional judgment, and build your scorecard and action plan.
4
Review
We walk you and your leadership team through the findings, the priorities, and what to do next.
Frequently Asked Questions
It’s a structured assessment of your HR practices that scores where your organization stands across the core HR disciplines and gives you a prioritized plan for improvement. One report tells you what’s working, what’s at risk, and what to do first.
Owners and leaders responsible for HR without a background in it, HR teams of one, growing organizations whose HR hasn’t kept up, and any leader who wants an objective read before investing in HR support. It works as a one-time project or as the first step in a larger effort.
A written report with your overall HR score and rating, a scorecard for each discipline, your ranked strengths and priorities, detailed findings, and a sequenced 30/60/90/180-day action plan. You can see a full example in our sample report.
No. The review meets you where you are. Organizations with less formal HR often get the most out of it, because it turns a long list of unknowns into a clear, ordered plan.
Either. Many reviews are completed fully remotely. When it helps, we add one or more on-site or virtual working sessions.
Talk to an Expert
Want to learn more? Talk to an expert to get more information or pricing for ERC’s HR Foundation Review.
