Most small-business compliance failures are not mysteries — they are unanswered questions. Is the handbook current? Are I-9s stored separately? Does final pay actually go out within six days? Owners assume the answer is yes right up until a claim proves otherwise.
This checkup forces the questions into the open. Seventeen yes/no items cover core employment practices, wage and hour compliance, required posters and notices, training obligations, and recordkeeping. A simple scoring rubric converts your answers into a risk tier — low, moderate, or high — so you know whether you need a tune-up or an intervention.
Who should use this self-assessment
- Texas small business owners who have never had a formal HR audit
- Office managers responsible for HR files, payroll, and postings
- Buyers and investors doing quick HR due diligence on a small company
- New HR hires taking over an inherited, undocumented HR function
What it helps prevent
- Discovering handbook and policy gaps only after a complaint is filed
- Final paychecks issued outside the Texas Payday Law deadline
- Missing or outdated federal and Texas workplace posters
- I-9s stored in personnel files where an ICE audit will find the mistake
- Assuming compliance instead of verifying it on a schedule
What’s inside
- Section 1 — Core employment practices (handbook, acknowledgments, job descriptions, final pay)
- Section 2 — Wage & hour compliance (W-2 vs. 1099, exempt status, overtime, records)
- Section 3 — Required posters and notices
- Section 4 — Training and policy requirements
- Section 5 — Recordkeeping and documentation
- Scoring rubric with low / moderate / high risk tiers
Before you process payroll, terminate, classify, deduct, or respond to a claim, get the decision reviewed.
Faulkner HR Solutions helps Texas employers, nonprofits, municipalities, and growing businesses fix the people systems behind recurring workplace problems. If this resource raised a risk flag, do not guess your way through the next step.