Check whether your staff classifications match the work actually being done

This service is often useful for businesses with several roles that have changed over time, businesses hiring into new positions, or employers who suspect their current classifications were set informally and never properly reviewed. It can also help where managers, payroll staff and employment documents are not all using the same assumptions. Industries with mixed duties, shift work, supervisory layers or evolving responsibilities often benefit from a closer look because small role changes can affect the legal analysis more than employers expect.

The review can uncover mismatches between job titles and actual duties, inconsistencies between employment agreements and payroll settings, unclear treatment of supervisory responsibilities, and role descriptions that no longer reflect the work being performed. It can also highlight where internal documents use broad labels without enough detail to support the classification decision. The right wording depends on the deal structure, the documents exchanged and how the arrangement operates in practice, so the analysis is usually about substance rather than labels alone.

Because classification questions are rarely answered by a job title on its own. Two employees with similar titles may be doing materially different work in practice, with different levels of responsibility, autonomy, supervision or hands-on duties. If the documents say one thing but the workplace reality shows another, the factual arrangement can carry significant weight. That is why the review looks beyond the contract wording and considers how the role operates on the ground, including reporting lines, tasks and how the position has evolved over time.

It usually helps to provide employment agreements, role descriptions, organisational charts if available, payroll or classification records, and a practical summary of what each relevant employee actually does. If duties have changed since the documents were first prepared, that context is important too. The more accurately the material reflects the real role, the more useful the review will be. Where there are grey areas, we may ask follow-up questions about supervision, decision-making authority, roster patterns or how responsibilities are divided across the team.

You will receive advice on the main classification issues identified and the practical steps that may be worth considering next. That might include updating role descriptions, revising employment documents, checking payroll assumptions or getting further advice on a particular role if the facts are finely balanced. This service We will make the key issues clear so you can decide what to do next. especially if there is already a live disagreement or incomplete information about how the role operates in practice.

Submit an enquiry on this page or click 'Get started'. One of our legal consultants will review it within 1 business day and get in touch to understand what you need.

Your consultant will then email you a fixed-fee quote setting out the cost, scope and timing. If you're happy with it, you can accept the quote and sign our engagement letter online.

Once you've accepted, one of our Australian-qualified lawyers will work with you to complete your project. They'll contact you by email or phone if they need anything.

Sprintlaw works on fixed-fee pricing wherever possible, so you can review the scope and cost before you decide whether to proceed. For the Award Classification Review service, pricing starts from $900.00.

After you enquire, a legal consultant will confirm what is included, the expected timing and whether any extra work is needed before you engage us.

We work online, so we can help wherever you are in New Zealand. Our team works remotely, mainly from Australia.

Your work is done by our Australian-qualified lawyers, who hold Australian practising certificates and specialise in business law. None of them are New Zealand lawyers or hold a New Zealand practising certificate.

Sprintlaw NZ Limited is a legal consultancy, not a law firm, and is not regulated by the New Zealand Law Society. We don't act in court or tribunal matters, conveyancing (including leases and business sales) or other reserved areas of work. Communications with Sprintlaw are unlikely to be protected by legal professional privilege. We still keep everything confidential under our engagement letter.