The Fair Work Agency inspections are here. Are you audit-ready?

If you run a recruitment business with any exposure to temporary labour, you are now in an inspection market, not a “maybe one day” market.

Over the last month, leaders in our community have shared that inspection notifications are already landing, and peers are swapping notes on what to expect under the rebranded Fair Work Agency. The practical reality is simple: if you wait until the email arrives, you will spend your first 48 hours scrambling for evidence you should have had organised anyway.

Here is how to get ahead of it.

1) Build an “inspection pack” before you need it

Create a single folder (and a single owner) that holds the evidence you will almost certainly be asked to produce. Do it like you would for a client audit: indexed, dated, easy to share, and with a clear version history.

Action this week:
▸ Create the folder structure and a contents checklist.
▸ Set a monthly calendar reminder to update it.

2) Tighten your contractual and policy hygiene

In the last 30 days, ops leaders have actively requested updated terms and templates because legislation and compliance expectations are shifting quickly (including changes impacting labour supply chains and umbrellas). If your documents are out of date, you are creating avoidable inspection risk.

Action this week:

▸ Audit your key documents list and last review date.
▸ Identify what must be updated, and by whom, this month.

3) Treat right to work as a process, not a task

The ops community has been pressure-testing right to work tools and per-check pricing, which is a useful reminder: inspectors do not only care that checks happened, they care that your process is consistent and provable. 

Action this week:

▸ Document your right to work workflow step-by-step.
▸ Spot check recent files for consistency (same evidence, same naming, same storage location).

4) Assume “data and comms” will be scrutinised too

Call recording disclosures and data handling questions are coming up in peer conversations for a reason. Compliance is now a joined-up system across operations, communications, and evidence trails. If your team records calls, you should be confident your disclosures and processes are robust and consistently followed.

Action this week:
▸ Confirm your disclosure approach, scripts, and where evidence is stored.
▸ Run a short refresher with consultants and document completion.

5) Do a 60-minute mock inspection

The fastest way to reduce anxiety is to practise. Schedule a one-hour internal “inspection drill” where someone plays inspector and asks for evidence. If it takes you more than 10 minutes to find something, the system is not ready.

Action this week:
▸ Run the drill.
▸ Fix the top three gaps immediately.

Key takeaway: Audit-readiness is not a compliance project. It is an operating rhythm: ownership, evidence, and repeatability.

What is the one compliance area you would be least confident pulling evidence for within 30 minutes today?

Sources:
https://www.gov.uk/government/organisations/fair-work-agency