Employment contract audits for HR consultancies managing client risk

Having a contract is not the same as having a contract that still works for the role and the business. Older agreements can contain outdated wording, miss practical issues that have emerged over time, or fail to reflect how staff are actually engaged day to day. An audit helps identify where the document and the real working arrangement may have drifted apart. For HR consultancies, that can be useful when you want legal input on specific documents without moving straight into a full redraft project.

We review the selected agreements for legal and practical issues such as unclear role terms, inconsistent clauses, missing protections, outdated wording and provisions that may not fit the client's current operations. Depending on the contracts, we may also comment on privacy-related wording, confidentiality, intellectual property, termination provisions and other employment risk points. The output is a written report that flags the main issues and suggested next steps, rather than a marked-up replacement contract unless separate drafting work is later requested.

Because the factual working arrangement can matter as much as the contract wording. A document may say one thing, but if the role is performed differently in practice, that gap can create risk. We therefore look at the contract in light of how the client actually operates, including reporting lines, duties, use of systems, handling of information and day-to-day expectations. Useful drafting usually starts with the real working model, then turns that into clear obligations and risk settings, not just whether a clause appears in the agreement.

Yes, provided the work fits within the stated scope of reviewing up to 3 employment contracts. We can audit agreements used by clients in different sectors, but the comments will still depend on the role, the documents provided and the surrounding facts. For example, a contract for a client-facing role with access to sensitive information may raise different issues from a standard office-based role. If the set of contracts is unusually complex or part of a larger restructure, we may need to scope that separately.

The fixed-fee covers the legal audit, written report and the included discussion of findings. It does not cover ongoing HR management, representation in disputes, technical implementation, security remediation or broader advisory work beyond the reviewed contracts. It also does not promise any particular compliance outcome, because the result depends on both the documents and how the client operates in practice. If your client needs new agreements, negotiation support or wider employment documentation, that would usually be separate work.

Just submit an enquiry via this page or click the 'get started' button on our website to submit an enquiry. After you've submitted an enquiry, one of our legal consultants will review your enquiry within 1 business day and get in touch to get a better idea of exactly what you are looking for.

Then your legal consultant will send through an email with a bit more information about the services you need, along with a fixed fee quote setting out costs, scope of the service and timing. Have a read through it, and if you're happy with the scope, you can accept and sign our engagement letter online - easy!

Once you've formally accepted, we'll connect you with a specialist lawyer and they will work with you to complete your project. They will contact you by email or phone if they need to get in touch.

Sprintlaw works on fixed-fee pricing wherever possible, so you can review the scope and cost before you decide whether to proceed. For the Employment Contract Audit For HR Clients 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 operate completely online, which means we can help you wherever you are in New Zealand. We have office spaces in Sydney, and in Melbourne, but our use of technology allows our team members to work remotely from around the world. Our legal team are mostly based in Sydney, Melbourne, Brisbane and Perth. We also have a London office for Sprintlaw UK.

Our legal team is made up of experienced lawyers, who are specialists in various areas of law and hold an Australian legal practising certificate. None of our Sprintlaw lawyers are New Zealand qualified lawyers and they do not currently hold a New Zealand practising certificate.

They provide legal services working remotely from Australia via our 'legal consultancy' model, through which (under section 6 and section 35 of the New Zealand Lawyers and Conveyancers Act 2006) our Australian legal team are permitted to provide legal services to New Zealand businesses provided they do not provide services in certain 'reserved' areas of law. You can read our FAQ page to learn a bit more about our 'legal consultancy' model.

Given the strong similarities between Australian and New Zealand law, and the areas of law in which we practice (being small business and startup law), we do not view the fact that our lawyers have not qualified in New Zealand as having any substantive impact on the quality of our service. We are committed to ensuring that we provide high quality, affordable legal services to all our New Zealand clients.

Our legal team have all trained at leading firms, but have left the traditional corporate law world to join us on our mission to create a new and better way of delivering legal services. They have specialist expertise in technology law, intellectual property law, contract drafting and review, corporate law and commercial law.