Free self-assessment

WRC inspection checklist: how ready is your business?

Work through the 40-point checklist Irish employers are measured against in a WRC inspection, covering contracts, working time, pay, leave & workplace policies. It takes about five minutes and gives you a clear compliance snapshot with practical next steps from our Longford team.

HR Health Check

5-minute self-assessment

40 questions to gauge your HR & WRC exposure

This quick assessment covers employment contracts, working time, pay, leave entitlements and workplace policies. It takes about five minutes and gives you a clear read on where your risk might lie. Your results come straight to the PurpleTree HR team, who will follow up with practical next steps.

Your answers go straight to the PurpleTree HR team. We use them only to prepare your results and follow up. See our privacy policy.

What the check covers

The five areas a WRC inspector reviews

A WRC inspector can call announced or unannounced and ask to see your employment records during the visit. The HR Health Check works through the same five areas an inspector looks at, so you can find the gaps in your paperwork before the Workplace Relations Commission does. Each card lists the questions in that area. Answer all 40in the tool above to get a section-by-section score.

Employment Contracts & Terms

8 questions about your employment contracts and documentation

Do all employees receive written terms of employment within 5 days of starting?
Do contracts include all core terms required since 2018 (pay, hours, location, leave, notice periods)?
Are contracts signed by the employer (at least), with proof of providing or transmitting the contract to the employee, and a copy retained on file for each employee?
Do you have written contracts for all part-time, fixed-term, and casual workers (known as A-Typical employees), and do they have specific clauses for a-typical working?
Are contract variations (updates in law, changes in wages rates) documented in writing and signed by both parties?
Do contracts clearly state applicable collective agreements (if any)? (If your business is covered by a Sectoral Employment Order, Employment Regulation Order, or any collective agreement, this must be stated in employment contracts.)
Are probationary periods clearly defined with review procedures?
Could you produce any employee's contract within 30 minutes if an inspector arrived?

Working Time & Attendance

8 questions about how you track and manage working hours

Do you record actual daily start and finish times for all employees?
Are rest breaks (15 mins after 4.5 hours, 30 mins after 6 hours) documented?
Do employees receive 11 consecutive hours daily rest?
Do employees receive 24 consecutive hours weekly rest?
Can you demonstrate no employee exceeds 48 hours average weekly over the reference period? (The reference period is typically 4 months, but extends to 6 or in rare cases 12 months for certain sectors including security, healthcare, transport, and agriculture.)
Are working time records retained for at least 3 years?
Do your working time records show actual hours worked (not pre-populated 'standard hours')?
Are working time records signed or electronically verified by employees?

Pay & Payslips

8 questions about payroll compliance and record keeping

Do all payslips include employer name, employee name, and pay period?
Are all deductions itemised separately (PAYE, USC, PRSI listed individually)?
Are all employees paid at least €14.15 per hour?
Do you have written authorisation for all voluntary deductions?
Are payslips issued on or before each pay date?
Do you retain pay (PAYE, PRSI, National Minimum Wage records for their appropriate retention periods? (6 years for Revenue purposes, 3 years for National Minimum Wage purposes)
For industries where tipping service staff is customary: Do you have a Tips & Gratuities distribution policy displayed?
Is statutory sick pay (5 days at 70%, capped €110/day) correctly administered, with all statutory record keeping proofs in place and properly recorded?

Leave Entitlements & Records

8 questions about annual leave, public holidays, and statutory leave

Do all employees receive their statutory entitlement to annual leave – 4 weeks equivalent or 8% of hours worked, or pro rata entitlement if part-time?
Do you know how to calculate the annual leave entitlement of your employees?
Are annual leave records maintained showing accrual and usage?
Do you correctly accrue leave during maternity, paternity, and sick leave?
Are public holiday entitlements (10 days) correctly applied?
Do you know how to calculate the rate of pay for public holidays for part-time workers, A-typical workers and do you keep records of how pay was calculated?
Do you know the other statutory leave entitlements and how to administer them (parent's leave, parental leave, force majeure, domestic violence, etc)?
Are leave requests, approval records and the taking of annual leave retained? (you must keep records for 3 years, including those of former employees)

Policies & Documentation

8 questions about your workplace policies and compliance documentation

Do you have written Disciplinary and Grievance procedures?
Is there a current Health & Safety Statement and risk assessments?
Do you have an employee Privacy Notice explaining data processing?
Is there a policy on employee monitoring (email, internet, CCTV)?
Do you have Protected Disclosures (whistleblowing) procedures?
For 50+ employees: Have you completed Gender Pay Gap reporting?
Do you maintain a register of young workers (under 18) with parental consent?
Could you produce an organised compliance file within 30 minutes of an inspection notice?

Free HR Health Check

Five minutes now could save you a difficult afternoon with an inspector. Score your WRC readiness across all five areas, then get practical next steps from our Longford team.

Book a free consultation

Why a WRC inspection readiness check matters

Most employers are not deliberately non-compliant. The gaps that surface in an inspection are usually administrative: terms of employment that were never issued in writing, working-time records that show standard hours instead of actual hours, or a handbook that has not been updated since the law changed. Those gaps are easy to miss when no one looks at them full time, and far harder to explain once an inspector is in the building.

Inspectors review your records, can interview you and your employees, and check that your documentation matches what employment law requires. Where they find breaches they can require you to put them right, and unresolved issues can be escalated. Running this check first means you fix the small things on your own terms rather than under a deadline.

Who the HR Health Check is for

It is built for Irish SME employers without a dedicated HR function: owner-managers, office managers and finance leads who carry HR alongside another job. It is just as useful if you have had an inspection notice, are taking on your first employees, or simply want to know whether your contracts and records would stand up to scrutiny.

When the check flags an area you want handled properly, our team can take it from here. For a consultant to go through your actual contracts, records and policies line by line, see our full professional HR audit. See how we keep employers compliant year-round with WRC compliance support, how we prepare you for a visit with WRC inspection support, or hand the whole function to us with outsourced HR. When you are ready, view pricing or book a free consultation.

WRC inspection questions

What employers ask about inspections

What should a WRC inspection checklist include?

A WRC inspection checklist covers the records an inspector typically asks to see: written terms of employment issued within five days, signed contracts on file, working-time records showing actual start, finish and break times, payslips with itemised deductions, annual leave and public holiday records, and your core workplace policies such as disciplinary & grievance, the health & safety statement and a data-protection notice. The check above groups these into five areas and scores each one.

Does the WRC carry out unannounced inspections?

Yes. WRC inspectors can call announced or unannounced and ask to see your employment records during the visit. Because some records must be retained for years and produced on request, the practical test is whether you could pull an employee’s file together quickly. The check includes that exact question for both contracts and your wider compliance file.

What happens during a WRC inspection?

An inspector reviews your employment records, may interview you and your employees, and checks that your documentation matches what employment law requires. Where they find breaches they can require you to put them right, and unresolved issues can be escalated. Surfacing the gaps before that visit is the point of this check. If an inspection is already on the horizon, see our WRC inspection support.

How long do I need to keep employment records?

Retention periods vary by record. Working-time records must be kept for at least three years, and pay records are held for Revenue and National Minimum Wage purposes, generally six years for Revenue and three years for minimum-wage purposes. Keeping records organised and retrievable matters as much as keeping them, which is why two of the questions ask whether you could produce a file within 30 minutes of an inspection notice.

Is the HR Health Check really free?

Yes. The 40-question check is free and takes about five minutes. Your answers and risk score go to our Longford team, who follow up with practical next steps. If you decide you want hands-on help, you can view pricing or book a free consultation.

Is this the same as a full HR audit?

No. This self-assessment is a fast WRC readiness snapshot you run yourself. A full HR audit is a hands-on review where a consultant examines your actual contracts, records and policies in depth and gives you a written plan to fix what is missing. Many employers start with this check, then ask us to run the full audit on the areas it flags.